George Araujo was born in the Fox Point neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, on May 26, 1931, one of 11 children. He was of Cape Verdean descent. George learned to box at The Fox Point Boys’ Club and later became a member of the Police Athletic League.
Araujo made his professional debut in July 1948 and immediately began fighting twice a month. A powerful puncher, Araujo won his first 14 professional fights, all by knockout. He fought against many of the important small boxers of his era, including Buddy Hayes, Del Flanagan, Harry LaSane, Charley Riley, Sandy Saddler, Arthur King, Paddy DeMarco, Jimmy Carter, Redtop Davis, and Tony DeMarco. He became friends with heavyweight boxer Rocky Marciano, and the two appeared together on programs at the Rhode Island Auditorium.
By June 1952, Araujo was 45-1, and in June 1953, he fought Jimmy Carter for the world lightweight championship. He lost that fight and two subsequent fights to Teddy “Redtop” Davis for the then-prestigious New England Lightweight Title. Later, after a nearly three-year hiatus, Araujo had five fights from August to November 1958, then retired. Araujo’s professional record was 58 wins (33 by knockout), 9 losses, and 1 draw.
“If it wasn’t for George Araujo, I never would have been a champion,” Harold Gomes said of Araujo, after winning the world junior lightweight championship in 1959. “I learned to box from him.” After his boxing career ended, he taught boxing at the Providence Boys Club and was a youth counselor at the Children’s Center in Providence. He entered the service and became the Army Olympic Team’s boxing coach. In 1963, he joined the Peace Corps but resigned because Peace Corps officials frowned on his relationship with a white schoolteacher, Frances Murphy, who became his wife that year. They moved to New York, expecting life there would be easier for an interracial couple. That was not the case, and the couple moved back to Rhode Island in 1960.
A constant in George’s life was his love for painting and his study of painters. He had taken up painting even before he became a boxer. He took a night job at Brown University that enabled him to paint during the day. David Horning, an art teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design, saw some of George’s work and arranged a successful show. Journal-Bulletin art critic Bill Van Sielen described Araujo’s work as “having a simple, no-frills style that makes up for its lack of technical polish with an engaging charm and expressiveness.”
“I believe George Araujo was the most talented and versatile fighter in Rhode Island history,” Dr. Patrick T. Conley said in nominating him for induction into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2000. “He was a coach and a recreation director who worked for many years with abandoned or delinquent children to help turn their lives to productive pursuits. To commemorate this service, a Fox Point playground has been built and dedicated in his honor,” Conley, Historian Laureate Emeritus of Rhode Island, added.
George Araujo died on November 21, 1997. He was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2001.
For additional reading:
“Fox Point’s George Araujo left more than one legacy,” by Liz Abbott, The Providence Journal, Sep. 25, 2022.