John Leonard Phillips Sr.

John Leonard Phillips Sr., known to nearly everyone as Big John, was born on February 13, 1940, in the Bronx, New York, and passed away peacefully on September 12, 2026, in San Diego, California, at the age of 86.

In 1957 his family moved west to Chula Vista, California, where he graduated from Chula Vista High School as its only Black student. From 1958 to 1961 he served his country in the United States Marine Corps, where he earned the rank of sharpshooter — a discipline that stayed with him for the rest of his life. He went on to play tackle football at Southwestern College, where he was named all-conference.

Boxing, though, became part of his identity. In 1962 he answered a call for Black heavyweights and spent fourteen months training in a segregated Houston gym, sleeping on a cot beside the ring. In February 1964 he won the Texas State Golden Gloves heavyweight championship, becoming the first Black boxer in the United States to win a Golden Gloves state title. Alongside welterweight champion Jesse Valdez, he brought Houston its first state Golden Gloves trophy in twenty-eight years. He later boxed professionally and shared what he knew as a trainer in Mission Beach, still working the heavy bag daily into his eighties.

For more than twenty-five years John made his living as a professional truck driver, a career built on the same qualities that defined him everywhere else: consistency, dependability, and an unbending work ethic.

Above every title and trophy, he was a family man — a husband, a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, and a protector. He is preceded in death by his son, John Leonard Phillips Jr.