Puyallup native, former Olympic boxer Davey Armstrong dies at 64
Puyallup native and well-known boxer David Lee Armstrong, affectionately known as “Davey,” died Monday from complications due to dementia. He was 64 years old.
He will be remembered for his relentless competitive drive and craftiness in the ring by his peers and former coaches. Paul Brown, 61, grew up in Portland, Ore. He boxed alongside Armstrong since the two were about 10 years old. Brown’s great aunt and cousins lived in Tacoma and he’d visit from time to time.
He remembers Davey and his brother, Al, working to make weight before competitions. The intensity the brothers had left him in awe.
“Davey and Al would be spitting in an MJB coffee can to make weight,” he said. “That has never left my mind throughout my life. Those were great days.”
Armstrong started his boxing career training at the Tacoma Boys Club alongside eventual Olympic teammates Ray Seales and Leo Randolph. A graduate of Rogers High School, he represented the United States in the Olympics twice, debuting for the U.S. team at the 1972 games in Munich as a teenager and its youngest member.
His second appearance came in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. The 1976 U.S. Olympic team is widely regarded as one of the greatest Olympic boxing teams of all time, with a roster that included gold-medal winners Sugar Ray Leonard, Howard Davis Jr., brothers Leon and Michael Spinks and Tacoma’s Leo Randolph.
Armstrong boxed in the 125-pound featherweight division at the 1976 games in Montreal, and won decisions over Anatoly Volkov of the Soviet Union and Hungary’s Tibor Badari to advance to the quarterfinals. He narrowly lost to Cuba’s Angel Herrera, who went on to win gold, by 3-2 decision.
Randolph, who still lives in the Tacoma area and works for Pierce Transit as a bus driver, was with Armstrong at the assisted living facility a day before he passed. The two stayed close friends over the years.
“He was a good friend, real quiet,” said Randolph, who is also Armstrong’s brother-in-law.
Randolph, 62, is two years younger than Armstrong. As a kid, he looked up to him.
“He was a brother to me,” Randolph said. “He was there, went to the Pan-Am games, he went overseas. He did it all. He had all that experience. I was just following him around at the Olympics. He was like my big brother.”
He recalls a plane ride together in 1975, when the two were flying to Nashville, Tennessee for a national tournament.
“The plane started rocking, shaking,” Randolph said. “We were both very religious. A tomato was trying to run off the tray table. We both just started praying at the same time. When it was over, we had the biggest smiles in the world. We came together in moments like that.”
And the pair took pride in representing Tacoma together.
“Big time,” he said. “It was major that we were representing Tacoma and the United States. We felt big pride, traveling around the Boston tournament that led up to the Olympics. We spent a lot of time together. We were friends, real good friends.”
Tom Mustin, longtime coach and director of the Tacoma Boxing Club, took over coaching Armstrong after Joe Clough moved out of the area. Armstrong was around 15 years old at the time.
“He was a good boxer, a really smart boxer,” Mustin said. “He was really smart in the ring. He could analyze his opponent, take them apart.”
He could also switch his stance, confusing his opponents.
“He was ambidextrous,” Mustin said. “He could box from either side. He’d turn left-handed a lot of times and just confuse his opponents and pick them apart. He was the only boxer I had that I was comfortable with him turning left-handed.”
Armstrong also ran cross country in the offseason. None of his opponents could match his conditioning level.
“He was one of the best-conditioned athletes that I had known,” Brown said. “It was his conditioning and dedication to the sport that set him apart.”
Mustin remembers when Armstrong was about 21 years old. His dad was in the hospital, close to passing away. Armstrong had already qualified for nationals.
“He told me he was going to take a day off (when his dad died) and then he’d be back in the gym,” Mustin said. “He took that day off and then came back the next day. A lot of kids, when something like that happens, they’d be gone a week, be out of shape and lose focus. Davey never lost focus on having to be ready to go to nationals and put all of that behind him.”
As an amateur, Armstrong won national AAU championships in 1972 (at 106 pounds), 1975 and 1976 (at 125 pounds) and 1979 (at 132 pounds). He won a gold medal at the Pan American Games in 1975 in Mexico City. Armstrong became a professional boxer in 1980, and retired three years later after posting a 24-3 record in his 27 matches.
Armstrong is the latest Tacoma-area boxing legend to pass away recently. Johnny Bumphus died a year ago and Rocky Lockridge died in 2019.
“If I had to label (Armstrong) as a human, he was a captain for everybody,” Brown said. “For their souls, bodies, families. … His family and faith were everything to him.”
A viewing is set for Thursday, Feb. 11, from 2 to 7 p.m. in the main building in the Rose Room of New Tacoma Cemeteries and Funeral Home. There will be a limit of 10 people at a time for viewing, and masks are required. The funeral is set for Friday and will be closed to the public.
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
