
This Valley Indy file photo shows the championship belt.
ANSONIA – The Board of Aldermen pulled no punches this week when it voted to give a piece of world-famous boxing memorabilia a permanent home here.
The Aldermen during its meeting Tuesday (May 10) unanimously approved a resolution to house Pinky Silverberg’s a world champion boxing belt at the Ansonia Public Library.
Silverberg, a member of Connecticut’s Boxing Hall of Fame, won the National Boxing Association World Flyweight Title in 1927. While born in the Bronx, Silverberg called Ansonia home from 1920 until his death in 1964.
Silverberg’s son, Ron, recently made a request to the Aldermen, asking if the city would consider housing his late father’s famous belt. The belt, according to Ron Silverberg, was housed in his father’s sock draw for years. After Silverberg died, the family kept the belt in a safe deposit box.
“The belt has been in my safe deposit box for many years, and it deserves to see the light of day,” Silverberg told the Adermen during their virtual meeting Tuesday (May 10). “There’s no better place to display it than in the City of Ansonia. My dad spent his life in Ansonia and he passed away here. I’d like to give all Valley citizens a chance to view the 95-year old belt.”
Silverberg briefly talked about how his father won the Connecticut Flyweight Boxing Championship in 1925, at a match that took place in the former Ansonia Opera House. Then just two years later, Silverberg, took the NBA World Flyweight title in 1927 in a fight with Ruby Bradley in Bridgeport, during which Bradley was disqualified for a low blow.
Silverberg had the distinction of only being knocked out once in his career.
“He was Ansonia’s champion, and his belt deserves to be displayed in his hometown,” Ron Silverberg said.
Mayor David Cassetti, a boxer himself, said having the belt on permanent display at the public library is a knockout.
“It’s a great thing to celebrate hometown heroes,” said Aldermanic President Josh Shuart.
The resolution the aldermen approved in part reads, “The Ansonia Board of Aldermen is proud to be part of this historical event; Pinky Silverberg’s achievement will be kelp alive through this display.”
The aldermen also accepted conditions proposed by Ron Silverberg regarding displaying the belt at the library, which includes having it insured for its appraised value of $15,000; leaving all decisions regarding the belt up to Silverberg; gives the family the option to take the belt back at any time and if the city no longer wants to display the belt, and none of the Silverberg are still around to make decisions, the belt would then be donated to The International Boxing Hall of Fame in New York.
The city’s CFO Kurt Miller said he will earmark $15,000 from the city’s general fund balance should anything ever happen to the belt, which in turn would go to the Silverberg family.
Honoring Silverberg’s memory and his feats is nothing new for Ansonia. The city, back in 2017, honored Silverberg by naming the corner of Father Salemi Drive and Main Street on his behalf with a street sign. Before the Flood of 1955, the Silverberg family lived in an apartment building at that intersection.
Cassetti, a year earlier, started a youth boxing program at the Ansonia Armory named in Silverberg’s honor. It draws nearly 100 Valley kids to the ring each year, where they learn various fundamental skills and build confidence at the same time.
