Lavern sustained a fatal head injury during a boxing match and died the next day due to a subdural hemorrhage.

In 1947 he married his high school sweetheart Evelyn Joyce Ogden and raised their two children, daughter Ronnie Mac and son Richard James.

At the age of 13, Roach answered the challenge at a county fair in Memphis, Texas, stepping into a makeshift ring against another youngster billed as an outstanding fighter.

As a professional, Roach rolled to enough victories to be named boxing's 1947 rookie of the year by Nat Fleischer of Ring Magazine.

He then hit the big time when he defeated Tony Janiro in the main event at Madison Square Garden on January 16, 1948.

Just two months later he was back at Madison Square Garden for the biggest fight of his life – a title match against the European middleweight champion Marcel Cerdan.

Fourteen hours later, in nearby St. Clare's Hospital, Lavern Roach, 25, died of a brain hemorrhage at 12:50 pm.

An audience of 1,832 waded through sleet and snow to see the middleweight battle in the ancient midtown club; hundreds of thousands of television viewers saw the ending of the fight over the CBS network telecast.

Through the years, the award has been given by his surviving family members including; his brother Bill, sister Beth, widow Evelyn, daughter Ronnie, son Richard, and three grandsons James, Kris, and Kyler Roach.