LGIS (Old)
| LGIS (Old) | |
|---|---|
 View of a LGIS live event | |
| Location | Munich, Bavaria, Germany |
| Years active | 1976 - 1981 |
| Website | various (see below) |
The original incarnation of the Liberal Girls International SportClub - otherwise known as LGIS (Old) - was a female boxing and wrestling organisation founded in Munich, Germany in 1976. It promoted a ground-breaking vision - that girls who were enthusiastic about female combat, and who wanted to fight semi-professionally in public settings, could do so topless in properly arranged events and tournaments. The bouts were filmed and subsequently made available for sale to augment the revenue generated by the spectators at these events, but at least to begin with the videos were of less importance than the paying audience. LGIS proved to be the forerunner for a number of European companies and groups who built on their original idea.
The company was formed in 1976 by Fred Strothmann and Erich Klinger together with Angie Simons who was the nominated club captain. Around thirty girls fought at various times in their events (see list below), but there was a core membership of ten or so who were regular performers throughout the lifetime of the club. The initial group of fighters began several months of wrestling and boxing training in 1976, and on January 31st 1977 eight active members of the group entered the ring in the centre of the "Donauhalle" of Ingolstadt (about 60km north of Munich) in front of 700 spectators to take part in the inaugural event which launched the organisation. The main group divided into two groups of four, each of which staged a mini-tournament - wrestling and boxing. Angie Simons won the boxing competition while Heidi Ranke, later to become a fearsome boxer, won the wrestling. From that point onwards, over the rest of the 70's, there was a succession of similar events in various German cities and towns, as well as in London and Cham, Switzerland - all subsequent events were boxing only, reflecting the spectators' preference.
The promotion of such events was not without its problems however as LGIS faced opposition from some local authorities, who claimed the events were lewd or improper, as well as from women's lib. campaigners who asserted that the girls were being sexually exploited. Speaking on behalf of the participants, Angie insisted that neither of these were true, and that while the girls conceded that boxing topless would increase attendances, they were happy to do so in the knowledge that their pay would increase proportionately. She pointed out that all concerned enjoyed boxing for its own sake and were proud to consider themselves serious athletes, but for her and most of the others it was also a useful extra wage - Angie was at that time a student and badly needed additional income herself.
By the end of the decade LGIS had staged a remarkable 19 events but it was beginning to wind down, and the very last official public tournament took place in Munich in May 1979 with only 6 girls present (there was another unofficial event in London in June 1980 but only Karin Heck and Gerti Langner from the core group were involved). Founder Fred Strothmann was by now in declining health and unable to provide his previous degree of involvement, while Angie was no longer as committed to the project as she had been. In her case she was no longer a student in need of the financial incentive, but she may also have been affected by the punishing defeats which she took in her final two fights - in London she was given a bloody mouth and then knocked out by Karin Heck while in the 1979 Munich event she suffered a relentless beating by Tina Chiari who rained punches on her and scored a KO win.
The list of recorded fights numbered over 100 by the end, but for some time afterwards there was an ongoing disagreement over sale and distribution and it was only after Fred had unfortunately died that co-founder Erich got back the sole rights to the back catalogue in 1993. With the Internet now available as a distribution medium, he was able to set up LGIS (New) in order to provide a outlet for the sale and distribution of these original videos while also holding its own events and matches to create and sell new material of its own.
Because the recording of the fights was a secondary concern as mentioned previously, the video quality of many of the recordings is fairly poor due to the dated equipment in use at that time and the low level of lighting. However, that said, the commitment and determination of the boxers is very clear to see, and the sheer excitement of LGIS boxing has rarely been bettered by any other producer.
Contents
Web Sites
All the sites which originally handled LGIS products are either defunct or inactive. These included :-
The only known vendors for LGIS at present are :-
http://www.asfilm.de (BX series)
None of these outlets gives definitive details concerning the date or location of any particular fight and some items on sale do not clearly identify the boxers either.
List of Fighters (Regular Tournament contenders in bold)
German Fighters .. Wins .. Defeats .. Non-German Fighters ......................... Wins .. Defeats ..
Angie Simons ......... 18 ....... 6 .......... Christel Reinecker (Austria)..................... 1 ....... 6
Anne Riedl ................ 9 ....... 9 .......... Claudia Sassi (Italy) ................................. 0 ....... 4
Conny Ranke ...................................... Hellen Leineman (Netherlands) ............... 1 ....... 3
Elke Kubat ................ 3 ....... 3 .......... Ines Martinez (Spain)...............................................
Gerti Langner ........... 3 ....... 4 .......... Jenny Bailey (England)............................................
Gisela Eder ......................................... Jo McNamara (Scotland).........................................
Heidi Ranke ............ 24 ....... 8 ........... Lena Soerensen (Sweden)....................... 5 ....... 6
Inge Schmidt ............ 1 ....... 1 ........... Marga Bachner (Austria) .......................... 0 ....... 2
Jutta Nieder ......................................... Marlene Bachner (Austria) ....................... 4 ....... 7
Karin Heck ............. 17 ...... 13 .......... Michelle Morgan (Belgium) ......................................
Lisa Burgner ........................................ Milena (Czechoslovakia) .......................... 2 ....... 0
Margot Boenisch ................................. Mira Ribic (Yugoslavia)......……....…..…... 2 ....... 2
Marlies Bauer ...................................... Nancy Watson (USA) ..............................................
Petra Horn ................ 0 ....... 7 .......... Tina Chiari (Italy) ..................................... 10 ..... 11 (Tina also had 6 drawn/undecided matches)
Rosi Kaiser ......…................................ Ute Weber (Switzerland)......………........... 2 ....... 2
Sonja Ganter ......….............................
Steffi Wagner ......….............................
Gallery of Fighters
Angie Simons (red) pauses while sparring with Lena Soerensen (white)
Tina Chiari (red) pauses while sparring with Marlene Bachner (black)
Heidi Ranke (blue) defends against Anne Riedl (white)
Gerti Langner (black) takes on Karin Heck (red)
Tina Chiari (black) takes a punch from Angie Simons (white)
Claudia Sassi (black) catches Elke Kubat (white)
Heidi Ranke(black) watches as Angie Simons (white) is introduced
Karin Heck (L) in action against Lena Soerensen (R)
Ute Weber (white) and Angie Simons (red) in a sparring session
Conny Ranke (white) and Anne Riedl (red) in a sparring session
Heidi Ranke (L) throws a right at Ute Weber (R)
Anne Riedl (white) hammers Gerti Langner (black)
Lena Soerensen between rounds
Marga Bachner and Lena Soerensen enter the ring
Tina Chiari has been floored by Marlene Bachner
Lena Soerensen and Anne Riedl
Wrestling Gallery
Event Line-Up and Advertisements Gallery
Line-up of LGIS fighters circa 1977. R-L Anne Riedl, Karin Heck, Conny Ranke, Lena Soerensen, Marlene Bachner, Marianne, Michelle Morgan, Hellen Leinemann, Tina Chiari
Line-up of the leading LGIS fighters December 1978 Berlin. L-R Heidi Ranke, Petra Horn, Tina Chiari, Anne Riedl, Karin Heck and Angie Simons
LGIS fighters presented to the crowd circa 1978. R-L Lena Soerensen, Anne Riedl and Angie Simons
Portrait of Heidi Ranke
Advert for LGIS event to be held in Straubing Bavaria in 1977. 12 fighters took part.
Fred Strothmann presents current champion Angie Simons and previous champion Karin Heck to the crowd in Munich 1977
Montage of a bout between Karin Heck and Heidi Ranke
Montage of LGIS fighters showing many of the lesser known or less active boxers
Summary of all LGIS events with fighters and results
Page from Cavalier magazine describing the action at the London 1979 event
Page from Cavalier magazine describing the action at the London 1979 event
Page from Cavalier magazine describing the action at the London 1979 event
Page from Cavalier magazine describing the action at the London 1979 event
Page from Cavalier magazine describing the action at the London 1979 event
Acknowledgements
This page was constructed with assistance from Arbie (Count Herout), Merlin, Fred Dobbs and Ben (bprofane51).
Some material originates from Amazons In Action publications - copyright https://swishpublications.wixsite.com/swish/amazons-in-action
