Chicken King and Boxing promoter Irv Ungerman

On my walk through Mount Sinai Memorial Park — just before the “thundersnow” we somehow survived — I visited the grave of one of Toronto’s great sports promoters and businessmen: Irv Ungerman, known to many as the city’s “Chicken King.”

After several failed attempts by his parents to make a living in Toronto’s Kensington Market, the Ungerman family moved to Royce Avenue (named after Allan Royce, whose grandfather co-founded Rolls-Royce). There, they opened a poultry and egg shop called the Royce Poultry and Egg Market. When the street was later renamed Dupont Street, the business was rebranded Royce-Dupont—and with it began Irv’s rise to poultry empire status.

It was at Royce-Dupont that Irv first noticed a hardworking Croatian-born woman plucking chickens in the back. She had a young son named George, who was beginning to gain local attention for his size and raw boxing talent. His full name? George Chuvalo.

Irv took the Junction-born fighter under his wing (pun fully intended) and became his manager. Over the years, he secured fights for Chuvalo against some of boxing’s greatest legends: Floyd Patterson, Ernie Terrell, “Smokin’ Joe” Frazier, George Foreman, and even the one and only Muhammad Ali—twice. Though Chuvalo built an impressive career (73 wins, 18 losses, 2 draws), the manager-fighter relationship between Ungerman and Chuvalo sadly became strained and never fully recovered.

But Irv’s contributions went far beyond the boxing ring.

A recipient of the Order of Ontario, a Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, and a member of the organizing committee for the historic 1972 Summit Series, Ungerman also played a role in saving the Santa Claus Parade, supported SickKids Hospital and The Salvation Army, and supplied chickens to Swiss Chalet, among others. He was also a devoted Gravenhurst cottager and lover of the outdoors.

Irving Ungerman passed away in Toronto on October 27, 2015, at the age of 92.

1923–2015