Lloyd 'Silent' Escobar was born in 1922, in the town of Pacific Grove, and lived in Salinas, California. At the age of four, he suffered spinal meningitis, completely lost his hearing, and was crippled for nearly three years. An Indian woman showed his mother how to massage his spindly legs with warm olive oil. Soon he became well enough to attend a School for the Deaf and he began to thrive. By the mid-1940's, he was known as a middleweight, knockout boxer. "Silent Escobar" had 44 wins, and only three losses during his entire career. After one his opponents died in a coma, from a punch during that fight, he gave up boxing.
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April 1943 - Oakland, California.
"For the first time in the history of Oakland boxing, probably settig a national precedent, two deaf mutes will fight here tomorrow night--not each other. Harold Siegel (extreme left), local clothier and fight filbert, sponsors both. They are Silent Escobar (second from left) and Leroy Pate, listening to Pete Tripodes, their trainer, who though not a mute speaks the sign language fluently. Pate fights Bill McGee, a light-heavy." Images depicts Tripodes "speaking" to Escobar and Pate while Siegel watches. (from the Oakland Tribune)
