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Former Rochester boxing great Pat O'Connor dies at 74

ROCHESTER — Rochester boxing legend Pat O’Connor has died. He was 74.

O’Connor died Friday, May 23, 2025, of natural causes associated with Parkinson’s disease.

A member of the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame and inducted in 2014, it was O’Connor’s destiny to be a boxer, a world-famous one for a time. It was also a road he often reluctantly traveled.

O’Connor once told a reporter, “I was sick of it at a young age. After I won the National Golden Gloves (at 16), I was already tired of it and I wanted out.”

But his show, which brought him money and fame, went on anyway. And it was quite a show.

He had the entire package — awesome athletic talent, charisma and good looks. One newspaper said about him: “O’Connor is a marketer’s dream who could actually box.”

Minnesota boxing historian Jake Wegner considers O’Connor one of the state’s best fighters ever. O’Connor was ranked as high as No. 3 in the world at light-heavyweight.

“Pat O'Connor was the most talented boxer we’ve had in the last 60 years,” Wegner said. “He checked all the boxes. His hand speed, his footwork and his counterpunching were all great. He had natural boxing instincts. And he won a Golden Gloves national title at 16 back when boxing was right up there with baseball and football in terms of competition level. That Golden Gloves title was a big deal. When he came back to Rochester afterward, he was greeted by the entire city and the mayor.”

O’Connor fought mostly as a light heavyweight, using his nimble feet and quick and powerful hands to at one point have totaled a professional record of 31-0. He began that pro career at the age of 18 and didn’t stop until he was 28. By then, he was 41-6 with 19 knockouts.

O’Connor’s first loss came against Andy Kendall, who defeated him by technical knockout in the seventh round of a 10-round match.

Among O’Connor’s most storied fights was his battle with another southeastern Minnesota boxing great, Chatfield’s Duane Horsman. The two went at it in 1969, O’Connor 12-0 at the time. The fight was a doozy, and came in front of 4,211 fans jam-packed into the Mayo Civic Center. It included O’Connor breaking his right hand before emerging with a unanimous victory in the closely contested six-round bout.

O’Connor was raised by his father, Jack, to be a fighter. At the age of 4, Pat was already sparring with his 3-year-old brother Dan, while his dad refereed.

O’Connor won his first amateur bout at the age of 6, won his 100th at 12 and won the Golden Gloves welterweight title at 16. By the time he was 22 he was a top-ranked light-heavyweight fighter and seemed destined to be a world champion.

But it wasn’t a life and profession that he craved. For much of his boxing career, he was a reluctant superstar. But the money was good. And he felt boxing was his duty, with so many having invested in his vast talent.

"I turned pro when I was 18," he told the Post Bulletin. "I needed the money. I didn't really enjoy it, but I never felt like I could do much else. It's all I ever knew.

“Ben Sternberg (promoter), Bruno Lisi (manager), my dad and a lot of other people from all over this part of the country had invested time and money in me and I about had to turn professional. I felt an obligation because those people had helped me so much and I felt like I owed them something."

O’Connor was not without his out-of-the-ring troubles. He battled alcoholism for much of his life and once pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of assaulting a waitress. In 1979, he pleaded guilty to having punched a man in the face after a traffic incident and was arrested in 1988 for stealing bracelets from a downtown Rochester store.

At the age of 50, he was attempting to get his life together. He was believed to have been sober his final few years.

He told the Post Bulletin, “I try to stay away from the bad people from the old days. The drinking people, the drug people. This town isn't that big. And the only way for me to get a better handle on my problems is to try and avoid as much of that as I can.

"There aren't any excuses. I’m the one who didn't take care of business back in the boxing days. I'm the one who drinks."

Fame had come quickly for O’Connor. Troubles often accompany that.

They did for Pat O’Connor, the best fighter that Rochester has ever seen.

Pat has been a Post Bulletin sports reporter since 1994. He covers Rochester John Marshall football, as well as a variety of other southeastern Minnesota football teams. Among my other southeastern Minnesota high school beats are girls basketball, boys and girls tennis, boys and girls track and field, high school and American Legion baseball, volleyball, University of Minnesota sports (on occasion) and the Timberwolves (on occasion). Readers can reach Pat at 507-285-7723 or pruff@postbulletin.com.

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