In an era when Cleveland was renowned for producing talented young boxing prospects, Jackie Keough ranked among the best. While just 17, the West Tech High School product advanced to the 1943 finals of the city Golden Gloves lightweight championship. The next year he came back to win the Northeastern Ohio Golden Gloves welterweight title. After spending 27 months in the Navy during World War II, he returned home in 1947 to win the national AAU welterweight championship in Chicago’s Tournament of Champions after winning the welterweight crown for the East in the National East-West Confrontation in New York as well as a second Cleveland Golden Gloves title. This prompted the Plain Dealer to hail him as “the best professional prospect to come out of Cleveland since Jimmy Bivins.” After 200 amateur bouts, he turned pro in 1946.