Earl Walls was a top Etobicoke boxer who was dubbed the “Hooded Terror” as the fought his way to become Canada’s Heavyweight Boxing Champion in the early 1950s.

Walls, who went on to become a successful realtor in the Kingsway area, is one of a few Blacks in the Etobicoke Sports Hall of Fame, at the Ford Performance Centre, which lists hundreds of hockey, lacrosse, football players, jockeys, golfers, some politicians and media personalities.

Dubbed the “Hooded Terror” in the ring, Walls began boxing at age 19 and quickly won the Ontario Amateur Heavyweight Championship. The native of Puce, near Windsor, started his professional career with a knockout victory in a fight in New York City.

After losing his next three bouts, he set up training in Alberta and by June of 1952 had won the Canadian Heavyweight title. In his pro career, Walls knocked out 27 opponents, including 14 in the first round.

“His boxing career was brief but extremely successful,” sports writers said of Walls.

By 1955, he was on his way to becoming the second Canadian, behind Tommy Burns, to take the  World Heavyweight Championship.

Walls was a contender then ranked fifth in the world and a title shot against the champ Rocky Marciano was in the works.

But in June of that year, at the age of 27, Walls stunned the boxing world by announcing his retirement.

Then married and with a young family, Walls no longer wanted to step into the ring.

“Boxing is a business. Strictly a career with me,” he explained in a newspaper article. “I don’t go for violence. And I don’t like the wrong impression people get of fighters – that we’re all gorillas, social bums.”

He gained enormous success in real estate while raising his family in Etobicoke, where he was involved with a number of charities, including Variety Village’s Sunshine Games. He is also a member of the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame and the Afro-American Sports Hall of Fame in Detroit. He died in 1996.