KEN OVERLIN

Overlin was born to Irish parents on August 15, 1910 in Decatur, Illinois. He excelled in basketball and football at Decatur's Central Junior High. While at Decatur Senior High.

Overlin joined the Navy in 1927, and soon began boxing, having many of his early bouts in cities where his ship the U.S.S. Tennessee was stationed. He would do most of his boxing from 1927-31 on the West coast, but his Navy and boxing career would later be based out of Norfolk, and nearby Portsmouth, Virginia. He dropped out of the Navy in 1932, and began his boxing career under the management of Chris Dundee as a fringe middleweight contender, continuing to box around Virginia and the East Coast.

Overlin rejoined the Navy in 1942 to serve during WWII

After 1957, he lived in Reno, Nevada, where he worked as a bartender. He had been in ill health for the last seven years of his life as a result of an assault by a hoodlum who had pistol whipped him in May, 1962 after he had struck the man in an argument. He was required to undergo emergency surgery for skull fractures and severe scalp lacerations. Seven years after the assault, on July 24, 1969, Overlin was found dead in his Reno apartment, where he had passed a few days earlier