Back then, St. Joseph’s reputation preceded its residents.

Bill France traveled to a convention in 1983 and even in San Antonio, Texas, people remembered the town television touted as the place Jesse James died along the banks of the Missouri River.

Civic Arena, which France managed for 14 years, hosted at least four televised fights during the 1980s and brought the exposure and country-wide recognition that came with a national broadcast.

“It’s hard to buy that kind of exposure,” France said. “If you had to pay for a national ad, you couldn’t afford it. That is a great part for the city.”

It’s been many years since television beamed images of St. Joseph before a fight — 19 to be specific. That will change next week when Fox Sports broadcasts a tape delay of tonight’s Rob Calloway-Max Alexander bout.

It will be the first fight televised from Civic Arena since The Madison Square Garden Network broadcast a card that included James “Bonecrusher” Smith, Riddick Bowe and Craig Cummings on Dec. 14, 1989.

Marv Albert (play-by-play) and Freddie Pacheco (color) provided the call for two NBC fights in the ’80s, while ESPN came to town Nov. 17, 1982, for an eight-card event that featured Roger Mayweather. KFEQ’s Bob Orf, who was the ringside announcer for many of those high-profile fights, remembers Albert turning over the live broadcast to Orf for introductions.

“That was really big-time stuff,” Orf said. “They had lots of really high-ranked fighters. It was a who’s who of boxing.”

Don King and Larry Holmes attended fights, and Orf recalls being greeted by a pistol-touting body guard when trying to find King for a photograph.

“There were a lot of characters and a lot of crazy people and a lot of great memories,” he said.

It has been Calloway’s goal for quite awhile to bring TV’s spotlight back to St. Joseph, but on the eve of that coming the fruition, disappointment, not triumph, was the reaction from Calloway’s camp.

“I know that it’s a boxing town,” Calloway’s promoter, Steve Smith, said of St. Joseph. “This time we produce a great show for them, and we have a hard time selling 2,000 tickets. No one is going to be here to witness it except for me and about 1,100 people.”

Smith’s Rumble Time Promotions, which Calloway signed with back in April, set up the event, organized the television deal and will produce the show. However, Rumble Time sold only about 1,000 tickets as of Thursday, Smith said.

And while he still hopes for a big walk-up sale tonight to fill up at least a respectable portion of Civic Arena’s 3,700-seat capacity for the TV cameras, Smith isn’t sure how hard Rumble Time will try to bring TV back to St. Joseph.

“These are shows we take to larger markets, cities like St. Louis where we know people will show up,” said Smith, who added more money went toward the advertising of this fight than did for the Calloway-Galen Brown bout back in October that drew about 3,200 people. “People want to see an experience, not just a fight.

“I saw they came out for the Galen Brown fight. I understand that’s two local boxing guys, but this is a real show.”

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Kathy Brock took over for France as manager of Civic Arena in 2002. She said little has changed since the ’80s when it comes to preparing the venue for television. The TV crews still show up the day before to set up the lighting wreath and the camera spots — in a similar manner and location.

France sees a renewed interest from St. Joseph in boxing — whether it’s Calloway’s continued pursuit of a title bout or Donny McCrary’s appearance on ESPN’s Contender last year. But even while the process remains the same, the boxing culture has changed.

As a result, Albert or HBO Boxing’s Jim Lampley aren’t likely to introduce a fight anytime soon with “From the banks of the Missouri River and the house where Jesse James died,” as Orf remembers Albert doing 25 years ago.

“There are so many interests. I would say parents don’t want their kids in boxing,” France said. “It’s just not near as popular. There isn’t near the exposure on TV that there was 20 years ago.”

Sports reporter R.J. Cooper can be reached at rjcooper@npgco.com

Cruiserweight

Rob Calloway vs. Max Alexander*

Welterweight

Brandon Baue vs. Travis Hartman

Light Middleweight

Dustin Huitt Johnson vs. Rafael Estrada

Welterweight

Soo Siyajuck vs. Robbie Cannon

Light heavyweight

Brian Bernard vs. Jessie Davis

Heavyweight

Gary Dydell vs. Clinton Boldridge

Middleweight

Tony Hirsch vs. Shaun Hinkle

Lightweight

Brian Carden vs. Reymundo Hernandez

* For the WBC Continental Americas cruiserweight title

Event starts at 7:30 p.m.

Television events at Civic Arena

Date Main Event (Network)

June 19, 2008 Rob Calloway vs. Max Alexander (Fox Sports Net)

Dec. 14, 1989 James “Bonecrusher” Smith KO

Mike Rouse (Madison Square Garden)

Sept. 5, 1982 Charles Henderson def. Steve Mormino

for Missouri State Light Heavyweight Title (NBC)

Nov. 17, 1982 Bruce Curry def. Ronnie Shields

for USBA light welterweight title (ESPN)

NOTE: Bob Orf, who was the ringside announcer at Civic Arena in the ’80s and Pat Conway, who helped organize some of these events, recall another NBC fight in the ’80s but neither could remember a date. A News-Press search of the boxing database BoxRec did not turn up another televised fight at Civic Arena.

When to watch

The telecast of the card will be produced into two one-hour episodes that will air on FSN Midwest and FSN Kansas City. Calloway’s fight will air in the first episode, according to Geoff Goldman, who works in media relations for FSN Midwest.

Episode 1 (ft. Rob Calloway)

Saturday, July 26 at 4 p.m.

Monday, July 28 at 7 p.m. (FSN Kansas City only)

Saturday, August 2 at 1:30 p.m.

Monday, August 4 at 7 p.m. (not available in FSN Kansas City’s Royals territory)

Saturday, August 9 at 9:30 p.m.

Monday, August 11 at 12 p.m.

Episode 2

Friday, August 15 at 12 p.m.

Saturday, August 16 at 3 p.m. (not available in FSN Kansas City’s Royals territory)

Monday, August 18 at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, August 23 at 6 p.m. (not available in FSN Kansas City’s Royals territory)