The “American Spirit Award” Excerpts from Valerie Nelson story for the L A Times The “American Spirit” award is awarded in honor of Lilly Urquidez Rodriguez, who passed away on January 13, 2007. Lilly was a pioneering female boxer and world kickboxing champion who helped establish kickboxing as a sport for women. Fighting ran in her family. Her mother was a wrestler known professionally as Crazy Linda. Her father, an amateur boxer, started teaching Rodriguez the sport when she was 6. One of her five brothers, Benny “the Jet” Urquidez, was an early kickboxing superstar. Her husband William “Blinky” Rodriguez helped broker a peace treaty among 75 gangs in the San Fernando Valley in 1993. He is executive director of Communities in Schools, a social service agency that specializes in gang prevention and hard-core intervention. Lilly Urquidez Rodriguez is the only female boxer in the California Boxing Hall of Fame and one of a handful of women in the Martial Arts History Museum’s Hall of Fame. On November 16, 1979, she and Her husband ‘Blinky” made history at the forum in Inglewood as the first husband and wife to box on the same professional card, according to Don Fraser, who promoted the fight. This site was designed to accomodate the largest number of PC/Mac browsers and modern monitors using a medium font at 800x600 screen resolution. Website created by Joseph Tatner of Miracle Productions. CLICK HERE for photos and video from previous years!