As a young man, Terence Fowler learned to box while in the merchant marines of the British Navy. He fought 27 times as an amateur, mostly in Ireland and England. When he left military service in 1945, Fowler moved to a farm near Rossburn where he raised five sons. In 1961, he moved to Brandon and set up a photo studio but it was decision to work with Rocky Addison to found the Brandon Boxing Club in 1970 for which he is most remembered.

Fowler’s respect for the sport of boxing did not allow him to teach it to someone who would use it for an ill-willed purpose. He would not teach hockey players how to fight so they could use it on the ice, nor would he teach it to someone who would later use those skills to intimidate or threaten someone else outside the boxing ring. But if someone walked into his club with a desire to learn, and would use boxing to improve their lives, Terry Fowler was the first to show them the ropes. He said the sport taught them respect for others and themselves, discipline, and how to be a good person.

He instilled those values into Brandon boxers through several Canada Winter Games, where many reached the podium, Canadian championships at the senior, intermediate and junior levels and Western Canadians. Fowler also brought boxing cards to Brandon on a regular basis, when he was not taking boxers to bouts elsewhere. He trained hundreds of amateur boxers and several professionals, including his son Terry Fowler Jr., Roddy Batson, Brian Ramsden and Brent Mitchell.

Named the 1990 Manitoba Amateur Boxing Association Coach of the Year, Fowler was a Level 4 coach whose credits fell just shy of Level 5 certification (Olympic Level Coaching); he retired from coaching in 1998.

Terence Fowler Sr. passed away in 2000. “He was generally a down-to-earth guy,” said Fowler Jr. “He never thought he was anyone other than what he was. He was one of those people where your life was better if you met him.”