Dawn and Pat Barry oral history interview, 2026 July 01

Oral history interview with Dawn and Pat Barry conducted by Stefani Evans and Bethany Dayton on July 1, 2026 for the Game On! The Oral History of Las Vegas Sports project. In this interview, Dawn discusses her early childhood growing up in New York. While making her way to California as a young adult, Dawn stopped in and decided to stay in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pat discusses his early life growing up in Jersey City, New Jersey and boxing with the Catholic Youth Organization. After traveling to Las Vegas for a boxing match that fell through, Pat decided to stay in Las Vegas and trained with boxing trainer and manager Johnny Tocco and worked as a bartender at the Stardust Resort and Casino where he met Dawn, who was working as a cocktail server. Dawn and Pat both eventually became police officers working for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. They discuss how Dawn encouraged Pat to continue his passion for boxing and open up their own boxing gym, Barry's Boxing Center. The Barrys opened and closed various locations of their boxing gym before settling on their current location. Dawn also discusses how she runs the Box Fan Expo and goes into detail about how fights are conducted and matched. The interview concludes with Pat sharing an interaction with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and talking about how Dawn's support has helped him. Digital audio available; no transcript available.