A halfback and miler at Howard High School, Redden also played at Arkansas A & M and was an All-Marine halfback in 1963, the same year in which, at age 25, he took up the sport of boxing –
late for a boxer. Five years later, he fought as a light heavyweight in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City on a U.S. boxing team that included George Foreman as its heavyweight. He was the first
Delawarean ever to quality as an Olympic boxer. His lifetime 65-6 record (20 knockouts) includes four Marine and All-Service titles and gold medals at the Council of International Sports Tournament
in Italy (1966) and Pan-Am Games (1967). Redden also coached in boxing and worked with Leon Spinks on the Camp Lejeune,  North Carolina team, and later helped him in the second Muhammad Ali
bout. In 1968, he was “Athlete of the Year” in both Delaware and North Carolina.