Franchise Player
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Chiefs Kingdom, Yankees Universe, C of Red.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobblehead
Since baseball is more North American/Japan/Korea, I wonder if Boxing & Hockey might not make MSG a more iconic NY sports landmark to a "worldwide" audience? And The LA Coliseum has hosted 2 Olympics, so it may be more well known world wide.
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Hockey woudn't make MSG more iconic. Not only has Yankee Stadium hosted 38 World Series, which is absolutely amazing, it was the home of the New York Giants for decades. The greatest NFL game ever played according to historians was the 1958 NFL Championship Game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants at Yankee Stadium. Knute Rockne gave his famous "win one for the gipper!" speach at Yankee Stadium. Numerous boxing matches have taken place at Yankee Stadium as well.
I copied this from Wikepedia.
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Boxing at Yankee Stadium
When Yankee Stadium opened in 1923, the Polo Grounds continued to host boxing matches; however, Yankee Stadium was home to prizefighting beginning in its first few months. Benny Leonard retained the lightweight championship in a 15-round decision over Lou Tendler on July 24, 1923, in front of more than 58,000 fans. It was the first of 30 championship bouts to be held at the Stadium. (This excludes dozens of nontitle fights.) The boxing ring was placed over second base; a 15-foot (4.6 m) vault contained electrical, telegraph, and telephone connections. In July 1927, the aging former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey came from behind to defeat heavily favored Jack Sharkey by delivering several questionable punches that were deemed illegal. Sharkey had similarly bad luck in a July 1930 heavyweight championship bout at Yankee Stadium, when his knockout punch to Max Schmeling was ruled illegal; Schmeling won by default. In July 1928, Gene Tunney upheld the heavyweight title against Tom Heeney at Yankee Stadium, and then retired as champion.
Perhaps the most famous boxing match ever held at Yankee Stadium was on June 22, 1938, when Joe Louis, an African-American, squared off against Schmeling, a German. With the Nazi Party on the verge of taking over much of Europe, Adolf Hitler followed the rematch carefully, imploring Schmeling to defeat Louis, whom Hitler publicly berated. This left some with what they perceived as a moral predicament: root for the black fighter, or for the Nazi. Schmeling had defeated Louis in 1936, but in defense of his title Louis knocked out Schmeling in the first round. This was one of eight championship fights the "Brown Bomber" fought at Yankee Stadium.
On July 1, 1939, Max Baer defeated Lou Nova at Yankee Stadium, in the first televised boxing match in the United States. The event was broadcast by television station W2XBS, forerunner of WNBC-TV. (The World Series was not televised until 1947.) On September 27, 1946, Tony Zale knocked out New York native Rocky Graziano for the middleweight crown; it was the first of three bouts between Zale and Graziano.
On June 25, 1952, middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson sought his third title against light-heavyweight champ Joey Maxim at Yankee Stadium. More than 47,000 saw Robinson outfight Maxim but lose due to heat exhaustion in round 14 (due to the weather that topped 104-degrees Fahrenheit). The referee who declared Maxim the winner was the second that night; the first had left the fight due to heat exhaustion.
After its 1970s renovation, Yankee Stadium hosted only one championship fight. On September 28, 1976, a declining Muhammad Ali defended his heavyweight crown against Ken Norton. To that point, Norton was one of only two boxers who had beaten Ali (in 1973); this was their third, and final, meeting. Norton led for most of the fight, but Ali improved in the later rounds to win by unanimous decision.
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