On September 23, 1926, an announced crowd of 120,557 spectators—braving a rainstorm—filled Philadelphia’s newly built Sesquicentennial Stadium to see Gene Tunney defeat Jack Dempsey by unanimous decision and capture the world heavyweight championship. Constructed for the 150th-anniversary Sesquicentennial International Exposition, the enormous open-air stadium immediately became the setting for one of the defining sporting spectacles of the 1920s.
Exactly 26 years later, on September 23, 1952, the same venue, by then called Philadelphia Municipal Stadium, hosted another landmark heavyweight title fight. Undefeated challenger Rocky Marciano survived an early knockdown and a difficult fight against champion Jersey Joe Walcott before landing the devastating right hand associated with his “Susie Q” in the 13th round. Walcott was knocked out, and Marciano won the undisputed heavyweight championship—the beginning of a reign that ended with his retirement as an undefeated champion.
Forty years after Marciano’s victory, on September 23, 1992, the stadium—renamed John F. Kennedy Stadium in 1964—was demolished. Across its 66-year existence, it had hosted heavyweight championship bouts, Army–Navy football games, professional football, and the Philadelphia portion of Live Aid in 1985. Its destruction ended the life of one of Philadelphia’s most capacious and historically consequential twentieth-century venues.
Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
