Shibe Park - Boxing, Politics, Soccer, Religion

Boxing, Politics, Soccer, Religion

Shibe scion Jack briefly tried his hand as a boxing promoter in the early 1910s, shortly after his father built Shibe Park, and although he did not pursue the career, he did make the acquaintance of other promoters in the Philadelphia boxing world, including Bob Gunnis and Herman "Muggsy" Taylor. Gunnis and Taylor became among the first promoters to book a bout into a major league baseball stadium when they brought Johnny Dundee vs. George Chaney to Shibe Park in July 1917, and although the fight itself was unremarkable, the concept propelled Gunnis and Taylor to the forefront of their trade. Over the next forty years, perhaps a hundred boxing cards took place at Shibe, some of them big-time pairings and even championship bouts. Benny Leonard retained his championship against challenger Johnny Kilbane in 1917, and 1928's Benny Bass vs. Harry Blitman was said by sportswriters to be the best featherweight bout in the city's history. In the 1950s, Gil Turner, Ike Williams, Charley Fusari and many other top fighters fought important bouts at Shibe Park. At first, groundskeepers set the ring up over the pitcher's mound, but soon this changed to the area over home plate with the baseball backstops dismantled; spectators sat in the main grandstand for the fight. Even before the installation of the light towers in 1939, staging night boxing was easy because of the vastly smaller area that needed to be lit — portable searchlights did the trick.

In October 1948, the US national soccer team played three international friendlies against the Israel national team. The first game was played at the Polo Grounds and the last at Ebbets Field. In the middle match on October 17, the US beat Israel at Shibe Park, shutting them out 4-0 before 30,000 fans.

The events were not always sports-related: the 30-some-thousand seats were a good venue for political rallies. In 1940, Republican presidential candidate Wendell Wilkie came to Shibe for a speech and rally. Four years later, the man who beat Wilkie, Franklin D. Roosevelt, made one of his few 1944 public appearances at 21st and Lehigh; he won again. In 1948, third-party Progressive candidate Henry A. Wallace made his nomination acceptance speech there.

Promoters tried jazz concerts in 1959, but the place was deemed "not intimate enough" for jazz. The rodeo came in 1962, but hooves proved too destructive of the turf. The Ringling Brothers circus set up shop at Shibe in 1955 when they were denied occupancy at all their regular Philadelphia venues, and evangelist Billy Graham had many successful crusades there. The stadium management's favorite visitors were the Jehovah's Witnesses, "because the Witnesses left the park immaculate."