Today in Chicago History: Rocky Marciano KO's Jersey Joe Walcott in first round of fight at Chicago Stadium

Chicago Tribune

15-05-2025

Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on May 15, according to the Tribune's archives.
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Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)
Flashback: At a time when immigrants were feared, Chicago's Hull House nurtured the lives of the foreign-born1903: An improved law for the regulation of child labor was passed by the General Assembly. Under provisions of the act, Illinois was the first state to establish an eight-hour workday and a 48-hour workweek for children. It went into effect on July 1, 1903.
1953: Rocky Marciano, making his first defense of his heavyweight title, scored a first-round knockout at Chicago Stadium over Jersey Joe Walcott, the man Marciano dethroned in a 13th-round KO the previous September. The fight attracted a crowd of 13,266 and a gate of $331,795. Marciano's purse was $76,038 plus $90,000 from TV.
1960: Don Cardwell, pitching his first game as a Cub, threw a no-hit victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field. Outfielder Walt 'Moose' Moryn saved the no-hitter when he made a slick running catch of Joe Cunningham's sinking line drive for the final out. Jack Brickhouse called the last out this way: 'Low sinking liner. Come on, Moose! He's got it!'
1969: The Young Lords, a civil rights group comprising Puerto Rican, Black and Latino youth, took over the administration building of McCormick Theological Seminary, 800 Belden Ave., Chicago, and demanded $601,000 from the venerable Lincoln Park institution.
Most of the intruders sported the berets that then marked radical activists. They ejected a few seminarians who were pulling all-nighters, chained the doors shut and hung a banner over them announcing that 800 W. Belden Ave. was now the address of the 'Manuel Ramos Memorial Building.'
José 'Cha-Cha' Jiménez, founder of political group formed from Lincoln Park Puerto Rican gang, dies at 76Ramos, a member of the Young Lords, had been shot and killed on May 4 that year by an off-duty police officer during a controversial encounter.
A five-day stalemate ensued before a truce was struck: The Young Lords agreed to leave the building and the seminary agreed to negotiate with a 'Poor People's Coalition.'
1976: Patricia Columbo, 19, and her boyfriend, Frank DeLuca, were arrested in the shooting deaths of her parents, Mary and Frank Columbo, and the stabbing death of Patricia's 13-year-old brother, Michael, in the family's Elk Grove Village home. Patricia Columbo and DeLuca were convicted and each sentenced to 200 to 300 years in prison.
1977: Eleanor 'Sis' Daley and acting Mayor Michael Bilandic helped unveil artist Marc Chagall's stained-glass tribute to the late Mayor Richard J. Daley and the American people, 'America Windows,' at the Art Institute of Chicago. Chagall donated the design as a gift to Chicago for the warm welcome Daley gave him during a visit in 1974. Chagall also gave Daley a warm response in 1974 — a kiss.
1996: Chicago White Sox left fielder Tony Phillips punched a heckling Brewers fan outside the left-field bleachers in Milwaukee. The 23-year-old fan allegedly had been making disparaging remarks about his mother. After listening to it for a few innings, Phillips took matters into his own hands and removed himself from the game after the top of the sixth inning to confront the fan.
Phillips told a couple of players about his plan as he left the dugout.
'He's going past Bevington and says, 'You need another left fielder,' ' former Sox third baseman Robin Ventura recalled. 'I followed him up to the clubhouse, and by the time I got up there, he had his clothes on and his leather jacket and was going out into the concourse. I was like, 'What are you doing?''
Phillips was taken to an area police station on a misdemeanor battery charge and released. The charges against Phillips were dropped, but the American League fined him $5,000 for the incident. He died of a heart attack at 56 in February 2016.
'Few athletes were as fun to interview as Phillips, who once took the tape recorder from my hand and just interviewed himself,' Tribune columnist Paul Sullivan wrote in 2020. 'I covered him for only one season on the South Side, but we kept in touch well after his 18-year career ended in 1999.'
2006: Anish Kapoor's 'Cloud Gate' was dedicated in Millennium Park. Better known by its nickname the Bean, the art installation was completed two years after it was first unveiled at more than twice its estimated cost.
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