Moore Showed Courage in Marciano’s Last Fight

For more than a century, boxing has been an activity in which unprincipled managers, con artists and promoters have reaped more rewards than exploited boxers.

But for all its faults, boxing has one attraction no other sport has. In no other sport can courage be so clearly seen, often appearing so bright you can nearly reach out and be burned by it.

And once in a generation or so, a special matchup provides a never-to-be-forgotten display of courage.

So it was 44 years ago in Yankee Stadium, where an old champion named Archie Moore went beyond his own endurance, trying valiantly to wrest the heavyweight championship from Rocky Marciano.

Moore’s age was always subject to dispute, but the record book says he was 42 that night. He’d held the light-heavyweight title for four years. Marciano, 32, was 48-0 and had defended the heavyweight title five times.

In the second round, Moore brought the 61,574 in the audience to their feet by knocking Marciano down. The referee, Harry Kessler, was so startled that he forgot the standing-eight count had been waived for the match, and gave Marciano the count.

Taking the fight to Marciano, Moore hurt the champion in every round, even though he was knocked down twice in the sixth round and once again in the eighth. Each time, he battled back bravely.

Finally, in the ninth, Marciano’s superior stamina and power were too much. Moore sank in his own corner from Marciano’s fusillade, unable to rise.

No one knew it that night, but it was Marciano’s last fight. He retired undefeated in 1956.

Also on this date: In 1997, Mike Piazza became the second man to hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium when his 478-footer landed atop the left-field pavilion roof and bounced into the parking lot. Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell had done it twice, in 1969 and 1973. . . . In 1988, at the Seoul Olympics, chairs, water bottles and ungloved fists flew when South Koreans, enraged over a decision that went against one of their boxers, rioted on worldwide television. The losing boxer, Byun Jong-il, sat on his stool for 67 minutes afterward, in silent protest. . . . In 1956, Mickey Mantle hit a 450-foot home run, his 51st, that bounced off the top of the center-field wall and missed leaving Fenway Park by a foot.