Transcription Mystery Disc # 102

Much of the usual mystery is absent with this particular disc. The date was June 25th 1948 and this is a recording of the rematch boxing match between Joe Louis and Joe Walcott. The disc is a Recotron, and spins at 78 rpm with an outer edge start.

Their first match was on December 5th 1947. Walcott was a 33-year-old veteran with a 44-11-2 record, nonetheless he entered the ring as a 10-to-1 underdog. He knocked down Louis twice, leading to a split decision in favor of Walcott. For the rematch about 42,000 people came to Yankee Stadium to see the champ. He was knocked down only once this time but knocked out Walcott in the 11th round. This was his last real right, after Walcott, he found only exhibition matches.

The program was carried by ABC live on the program "Cavalcade of Sports." It's hosts Don Dunphy and Bill Corum did play-by-play and commentary. Gillette sponsored the program. It first debuted in 1942, but that was at least 3 years into the Gillette sponsorship of sports radio having programs on ABC, NBC and Mutual at the same time Hockey, baseball, Football... Gillette clearly knew their target demographic.

Cavalcade of Sports ran on NBC's New York City station WNBT-TV (channel 1) starting in 1943 it's original experimental callsign was W2XBS. In 1946 it became Channel 4, and the calls changed to WNBC-TV in 1960. They carried Cavalcade of Sports twice a week, the program was picked up by the NBC network in 1946. Television was not a 24 hour service at the time so when the last bout ended, the station signed off the air.  The program continued to run until June of 1960. Bill Corum also wrote for the New York Journal-American. He wrote some shockingly racist stuff.  He died in 1958.  Don Dunphy kept announcing fights anyway. He died in 1998.