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.