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The Friday night show, broadcast from Madison Square Garden lasted until June 24 , 1960 , a 14-year period which is, by far, the longest continuous run of any boxing program in television history. The Gillette sponsorship began at the start of TV's first full-programming season, 1948 - 49 . On September 4 , the program was renamed ''The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports'', a name that remained until the end. Every great boxer of the time— Rocky Marciano , Sugar Ray Robinson , Archie Moore , Rocky Graziano , Willie Pep and many others appeared on one or more of its broadcasts. In TV's early years, there was a saturation of boxing programs, as many as six prime-time network shows in one week, not even counting the myriad local shows. With so much boxing on the air, all weight divisions had a chance at stardom, not just the glamorous heavyweights.

Bob Stanton was the original announcer and he was joined by Ray Forrest in 1948 . Jimmy Powers took over the role in 1949 and remained NBC 's main boxing announcer until the network gave up on prime-time Pugilism in 1960 .