Fifty years ago, the city of Brockton was dealt a sucker punch. Hank Tartaglia remembers that horrible night in the summer of '69 like it was yesterday, as he was closing down his little Italian restaurant called Enrico's on Legion Parkway, and the phone rang with a call from a buddy working the graveyard shift at the Brockton Police Department.

The police officer told him the shocking, tragic news that just came in from a Boston newspaper wire service. And Tartaglia was the one who had to break it to the Brockton family of city hero Rocky Marciano, who retired a boxing legend about 13 years earlier, stepping away from the ring after notching 49 career wins, with 43 knockouts, zero losses and the coveted title of undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.