Details of the intro of slicks

Read tonight a blurb in some post somewhere about an anecdote of a sports car team supposedly receiving tires that had mistakenly not been cut. They tried them out, and surprise, surprise, went faster.

Do any of you have more details of how and when slicks got "discovered", what series started it and how quickly the changeover happened. (pretty damn quick I imagine as soon as word got out)

Just curious.