Tuesday, November 1, 2005

The NBA tips off Season #1...

The NBA 2005-2006 season starts with tonight's games and one year from today the league will celebrate 100 years of professional basketball. Let's go back to that first game between the New York Knickerbockers and Toronto Huskies on November 1, 1946...

The game was played where hockey is king, Toronto, Canada. Talk about confusion, for openers the Knicks were stopped by Canadian customs and asked "what are you?", to which Knicks coach Neil Cohalan replied "we're the New York Knicks". "We're familiar with the New York Rangers, are you anything like that ?" replied the puzzled customs inspector. "They play hockey, we play basketball" was Cohalan's reply back...

Once the Knicks finally managed to get into Maple Leaf Gardens they found a crowd of 7,090 rooting against them but managed to prevail with a 68-66 victory that bore little resemblance to today's game. There were no double-pump slams, no facials, none of that stuff. In fact, the players could not and did not jump very well in a game that featured two-handed set shots. The thought of a jump shot was a radical notion at best...

The entrance fee for each NBA franchise was a mere $10,000 and most of the Knick players were local products from New York area schools. Coach Neil Cohalan was a Manhattan College alum himself. With the exception of forward Hank Biasatti, all of Toronto's players were American. Salaries averaged around $5,000 a season, forcing the players to rely on off-season jobs....

The Huskies ran ads featuring the picture of the tallest man on the court, 6'8" George Nostrand and offered free admission to anyone taller. There is no report on whether or not anyone answered the call for the freebie but if you weren't 6'8", price of admission ranged from 75 cents to $2.50...

More November 1 Memories...

1894) "Billboard Advertising" was published for the first time. It will later become known as "Billboard" magazine...

1938) Seabiscuit beats War Admiral in a match race at Pimlico Race Course. The rags-to-riches people's favorite wins by 3 lengths, wire to wire and breaks the track record for the mile race. 40,000 fans are on hand as well as a national radio audience. Seabiscuit takes home the $15,000 purse for winning...

1946) The NBA debuts (feature story)...

1946) WEAF changes call letters to WNBC...

1947) The legendary racehorse 'Man o' War" dies...

1947) Howard Hughes takes off in his wooden "Spruce Goose" (skims the water is more like it)...

1950) Two Puerto Rican nationalists try to force their way into Blair House in Washington in an attempt to assassinate President Harry S. Truman, one dies in the attempt...

1951) Dodger catcher Roy Campanella wins the 1st of his 3 MVP awards...

1952) The U.S. explodes the first hydrogen bomb...

1959) WOV changes call letters to WADO...

1959) Montreal's Jacques Plante becomes the NHL's 1st goalie to wear a mask after being hit in the face by a puck off the stick of the Rangers' Andy Bathgate in a game won by the Canadiens 3-1 at Madison Square Garden...

1962) The Crystals top the charts with "He's a Rebel" (the actual singers on the record are Darlene Love & the Blossoms)...

1964) The Dave Clark Five perform "Glad All Over" on "The Ed Sullivan Show"...

1969) The Beatles' "Abbey Road" tops the album charts for the first of 11 weeks...

1969) Elvis Presley tops the charts for the last time before his death with "Suspicious Minds"...

1970) In their first regular season meeting, the Giants beat the Jets 22-10 at Shea Stadium...

1973) Leon Jaworski is appointed new Watergate special prosecutor...

1974) Stevie Wonder is #1 with "You Haven't Done Nothin" (backed by the Jackson Five)...

1979) Former first lady Mamie Eisenhower dies at 82...

1984) Billy Ocean is #1 with "Caribbean Queen"...

1988) Jeff Goldblum marries the President (well she actually wasn't then) when he walks down the aisle with Gena Davis...

1999) Football Hall of Famer Walter Payton dies of cancer at 45...

2001) Scott Brosius hits a game-tying home run off of Arizona's batting practice pitcher (well he was, wasn't he ?) Byung Hyun Kim, allowing the Yankees to beat the Diamondbacks in Game 5 of the World Series (Tino Martinez hit one the night before off KIm). The Yankees take a 3-2 series lead (but stand-by Arizona fans)...

Happy Birthday To...

1920) Newspaper columnist James J. Kilpatrick...

1935) Golfing great Gary Player...

1948) Jim Steinman, Meatloaf writer and producer...

1950) America's Dan Peek...

1957) Lyle Lovett...

1972) Jenny McCarthy...

Commentary...

The popularity of College basketball was probably the main reason the NBA started on this date in 1946. In New York's Madison Square Garden and in cities like Philadelphia, Boston and Buffalo, record crowds were filling arenas, so why not professional basketball ?...

The original NBA teams in addition to New York and Toronto in 1946 were: Boston (Celtics), Philadelphia (Warriors), Providence (Steamrollers), Washington (Capitols), Pittsburgh (Ironmen), Chicago (Stags), Detroit (Falcons), St. Louis (Bombers) and Cleveland (Rebels). The Washington Capitols coached by Red Auerbach were Eastern Division Champions but Philadelphia prevailed in the playoffs to take on Western Division Champ, Chicago, beating the Stags 4 games to 1...

Joe Fulks of Philadelphia was the NBA's first scoring champion with a 23.2 average...