Ned Irish
Encyclopedia
Edward S. "Ned" Irish was a basketball
promoter and one of the key figures in popularizing professional basketball. He was the president of the New York Knicks
from 1946 to 1974. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964.
. He also founded the New York Knicks
and assisted in the organization of the National Basketball Association
. For his part in popularizing basketball, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964.
Irish grew up near Lake George
, New York
. He had already launched his business career at age 10. Following in his late father's footsteps, he earned money by selling sodas and newspapers and by renting boats. His mother, a practical nurse, then moved the family to Brooklyn
. As a student at Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School
, Irish covered prep and amateur sports for three New York dailies, managed the school's swimming and tennis teams, was class president, was a member of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity and worked in the school cafeteria.
He then attended the University of Pennsylvania
as a business major, where he worked for the school paper and edited the monthly literary magazine. To earn money he sold sheet music and organized the university's first student job-placement bureau. While he seemed destined to succeed in a career in business, Irish grew more interested in journalism, working as a reporter for the Philadelphia Record and as a stringer for several New York newspapers.
Journalism won out after he graduated in 1928. Irish went to work at $60 per week for the New York Telegram, one of several daily newspapers in New York City
. Always industrious and ambitious, he also took part-time jobs with the National Football League's
Information Bureau, and as the New York Giants’
public relations director.
Legend has it that an unfortunate occurrence during a basketball game at Manhattan College
in 1933 led Irish to come up with the idea that college basketball was ready for the big time. When he arrived to cover the game, it was sold out and the doors were locked. But Irish had a job to do, so he found an open window in the office of the athletic department and wriggled through it, ripping the pants of his best suit. The predicament started him thinking about the moneymaking potential in using a larger venue for college basketball games.
"Anytime there was a big college game, you had to fight your way into the building," Irish recalled. "I realized that basketball had outgrown these gyms."
In the spring of 1934 Irish attempted to set up a game between New York University
and the City College of New York
at Madison Square Garden, but the Garden couldn’t find an opening on such short notice, and the deal fell through. Later that year, however, Irish succeeded in securing a date for a doubleheader. On December 29, 1934, 16,180 fans roared their approval as they watched NYU beat Notre Dame
, 25-18, and Westminster
defeat St. John's, 37-33. College basketball was changed forever.
"The time just seemed right," Irish said. "There was a lot of interest then in the colleges. It was very successful from the start."
Irish's life was changed, too. In his first event at the Garden he earned the equivalent of six months’ pay at the newspaper. He promptly quit his reporting job to devote all his energies to promoting basketball. Irish didn’t have to put any money up front—hit hard by the Depression, the Garden was eager for new business, and all it asked of Irish was a fee of $4,000 per night, which he easily met.
During the 1935–36 season Irish arranged eight doubleheaders that attracted just under 100,000 fans and brought in a tidy profit for himself and the Garden, with enough left over for the colleges to make it worth their while.
The arrangement was profitable enough for Irish to invite top teams from across the country to compete. Schools with ambitious athletic programs clamored for the chance to show off their teams in front of larger audiences and to make a small profit. Some schools bristled at Irish's take-it-or-leave-it attitude, as he dictated the dates when games would be played and the amount of money schools would earn. But national interest in college basketball was soaring, and Madison Square Garden quickly turned into a mecca of the sport.
Irish's position as the arbiter of the Garden gave him tremendous power in the world of college basketball. Many college officials, sportswriters, and others considered him cold, gruff, and arrogant. It was said that he had few casual friends, although several people who knew him claimed he was a warm person once he dropped the tough facade. In 1974 Red Auerbach
said, "What I liked about Ned was his directness, his honesty and integrity. If he had something to say to you, he said it. He didn’t talk behind your back."
Under Irish's command, intersectional basketball contests at the Garden soon evolved into a national tournament to determine the best college teams in the country. Irish had a hand in the development of the National Invitation Tournament
, first held at the end of the 1937–38 season.
By 1946 college games at the Garden drew an average of 18,196 fans. Some of those fans were gamblers, however, which led to the infamous 1951 game-fixing scandal. The fiasco involved at least six colleges, four of them in New York City, and 33 players. Twenty-one players admitted in court to having "dumped" games—intentionally causing their teams to lose in exchange for money. Some were sentenced to prison, and the careers of several college coaches were destroyed. According to Sports Illustrated
, New York District Attorney Frank Hogan
reported that underlying the scandal "was the blatant commercialism which had permeated college basketball."
Of course, the main promoter of commercialized basketball was Irish, who distanced himself from the scandal in a manner that angered many observers. Irish said that he didn't believe that the open presence of gamblers at the Garden contributed to game fixing. He thought the blame should be directed only at players and coaches. Irish even accused the district attorney of timing his busts for maximum political leverage.
In 1946 Irish helped found the 11-team Basketball Association of America
. Three years later the circuit merged with the National Basketball League
to form the National Basketball Association. Irish was a hard-nosed negotiator in the proceedings, insisting that home teams retain all gate proceeds. This, of course, was perfect for large venues like the Garden, which took in big profits, but teams with smaller arenas were at a disadvantage. Since then, several attempts at a more democratic sharing of profits have been made, but none have ever been ratified.
Almost 30 years later, Irish was also instrumental in the ABA-NBA merger
that brought the American Basketball Association
into the NBA. Seven years before the actual merger took place, he argued that having rival leagues made no financial sense and that teams would begin to go bankrupt. His words turned out to be prophetic.
When the BAA was created in 1946, Irish strong-armed his way to ownership of the New York franchise, the New York Knicks. With the Garden backing him, Irish claimed he represented a corporation with $3.5 million in assets. According to Sports Illustrated, when his other competitor for the franchise, Max Kase
, a New York newsman, was making his pitch to the other league representatives, Irish would interject from time to time, "Three and a half million."
Irish won out, but he also won acrimony from other team owners who resented his big-money approach. During the negotiations it was said that Irish threatened to pull out of the league if things didn’t go his way. "The way college basketball draws," he told Sports Illustrated in 1961, "the Knicks are nothing but a tax write-off anyway."
Irish became executive vice president of the Knicks, a position he held from 1946 to 1974. Once he had acquired the franchise, Irish went about making sure the Knicks were winners. His first move was to hire Joe Lapchick
, the successful coach at St. John's, to run the team. In 1949 Irish convinced the other team owners to allow him to break league regulations by having two highly touted college players, Vince Boryla
and Ernie Vandeweghe
.
He also signed Harry Gallatin, a much-coveted forward from Northeast Missouri State Teachers College. The only trouble was that Gallatin had finished only two years of college and so was not eligible to play professional ball under the rules at the time. No matter — Irish wanted him, and Irish got him. He also acquired Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton from the Harlem Globetrotters
in 1950.
For the first nine years that Irish ran the club, New York had winning seasons, including a 47-23 record in 1952–53
, and the team made the playoffs every year until 1955. But from 1955 to 1966 the Knicks saw postseason action only once, losing in the first round in 1959 under Coach Andrew "Fuzzy" Levane
. The team had a woeful record during most of the 1960s, bottoming out at 21-59 in 1962–63
.
Things changed for the better when Irish brought in William "Red" Holzman
midway through the 1967–68 season
. Holzman made an immediate impact, leading the team to a winning season, its first in nine years, as he did for the next six campaigns. At 60-22, the Knicks had the best record in the NBA in 1969–70
, the year they won their first NBA Championship. New York reached the NBA Finals
twice in the next three years, winning another title in 1973. During that era the Knicks boasted one of the most storied starting fives in history in Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, and Dick Barnett (later replaced by Earl Monroe).
Irish stepped down from his position with the Knicks in 1974. During his 40-year association with Madison Square Garden he served as the acting president, basketball director, executive vice president, and president of the Knicks, and was a member of the corporation's board of directors. While in retirement he once remarked that he still followed basketball but that it was not the same game as the one he knew. Irish died of a heart attack on January 21, 1982, at the age of 76.
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
promoter and one of the key figures in popularizing professional basketball. He was the president of the New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
from 1946 to 1974. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964.
Biography
A pioneer in the late 1930s in the big-time promotion of college basketball, Ned Irish took the sport from small venues to Madison Square GardenMadison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
. He also founded the New York Knicks
New York Knickerbockers
The New York Knickerbockers were one of the first organized baseball teams which played under a set of rules similar to the game today. The team was founded by Alexander Cartwright, considered one of the original developers of modern baseball....
and assisted in the organization of the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
. For his part in popularizing basketball, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964.
Irish grew up near Lake George
Lake George (town), New York
Lake George is a town in Warren County, New York, USA. The population was 3,578 at the 2000 census. The town is named after the lake, Lake George. Within the town is a village also named Lake George. The town is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area.- History :The lake was...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He had already launched his business career at age 10. Following in his late father's footsteps, he earned money by selling sodas and newspapers and by renting boats. His mother, a practical nurse, then moved the family to Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. As a student at Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School
Erasmus Hall High School
Erasmus Hall Campus High School is a four-year public high school in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, United States operated by the New York City Department of Education....
, Irish covered prep and amateur sports for three New York dailies, managed the school's swimming and tennis teams, was class president, was a member of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity and worked in the school cafeteria.
He then attended the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
as a business major, where he worked for the school paper and edited the monthly literary magazine. To earn money he sold sheet music and organized the university's first student job-placement bureau. While he seemed destined to succeed in a career in business, Irish grew more interested in journalism, working as a reporter for the Philadelphia Record and as a stringer for several New York newspapers.
Journalism won out after he graduated in 1928. Irish went to work at $60 per week for the New York Telegram, one of several daily newspapers in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Always industrious and ambitious, he also took part-time jobs with the National Football League's
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
Information Bureau, and as the New York Giants’
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
public relations director.
Legend has it that an unfortunate occurrence during a basketball game at Manhattan College
Manhattan College
Manhattan College is a Roman Catholic liberal arts college in the Lasallian tradition in New York City, United States. Despite the college's name, it is no longer located in Manhattan but in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, roughly 10 miles north of Midtown. Manhattan College offers...
in 1933 led Irish to come up with the idea that college basketball was ready for the big time. When he arrived to cover the game, it was sold out and the doors were locked. But Irish had a job to do, so he found an open window in the office of the athletic department and wriggled through it, ripping the pants of his best suit. The predicament started him thinking about the moneymaking potential in using a larger venue for college basketball games.
"Anytime there was a big college game, you had to fight your way into the building," Irish recalled. "I realized that basketball had outgrown these gyms."
In the spring of 1934 Irish attempted to set up a game between New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and the City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
at Madison Square Garden, but the Garden couldn’t find an opening on such short notice, and the deal fell through. Later that year, however, Irish succeeded in securing a date for a doubleheader. On December 29, 1934, 16,180 fans roared their approval as they watched NYU beat Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, 25-18, and Westminster
Westminster College, Pennsylvania
Westminster College is a liberal arts college located in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1852, it is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church...
defeat St. John's, 37-33. College basketball was changed forever.
"The time just seemed right," Irish said. "There was a lot of interest then in the colleges. It was very successful from the start."
Irish's life was changed, too. In his first event at the Garden he earned the equivalent of six months’ pay at the newspaper. He promptly quit his reporting job to devote all his energies to promoting basketball. Irish didn’t have to put any money up front—hit hard by the Depression, the Garden was eager for new business, and all it asked of Irish was a fee of $4,000 per night, which he easily met.
During the 1935–36 season Irish arranged eight doubleheaders that attracted just under 100,000 fans and brought in a tidy profit for himself and the Garden, with enough left over for the colleges to make it worth their while.
The arrangement was profitable enough for Irish to invite top teams from across the country to compete. Schools with ambitious athletic programs clamored for the chance to show off their teams in front of larger audiences and to make a small profit. Some schools bristled at Irish's take-it-or-leave-it attitude, as he dictated the dates when games would be played and the amount of money schools would earn. But national interest in college basketball was soaring, and Madison Square Garden quickly turned into a mecca of the sport.
Irish's position as the arbiter of the Garden gave him tremendous power in the world of college basketball. Many college officials, sportswriters, and others considered him cold, gruff, and arrogant. It was said that he had few casual friends, although several people who knew him claimed he was a warm person once he dropped the tough facade. In 1974 Red Auerbach
Red Auerbach
Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach was an American basketball coach of the Washington Capitols, the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and the Boston Celtics. After he retired from coaching, he served as president and front office executive of the Celtics until his death...
said, "What I liked about Ned was his directness, his honesty and integrity. If he had something to say to you, he said it. He didn’t talk behind your back."
Under Irish's command, intersectional basketball contests at the Garden soon evolved into a national tournament to determine the best college teams in the country. Irish had a hand in the development of the National Invitation Tournament
National Invitation Tournament
The National Invitation Tournament is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. There are two NIT events each season. The first, played in November and known as the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off , was founded in 1985...
, first held at the end of the 1937–38 season.
By 1946 college games at the Garden drew an average of 18,196 fans. Some of those fans were gamblers, however, which led to the infamous 1951 game-fixing scandal. The fiasco involved at least six colleges, four of them in New York City, and 33 players. Twenty-one players admitted in court to having "dumped" games—intentionally causing their teams to lose in exchange for money. Some were sentenced to prison, and the careers of several college coaches were destroyed. According to Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
, New York District Attorney Frank Hogan
Frank Hogan
Frank Smithwick Hogan was an American lawyer and politician from New York. Dubbed "Mr. Integrity" due to his perceived honesty and incorruptibility, he was D.A. of New York County for more than 30 years.-Life and career:...
reported that underlying the scandal "was the blatant commercialism which had permeated college basketball."
Of course, the main promoter of commercialized basketball was Irish, who distanced himself from the scandal in a manner that angered many observers. Irish said that he didn't believe that the open presence of gamblers at the Garden contributed to game fixing. He thought the blame should be directed only at players and coaches. Irish even accused the district attorney of timing his busts for maximum political leverage.
In 1946 Irish helped found the 11-team Basketball Association of America
Basketball Association of America
The Basketball Association of America was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. The league merged with the National Basketball League in 1949, forming the National Basketball Association ...
. Three years later the circuit merged with the National Basketball League
National Basketball League (United States)
Founded in 1937, the National Basketball League, often abbreviated to NBL, was a professional men's basketball league in the United States. The league would later merge with the Basketball Association of America to form the National Basketball Association in 1949.- League history :The...
to form the National Basketball Association. Irish was a hard-nosed negotiator in the proceedings, insisting that home teams retain all gate proceeds. This, of course, was perfect for large venues like the Garden, which took in big profits, but teams with smaller arenas were at a disadvantage. Since then, several attempts at a more democratic sharing of profits have been made, but none have ever been ratified.
Almost 30 years later, Irish was also instrumental in the ABA-NBA merger
ABA-NBA merger
The ABA–NBA merger was the merger of the American Basketball Association with the National Basketball Association, which after multiple attempts over several years finally occurred in 1976.- Origins of ABA-NBA competition :...
that brought the American Basketball Association
American Basketball Association
The American Basketball Association was a professional basketball league founded in 1967. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger in 1976.-League history:...
into the NBA. Seven years before the actual merger took place, he argued that having rival leagues made no financial sense and that teams would begin to go bankrupt. His words turned out to be prophetic.
When the BAA was created in 1946, Irish strong-armed his way to ownership of the New York franchise, the New York Knicks. With the Garden backing him, Irish claimed he represented a corporation with $3.5 million in assets. According to Sports Illustrated, when his other competitor for the franchise, Max Kase
Max Kase
Max Kase was an American newspaper writer and editor. He worked for the Hearst newspapers from 1917 to 1966 and was the sports editor of the New York Journal-American from 1938 to 1966. In 1946, he was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the New York Knicks and the Basketball...
, a New York newsman, was making his pitch to the other league representatives, Irish would interject from time to time, "Three and a half million."
Irish won out, but he also won acrimony from other team owners who resented his big-money approach. During the negotiations it was said that Irish threatened to pull out of the league if things didn’t go his way. "The way college basketball draws," he told Sports Illustrated in 1961, "the Knicks are nothing but a tax write-off anyway."
Irish became executive vice president of the Knicks, a position he held from 1946 to 1974. Once he had acquired the franchise, Irish went about making sure the Knicks were winners. His first move was to hire Joe Lapchick
Joe Lapchick
Joseph Bohomiel Lapchick was a professional basketball player, mostly known for playing with the Original Celtics in the 1920s and 30s. He is commonly regarded as the best center of his era, overshadowed in his later years only by Tarzan Cooper...
, the successful coach at St. John's, to run the team. In 1949 Irish convinced the other team owners to allow him to break league regulations by having two highly touted college players, Vince Boryla
Vince Boryla
Vincent Joseph Boryla is a retired American basketball player, coach, and executive. His nickname was "Moose". He graduated from East Chicago Washington High School in 1944. He played basketball at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Denver...
and Ernie Vandeweghe
Ernie Vandeweghe
Ernest Maurice "Ernie" Vandeweghe Jr. is a physician, a United States Air Force veteran and a retired professional basketball player. He is best known for playing for the New York Knicks of the NBA and for the athletic successes of his family...
.
He also signed Harry Gallatin, a much-coveted forward from Northeast Missouri State Teachers College. The only trouble was that Gallatin had finished only two years of college and so was not eligible to play professional ball under the rules at the time. No matter — Irish wanted him, and Irish got him. He also acquired Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton from the Harlem Globetrotters
Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism, theater and comedy. The executive offices for the team are currently in downtown Phoenix, Arizona; the team is owned by Shamrock Holdings, which oversees the various investments of the Roy E. Disney family.Over...
in 1950.
For the first nine years that Irish ran the club, New York had winning seasons, including a 47-23 record in 1952–53
1952-53 NBA season
The 1952–53 NBA Season was the 7th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Minneapolis Lakers winning the NBA Championship, beating the New York Knicks 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals.- Notable occurrences :...
, and the team made the playoffs every year until 1955. But from 1955 to 1966 the Knicks saw postseason action only once, losing in the first round in 1959 under Coach Andrew "Fuzzy" Levane
Andrew Levane
Andrew Joseph Levane is a former basketball player and coach. A 6'2" guard, he played collegiately at St. John's University. He spent three years in the NBA and its predecessor league, the Basketball Association of America, playing for the Rochester Royals, the Syracuse Nationals and the...
. The team had a woeful record during most of the 1960s, bottoming out at 21-59 in 1962–63
1962-63 NBA season
The 1962–63 NBA season was the 17th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Boston Celtics winning their 5th straight NBA Championship, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals.- History :...
.
Things changed for the better when Irish brought in William "Red" Holzman
Red Holzman
William "Red" Holzman was an NBA basketball player and coach probably best known as the head coach of the New York Knicks from 1967 to 1982. Holzman helped lead the Knicks to two NBA Championships in 1970 and 1973, and was elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1985...
midway through the 1967–68 season
1967-68 NBA season
The 1967–68 NBA season was the 22nd season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Championship, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals.- Notable occurrences :...
. Holzman made an immediate impact, leading the team to a winning season, its first in nine years, as he did for the next six campaigns. At 60-22, the Knicks had the best record in the NBA in 1969–70
1969-70 NBA season
The 1969–70 NBA Season was the 24th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the New York Knicks winning the NBA Championship, beating the Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals.-Notable occurrences:...
, the year they won their first NBA Championship. New York reached the NBA Finals
NBA Finals
The NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association . The series was named the NBA World Championship Series until 1986....
twice in the next three years, winning another title in 1973. During that era the Knicks boasted one of the most storied starting fives in history in Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, and Dick Barnett (later replaced by Earl Monroe).
Irish stepped down from his position with the Knicks in 1974. During his 40-year association with Madison Square Garden he served as the acting president, basketball director, executive vice president, and president of the Knicks, and was a member of the corporation's board of directors. While in retirement he once remarked that he still followed basketball but that it was not the same game as the one he knew. Irish died of a heart attack on January 21, 1982, at the age of 76.