Father Knickerbocker Debuts at the Garden

Ten days after winning the very first regular season NBA (or BAA) contest ever played, at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens, the New York Knicks hosted their inaugural home game at Madison Square Garden on November 11, 1946. Ned Irish, the club’s founder, pulled out all the stops with a cornucopia of pre-game and halftime festivities. For instance, Charley Rosen describes “a parade of models wearing the latest in fur fashions” in his illuminating book The First Tip-Off. Below is the program and enclosed scorecard from that momentous occasion. The elderly, colonial Dutch figure gracing the cover is none other than Father Knickerbocker – the team’s mascot and a symbol long embodying the spirt of Gotham.

The cover of the program from the New York Knicks' first ever home game, at Madison Square Garden

The scorecard from the New York Knicks first ever home game