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BASKETBALL HAS GROWN UP

By Maurice Rosenwald

|) eerie tteas has come a long way since Dr.

Naismith struggled with the gymnasium class
problem on the shores of Lake Massasoit, and the
Y.M.C.A.’s, the colleges and high schools have
had a tremendous part in its growth, but it must
not be lost sight of that the professional players,
almost since the game’s inception, had a great part
in its growth.

Away back in 1905, E Company of Schenectady
won the world’s championship in Kansas City.
There were the famous Buffalo Germans, the first
team to travel from coast to coast, winning some
108 games, although in some of the towns they had
to pick five men and tell them what to do; the
Twenty-third Street Y.M.C:A. with Wendelken,
center, Shields and Eberlein, forwards, Reed and
Deitrich, guards, which won the A.A.U. champion-
ship in the early 90’s, then joined the National
Basketball League as the Y Wanderers and won the
National Championship three years running; and
other teams in the Eastern, Interstate and Hudson
River and other leagues, and, of course, coming
down to a much later date, the New York Whirl-
winds from the lower East Side settlement houses
and the Original Celtics from the settlement houses
of the lower West Side.

The Whirlwinds, composed of Barney Sedran,
Marty Friedman, Chris Leonard, Nat Holman and
Harry Riconda, were possibly the only team of that
day that could have beaten the Original Celtics at
their best in a series, but the teams met only twice,
each winning one game. The third game was never

played and the next year Nat Holman, even then °

coach of City College of New York, and
Chris Leonard came to the Original Celtics, where
with John Beckman, John Whitty, Ernie Reich, Joe
Lapchick, Dutch Dehnert, Davy Banks, Horse Hag-
gerty, Pete Barry, Ed Burke, at various times they
made basketball history.. Their longest winning
streak was 93 games. They won 741 games and

have never wavered.

 

No man with the possible exception of Dr. James
Naismith has done so much for the well-being
of basketball, for its development and improve-
ment as George T. Hepbron (left). Mr. Hepbron
edited the Spalding Baskeball Guide four decades
ago, and his interest and helpfulness in basketball

For almost half a ceritury John Doyle (right) has
been one of the most constructive figures in Amer-
ican athletic life. Basketball, as well as ‘other
sports, owes a great deal to his wisdom and his
intelligent service.

lost but 70 in the space of seven years that the
writer was connected with them. They played over
100 games in old and new Madison Square Garden
and lost but one game, that to the Kingston
Colonials. They played in dance halls, in renovated
barns and in the finest of auditoriums. Until Ned
Irish came along with his college basketball double-
headers, the Original Celtics held the record for at-
tendance, with 22,000 in the Cleveland, Ohio, au-
ditorium, playing afternoon and evening.

The Celtics could spot any team in the country
ten points and beat them, barring floods, strikes
and accidents. They would play in Cleveland on a
Friday night, in Brooklyn on a Saturday night, in
Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon and in Madison
Square Garden on Sunday night. They were the
first basketball team ever to be put under contract
to play with the Celtics and the Celtics only. Prior
to that, one might run up against the same player
in the Interstate, the Eastern, the Hudson River, or
any one of a dozen different leagues, or teams. Un-
der the managerial wing of Jimmie Furey and
Johnny Whitty, the Original Celtics won the cham-
pionship in every league in which they competed.
They were never beaten in a series by any team,
and after they left the American Basketball League,
they traveled all over the United States giving ex-
hibitions, and still do.

The pivot play was developed by the Celtics,
composed then of Dutch Dehnert in the pivot,
Chris Leonard at the other guard, Joe Lapchick in
center and those two masters of the forward court,
Nat Holman and John Beckman. These five were
the best Celtic team. They could play any position
and did in the course of the game.

Today, of the old Original Celtics only Davey
Banks is left, and as he says, “We give them a
show.” The old Celtics gave them a show, too, but
they gave the populace and the teams they played
against a basketball education also.