Trish Bares Basketball Profits

iTestifies He Got 10 P.

Net From Collegiate Games.

Ned Irish, acting president of the Madison Square
Garden Corporation and promoter of basketball at the
Garden since 1934, admitted before Judge Leibowitz of
Kings county today that his scheduling of basketball at
the sports arena was primarily to make money for him-
self, but emphasized that in addition he was interested
in presenting college basketball under better conditions
and where it could be attended by large numbers of fans.

Irish, who allegedly supplied.
the police’early last fall with a
list of - professional gamblers
‘whom he wished kept away from
the Garden, was the day’s first
witness at the resumption of the
Brooklyn inquiry into gambling
and its relation to college bas-
ketball in New York. The

investigation was prompted by

the disclosure weeks ago that five
former members of the Brooklyn
College basketball team had ac-
cepted a bribe to throw a game
which Brooklyn College was
scheduled to play in Boston
against Akron University.

Irish declined to say to what} -

extent he had profited out of col-
lege basketball at the Garden,
and with respect to the general
financial arrangements for
basketball games there said that
it was not a case of the colleges
getting stipulated percentages
for sending teams there,. but of
the Garden getting a stated per-
centage.

The Garden executive said he
was graduated from the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania in 1928 and
that while there he was a college
sports writer for a Philadelphia
newspaper. On his graduation he
continued as a sports writer for a
New York newspaper until 1934
when he persuaded Garden of-
ficials. to allow him to introduce
basketball there.

Tells of Profits From Games.

“T realized and knew,” he said,

“that conditions, both in the local
gymnasiums and armories, were
very poor for the playing of bas-
ketball. The capacity of these
places was inadequate, the light-
ing poor and the attendance at
games beyond anything they
could handle. Only in the case of
Fordham University was the

asium nearly adequate to
fone the attendance. Also, the
gymnasium of Columbia Univer-
sity came close to being ne
quate.”

SPORT

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