December 1, 1924: The NHL's 1st American Team

December 1, 1924: The National Hockey League's 2 new expansion teams debut against each other, at what was then named the Boston Arena. The Boston Bruins defeat the Montreal Maroons, 2-1.

Frank Ryan, a sportswriter for the Boston Traveler newspaper, announced the game on Boston radio station WBZ. He remained the Bruins' main radio announcer, and the team's publicity director, until 1952.

Chuck Dinsmore opened the scoring, tallying for the Maroons 9 minutes into the game. Thomas "Smokey" Harris tied it with the 1st-ever Bruins goal, 3:30 into the 2nd period. And Carson Cooper scored the winning goal, 9:50 into the 3rd period.

The Bruins were the 1st American-based team in the NHL. Their owner was Charles Francis Adams. Despite his name and his location, he was not related to the family that produced 2 Presidents and 2 other notable politicians named Charles Francis Adams. This one owned the First National grocery store chain. Its colors, brown and gold, would be given to the Bruins, who later switched to black and gold.

Adams would also have part-ownership of baseball's Boston Braves, and full ownership of Boston's Suffolk Downs racetrack, which opened in 1935. He died in 1947, and baseball team owner Bill Veeck would own the track from 1968 to 1971. It closed in 2019, and has been torn down to make way for apartments.

Although Jack Adams, the longtime head coach and general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, is the namesake of the NHL's coach of the year trophy, the NHL's Adams Division, which existed from 1974 to 1993 and included the Bruins, was named for Charles F.

The League's trophy for the leading scorer was named, ironically, for a defenseman, Art Ross, who had starred for the Montreal Wanderers. He was the Bruins' 1st general manager, from 1924 to 1954; and their 1st head coach, from 1924 to 1928, hiring former Ottawa Senators star Cy Denneny as player-coach for the 1928-29 season, which would be the Bruins' 1st Stanley Cup win. Ross coached them again from 1929 to 1934, again from 1936 to 1939, winning another Cup in 1939; and again from 1941 to 1945. The Bruins also won the Cup in 1941, coached by former Bruin Captain Ralph "Cooney" Weiland.

Among American teams, the Bruins were followed in 1925 by the Pittsburgh Pirates, who became the Philadelphia Quakers in 1930 and folded in 1931; also in 1925 by the New York Americans, who folded in 1942; and in 1926 by 3 teams still in existence: The New York Rangers, the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks.

The Ottawa Senators became the St. Louis Eagles in 1934, and folded a year later. The Maroons folded in 1938. And the folding of the Amerks left the NHL with what has erroneously been called "The Original Six": The Montreal Canadiens, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Bruins, the Rangers, the Red Wings, and the Blackhawks. (In 1986, the Chicago team's original charter was found, and it was discovered they were officially registered with the League as the "Blackhawks." The League office was notified, and it's officially been one word ever since.)

The Boston Arena still stands, under the name Matthews Arena, home to Northeastern University sports. Built in 1910, it is the oldest standing facility used by any hockey team, anywhere in the world. The Bruins moved to the Boston Garden in 1928, and to its adjacent replacement, now named the TD Garden, in 1995.

Their legends have included Eddie Shore, Dit Clapper, Milt Schmidt, Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ray Bourque and Zdeno Chara. They've reached the Stanley Cup Finals 20 times, winning the Cup in 1929, 1939, 1941, 1970, 1972 and 2011.

UPDATE: Due to concerns over structural integrity, in May 2024, Northeastern University filed a letter of intent to the Boston city government to demolish Matthews Arena, and to construct a new multi-purpose athletics facility on the site.

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December 1, 1924 was a Monday. This was the only game scheduled in the NHL that day. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. And the NBA hadn't been founded yet. So there were no other scores on this historic day.

November 5, 1946: Rifleman 1, Backboard 0

November 5, 1946: The Boston Celtics play their 1st home game, at the Boston Garden. Only 4,329 fans attend, and it's delayed for an hour, because a Celtic player damaged a wooden backboard with a dunk during warmups. A new backboard was brought in from the Boston Arena (now Matthews Arena, home court and ice of Northeastern University). The Celtics lose 57-55 to the Chicago Stags.

The Stags, and the original NBA teams of Washington, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and St. Louis, would quickly fail. The Celtics might have as well, had their owner, Walter Brown, not also owned the Garden, the NHL's Bruins, and the Ice Capades. He was able to keep the team going long enough to hire Red Auerbach as head coach, and the rest is history.

Oh, the player who became the 1st NBA player to break a backboard? A 6-foot-5 25-year-old Brooklynite who played at New Jersey's Seton Hall University. He went on to play 1 game for his hometown Dodgers in 1949, coming to bat once as a pinch-hitter, never playing the field for them. He then got traded to the Chicago Cubs, and played 66 games at 1st base for them in the 1951 season.

The Cubs' top farm team at the time was the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. While playing in L.A., this athlete found off-season work as a stuntman, and, like John Wayne, moved from stunts to acting, mostly in Westerns. His name was Chuck Connors, famed for his portrayal of Lucas McCain, the lead character of The Rifleman; and as Jason McCord, the lead in Branded. He died in 1992, at age 71.

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November 5, 1946 was a Tuesday. One other BAA (NBA) game was played that day: The St. Louis Bombers beat the Detroit Falcons, 53-49 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. This was the only score on this historic day: Baseball was out of season, football was in midweek, and while the NHL season had started, no games were scheduled for this day.

This was also an election day. The Republican Party won control of both houses of the U.S. Congress. Among the new members of the U.S. House of Representatives were Democrat John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Republican Richard Nixon of California.

Among the new Senators were Republicans Joseph R. McCarthy of Wiscoinson, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. of Massachusetts (grandson of a Senator of the same name), and John Bricker of Ohio (former Governor and the Party's 1944 nominee for Vice President); and Democrat Willis Robertson of Virginia (father of future TV evangelist Pat Robertson).

April 7, 1927: The 1st American Demonstration of Television

April 7, 1927: An audience comprising several dozen newspaper reporters and officials of Bell Telephone Laboratories gathered in New York City to witness the 1st American demonstration of television.

The live picture and voice of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce were transmitted over telephone lines from Washington, D.C., more than 200 miles north to an auditorium in Midtown Manhattan.

"Today we have, in a sense, the transmission of sight for the first time in the world's history," he said, as he looked into a small black box and spoke into a telephone mouthpiece. "Human genius has now destroyed the impediment of distance in a new respect, and in a manner hitherto unknown."

Although the audio portion was two-way, only those in New York were able to see him on a rectangular television screen measuring approximately 2 by 2.5 inches as he spoke to Walter S. Gifford, president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T).

The Secretary of Commerce would run for President in 1928, but his television appearance had no effect on the race. His name was Herbert Hoover. It would be 1939 before a sitting President would appear on television: Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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April 7, 1927 was a Thursday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. But there was 1 score on this historic day. Unfortunately, it was 0-0: In Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, the Boston Bruins and the Ottawa Senators played the entire 60-minute game, plus a 20-minute overtime period, without scoring any goals, at the Boston Arena.

Under the format of the time, it was a best-2-out-of-3 series, and there would be 2 ties before the Senators won in Game 4 on April 13, concluding a glory period of 4 Cups in 8 seasons.

The Boston Arena still stands, as the Matthews Arena of Northeastern University. Built in 1910, it is the oldest continuously used building for hockey in the world.