December 29, 1934: The 1st Madison Square Garden Doubleheader

December 29, 1934: Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan hosts its 1st college basketball doubleheader. It was set up by Edward S. "Ned" Irish, then head of promotions for The Garden.

Irish, then 29 years old and a native of Brooklyn, had covered Manhattan College basketball games for the New York World-Telegram, and saw that their games, especially against other teams in New York City, had more demand than the seats had supply. So he quit his job to become promotions director for The Garden, whose current version, built in 1925, was between 49th and 50th Streets, and 8th and 9th Avenues.

Ned Irish

For the 1st doubleheader, each game featured a New York City-based team vs. one from outside the city. In the 1st game, New York University, of Manhattan, beat the University of Notre Dame, of South Bend, Indiana, 25-18. NYU would finish the 1934-35 season 19-1, and were recognized as National Champions. In the 2nd game, St. John's University, of Queens, lost to Westminster College, of New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, 37-33.

If those scores seem low to you, consider the state of the sport at the time: It was almost all slow, skinny white guys; there was no shot clock; and, until 1938, there was a center jump after every basket. In other words, what would become known as the fast break was not only difficult, it was completely impractical.

A crowd of 16,138 attended, then the largest crowd ever to pay to see a basketball game, at any level, marking the experiment as a success. Another doubleheader was set up for a week later, on January 5, 1935. NYU beat Kentucky, 23-22, before a new record high, 16,539.

Though defeated, Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp liked the idea so much that he suggested that there should be a national college basketball tournament. That was such a good idea that, by the end of the decade, there were 2: The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) started in 1938, the 1st one won by Temple University of Philadelphia; and the NCAA Tournament started in 1939, the 1st one won by the University of Oregon.

After the 1934-35 season, being invited to play in a "Garden doubleheader" was a sign that a school had made the big time. Already known as "The Mecca of Boxing," The Garden became known as "The Mecca of Basketball."

But the point-shaving scandal of 1951 crippled New York City basketball, with only St. John's among the City's schools emerging unscathed. After that, the pro game became more popular, with Ned Irish becoming the founding owner of the New York Knicks. The event that opened the new Garden in 1968 was a doubleheader. Dave DeBusschere scored the new Garden's 1st basket -- not for the Knicks, but for the Detroit Pistons in the 1st game of the doubleheader.

In 1959, Irish sold the Knicks to Irving Felt, but remained team president. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964. In 1968, he and Felt moved the Knicks into the current Madison Square Garden, between 31st and 33rd Streets, and 7th and 8th Avenues. He retired as team president in 1974, and died in 1982.

The event that opened the new Garden in 1968 was a doubleheader. Dave DeBusschere scored the new Garden's 1st basket -- not for the Knicks, but for the Detroit Pistons, in the 1st game of the doubleheader.

*

December 29, 1934 was a Saturday. ABC News reporter Tom Jarriel was born on this day.

The NBA hadn't been founded yet. Baseball was in the off-season. No college football games were played that day, as there were, as yet very few bowl games. The NFL season had ended 20 days earlier, with the New York Giants beating the Chicago Bears in the Championship Game.

There were 2 games played in the NHL: The New York Americans beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum. and the Montreal Maroons beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

And in English soccer, Arsenal and Hampshire team Portsmouth played to a 1-1 draw at Highbury in North London.

October 17, 1931: Al Capone Convicted

October 17, 1931: Al Capone, America's most famous criminal boss, is convicted of 5 counts of income tax evasion in federal court in Chicago. After 6 years as America's boss of all bosses, having half the Chicago Police Department on his payroll, and having as many admirers as opponents, he is sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.

He ended up serving 8 years, first at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, and then at Alcatraz when it opened in San Francisco Bay in 1934. But he was afflicted with neurosyphilis, and was released into the custody of his family in Miami, after a doctor determined that he had the mental capacity of a 12-year-old. He died in 1947.

Despite the best efforts of Hollywood -- the gangster movies starring James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson that began even before Capone's conviction, and the Godfather movies of the 1970s -- it would take until the rise of John Gotti in New York in the mid-1980s for a real-life gangster to replace Capone as the defining figure in American organized crime.

And it would take until Michael Jordan started winning NBA Championships in 1991 for anyone to replace Capone as the first person anyone thought of when they thought of Chicago. Even Ernie Banks, Bobby Hull and Walter Payton couldn't do that.

Incidentally, if you've heard the song "The Night Chicago Died," which the British band Paper Lace took to Number 1 in 1974, the song is full of crap. There was never a shootout between Al Capone's men and the police. It was unnecessary: Half the CPD was on Capone's payroll. It was how they were able to get uniforms to impersonate policemen and pull off the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929. Also, there's no East Side of Chicago: That would be Lake Michigan. And if the singer was a kid in 1929, then, in 1974, he was a man in his 50s telling this story to kids over the radio.

For the record: Capone never met the other big crime figures of the era, including Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, or John Dillinger, even though Dillinger also operated in Chicago.

In a 2013 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, Capone was played by "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist, while "Nice" Peter Shukoff played Edward Teach, the legendary early 18th Century pirate known as Blackbeard.

*

October 17, 1931 was a Saturday. The World Series had ended a week earlier, with the St. Louis Cardinals defeating the Philadelphia Athletics in a rematch of the previous year's Series. There was no NBA yet. The NHL season wouldn't start until November 12. And although it was not unusual for the NFL to play games on Saturdays at the time, there weren't any played on this day.

There were college football games played. But this was before the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) started ranking college football teams. So I can't tell you who the Number 1-ranked team in the country was, because there wasn't one.

It was the 3rd Saturday in October. In the South, that means the University of Alabama plays the University of Tennessee. In Knoxville, Tennessee won 25-0.

Today, it is hard to imagine Tulane University of New Orleans and Vanderbilt University of Nashville -- if there was a Southern equivalent of the Ivy League, they would both probably be in it -- being football powerhouses. But, at the time, they were. They both came into the week 3-0, and met at Nashville, and Tulane won 19-0.

In the New York Tri-State Area, New York University beat Rutgers 17-0 at Yankee Stadium. Princeton went to Ithaca, New York and lost to Cornell, 33-0. Columbia hosted Dartmouth at Baker Field, and won 19-6. And Fordham "hosted" Holy Cross at the Polo Grounds, and the game ended in a 6-6 tie.

Also, Arsenal drew with Bolton Wanderers, 1-1 at Highbury in North London.