SPORTS LEGEND: The Celtics were once forced to play a game at midnight due to the Ice Capades!

Sometimes, it is interesting to note just how “current” of a phenomenon that professional basketball is. It is only a little over sixty years old. And only since the 1980s has it been a MAJOR sport, attention-wise. During the early years of the National Basketball Association, things were a lot different.

Walter A. Brown took over the management of the Boston Garden from his father in the late 1930s. The Boston Garden was originally developed as a boxing forum, but by the time Brown took over, their main tenants were the Boston Bruins. Brown was a huge fan of ice hockey, and had actually coached the US National team to a Gold Medal in the Ice Hockey World Championships in 1933.

After taking over the Garden, Brown became a bit obsessed with figuring out other uses for the space, and in 1940, he came across one, as Brown and a group of eight other Stadium owners known as the Arena Managers Association created the Ice Capades, the popular ice skating/vaudeville show (based on the popularity of the similar-themed Ice Follies).

Those stadiums and owners were (in alphabetical order by name of city):

Buffalo Memorial Auditorium (Louis Jacobs)
Cleveland Arena (Al Sutphin)
Hershey Sports Arena (John Sollenberger)
New Haven Arena (Nathan Podoloff)
Philadelphia Arena (Peter A. Tyrrell)
Pittsburgh Gardens (John Harris)
Rhode Island Auditorium (Louis Pieri)
Springfield Coliseum (Eddie Shore)

After a few years, the group would team up with the Ice Follies to create so-called “Ice Cycles,” which they would farm out to other cities needing something to fill their stadiums. Eventually, by the end of the 1940s, these touring companies would be known as the Ice Capades.

In 1946, while still looking for another use for the Garden, Brown helped create the second professional basketball league, the Basketball Association of America, of which Brown’s new basketball team, the Boston Celtics, would be a part of. The BAA soon merged with another earlier pro basketball league to form the National Basketball Association in 1949.

In 1951, Brown bought the Bruins, as well.

In 1952, the NBA was not that popular, and Brown was losing money every season with the Celtics, but he was committed to the team, and kept it alive out of his own pocket for many years. Meanwhile, the Ice Capades were going strong all over the country. Brown actually kept the team afloat by selling off some of his Ice Capades stock and constantly re-mortgaging his property. At this point, his interests were directly tied in with the Celtics – they HAD to succeed or he was going to go bust.

In 1952, his two interest co-mingled when Brown accidentally booked the Ice Capades on a day that the Celtics were due to play a home game.

So the enterprising Brown came up with a plan – the Celtics would play at midnight after the Ice Capades were done! They called it the “Milkman’s Special”!

Sadly, the Celtics, led by the great Bob Cousy, drew less than 3,000 fans to the midnight special.

Later in the decade, though, with the advent of televising games, the Celtics began to draw more and more fans and by the end of the decade (coupled with the advent of the 24 second shot clock), Brown’s gambit had paid off, and in the next decade, it would REALLY pay off!

So…

STATUS: True

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