Madison Square Garden (1925)
Madison Square Garden was an indoor arena in New York City, the third bearing that name. It was built in 1925 and closed in 1968, was located on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets in Manhattan, on the site of the city's trolley-car barns, it was on the west side of Eighth Avenue. It was the first Garden, not located near Madison Square. MSG III was the home of the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League and the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association, hosted numerous boxing matches, the Millrose Games and other events. Ground breaking on the third Madison Square Garden took place on January 9, 1925. Designed by the noted theater architect Thomas W. Lamb, it was built at the cost of $4.75 million in 249 days by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who assembled backers he called his "600 millionaires" to fund the project. The new arena was dubbed "The House That Tex Built." In contrast to the ornate towers of Stanford White's second Garden, the exterior of MSG III was a simple box.
Its most distinctive feature was the ornate marquee above the main entrance, with its endless abbreviations Even the name of the arena was abbreviated, to "Madison Sq. Garden"; the arena, which opened on December 15, 1925, was 200 feet by 375 feet, with seating on three levels, a maximum capacity of 18,496 spectators for boxing. It had poor sight lines for hockey, fans sitting anywhere behind the first row of the side balcony could count on having some portion of the ice obstructed; the fact that there was poor ventilation and that smoking was permitted led to a haze in the upper portions of the Garden. In its history, Madison Square Garden III was managed by Rickard, John S. Hammond, William F. Carey, General John Reed Kilpatrick, Ned Irish and Irving Mitchell Felt, it was replaced by the current Madison Square Garden. Boxing was Madison Square Garden III's principal claim to fame; the first bout took place on December 1925, a week before the arena's official opening. On January 17, 1941, 23,190 people witnessed Fritzie Zivic's successful welterweight title defense against Henry Armstrong, still the largest crowd for any of the Gardens.
The New York Rangers, owned by the Garden's owner Tex Rickard, got their name from a play on words involving his name: Tex's Rangers. However, the Rangers were not the first NHL team to play at the Garden; the Rangers were founded in 1926, playing their first game in the Garden on November 16, 1926, both teams played at the Garden until the Americans suspended operations in 1942 due to World War II. In the meantime, the Rangers had usurped the Americans' commercial success with their own success on the ice, winning three Stanley Cups between 1928 and 1940; the refusal of the Garden's management to allow the resurrection of the Americans after the war was one of the popular theories underlying the Curse of 1940, which prevented the Rangers from winning the Stanley Cup again until 1994. Another alleged cause of "The Curse" stemmed from then-manager Kilpatrick burning the Garden's mortgage papers in the bowl of the Stanley Cup, as receipts from the 1940 Cup run had allowed the MSG Corporation to pay it off: hockey purists believed that the trophy had been "defiled", thus leading to the Rangers' woes.
The New York Rovers, a farm team of the Rangers played in the Garden on Sunday afternoons, while the Rangers played on Wednesday and Sunday nights. Tommy Lockhart managed the Rovers games and introduced on-ice promotions such as racing model aircraft and bicycles around the arena, figure skating acts Shipstads & Johnson Ice Follies and Sonja Henie, a skating grizzly bear; the first professional basketball game was played in the 50th Street Garden on December 6, 1925, nine days before the arena opened. It pitted the Original Celtics against the Washington Palace Five; the New York Knicks debuted there in 1946, although if there was an important college game, they played in the 69th Regiment Armory. MSG III hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 1954, 1955 and 1968. In 1931, a college basketball triple header to raise money for Mayor Jimmy Walker's Unemployment Relief Fund was successful. In 1934, Ned Irish began promoting a successful series of college basketball double headers at the Garden featuring a mix of local and national schools.
MSG III began hosting the National Invitation Tournament annually in 1938, hosted seven NCAA men's basketball championship finals between 1943 and 1950. On February 28, 1940, Madison Square Garden hosted the first televised basketball games in a Fordham-Pitt and Georgetown-NYU doubleheader. A point shaving scandal involving games played at the Garden led the NCAA to reduce its use of the Garden, caused some schools, including 1950 NCAA and NIT Champion City College of New York, to be banned from playing at the Garden. Capitol Wrestling Corporation—along with its successor, the World Wide Wrestling Federation—promoted professional wrestling at the Garden during its last two decades. Toots Mondt and Jess McMahon owned CWC, which promoted tag team wrestling. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Mondt and McMahon were successful at promoting ethnic heroes of Puerto Rican or Italian descent. Two notable events in wrestling history took place at MSG III. On May 17, 1963, Bruno Sammartino defeated "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers, via submission, in 48 seconds, to become the second WWWF World Heavyweight Champion.
On November 19, 1957, the Dr. Jerry Graham & Dic
South Amboy, New Jersey
South Amboy is a suburban city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, on the Raritan Bay. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 8,631, reflecting an increase of 718 from the 7,913 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 50 from the 7,863 counted in the 1990 Census. South Amboy and Perth Amboy, across the Raritan River, are collectively referred to as The Amboys. Signage for exit 11 on the New Jersey Turnpike refers to "The Amboys" as a destination; the area around Perth Amboy was called "Ompoge" by Lenape Native Americans and became a key port for commerce between Lower New York Bay and Philadelphia, connected first by stagecoach and by railroad. When settled in 1684, the city was named New Perth in honor of James Drummond, Earl of Perth, one of the associates of a company of Scottish proprietaries; the Algonquian language name was corrupted to Ambo, or Point Amboy, a combination of the native and colonial names was used. South Amboy has passed through three of the five types of New Jersey municipalities.
It was first mentioned on May 28, 1782, in minutes of the Board of chosen freeholders as having been formed from Perth Amboy Township. It was formally incorporated as a township by the Township Act of 1798 on February 21, 1798. Over the next 90 years, portions split off to form Monroe Township, Madison Township and Sayreville Township; as of February 25, 1888, South Amboy borough was formed. On April 11, 1908, South Amboy was incorporated as a city, replacing South Amboy borough, confirmed by a referendum held on July 21, 1908. South Amboy's strategic location as a transportation hub acted to its detriment in 1918 and 1950, when the town was damaged by military explosives; the 1918 explosions occurred during World War I at the Gillespie Shell Loading Plant, just south of the town. The 1950 explosions struck as Healing Lighterage Company dockworkers were transferring ammunition from a freight train onto barges. Both disasters killed dozens and injured hundreds of local victims, damaged hundreds of South Amboy buildings, required emergency declarations of martial law, scattered wide areas of ammunition remnants that continue to surface occasionally.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total area of 2.694 square miles, including 1.548 square miles of land and 1.146 square miles of water. South Amboy is bordered by land with Sayreville to the south and west, by Perth Amboy to the north, Staten Island to the east. Area codes 732 and 848 are used in South Amboy; the city had been in Area code 908, until January 1, 1997, when 908 was split forming Area code 732. South Amboy has an enclave of apartments near Kohl's in Sayreville, whose residents use a South Amboy mailing address. Mechanicsville and Thomas J. Dohany Homes are unincorporated communities located within South Amboy; as The New York Times said of South Amboy in 2000: "The population mix has not changed much since the beginning of the 20th century, when Irish and Polish immigrants came to work on the three railroads that crisscrossed the city." South Amboy remains a strong enclave of Polish ethnicity, including 21% of its population in the 2000 census, the historic Sacred Heart Church and School.
As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 8,631 people, 3,372 households, 2,255.868 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,577.1 per square mile. There were 3,576 housing units at an average density of 2,310.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 86.42% White, 4.43% Black or African American, 0.10% Native American, 4.03% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 2.99% from other races, 2.03% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13.42% of the population. There were 3,372 households out of which 28.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.8% were married couples living together, 14.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 33.1% were non-families. 26.7% of all households were made up of individuals, 9.6% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 3.11. In the city, the population was spread out with 20.8% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 29.5% from 45 to 64, 11.3% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 39.3 years. For every 100 females there were 96.8 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 93.2 males. The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that median household income was $61,566 and the median family income was $80,815. Males had a median income of $54,000 versus $49,303 for females; the per capita income for the borough was $31,590. About 10.2% of families and 9.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.7% of those under age 18 and 5.5% of those age 65 or over. As of the 2000 United States Census there were 7,913 people, 2,967 households, 2,041 families residing in the city; the population density was 5,102.1 people per square mile. There were 3,110 housing units at an average density of 2,005.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 94.22% White, 0.86% African American, 0.19% Native American, 1.38% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.71% from other races, 1.62% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race we
NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament known and branded as NCAA March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States featuring 68 college basketball teams from the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, to determine the national championship. The tournament was created in 1939 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, was the idea of Ohio State coach Harold Olsen. Played during March, it has become one of the most famous annual sporting events in the United States; the tournament teams include champions from 32 Division I conferences, 36 teams which are awarded at-large berths. These "at-large" teams are chosen by an NCAA selection committee announced in a nationally televised event on the Sunday preceding the "First Four" play-in games held in Dayton and dubbed Selection Sunday; the 68 teams are divided into four regions and organized into a single-elimination "bracket", which pre-determines, when a team wins a game, which team it will face next.
Each team is "seeded", or ranked, within its region from 1 to 16. After the First Four, the tournament occurs during the course of three weekends, at pre-selected neutral sites across the United States. Teams, seeded by rank, proceed through a single-game elimination bracket beginning with a "first four" consisting of 8 low-seeded teams playing in 4 games for a position in the first round the Tuesday and Wednesday before the first round begins, a first round consisting of 64 teams playing in 32 games over the course of a week, the "Sweet Sixteen" and "Elite Eight" rounds the next week and weekend and – for the last weekend of the tournament – the "Final Four" round; the Final Four is played during the first weekend of April. These four teams, one from each region, compete in a preselected location for the national championship; the tournament has been at least televised since 1969. The games are broadcast by CBS, TBS, TNT, truTV under the trade-name NCAA March Madness. Since 2011, all games are available for viewing nationwide and internationally.
As television coverage has grown, so too has the tournament's popularity. Millions of Americans fill out a bracket, attempting to predict the outcome of 63 games of the tournament. With 11 national titles, UCLA has the record for the most NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships; the University of Kentucky is second, with eight national titles. The University of North Carolina is third, with six national titles, Duke University and Indiana University are tied for fourth with five national titles; the University of Connecticut is sixth with four national titles. The University of Kansas & Villanova are tied for 7th with three national titles. Since 1985, when the tournament expanded to 64 teams, Duke has won five championships; the NCAA has changed the tournament format several times since its inception, most being an increase of the number of teams. This section describes the tournament as it has operated since 2011. A total of 68 teams qualify for the tournament played during April. Thirty-two teams earn automatic bids as their respective conference champions.
Of the 32 Division I "all-sports" conferences, all 32 hold championship tournaments to determine which team receives the automatic qualification. The Ivy League was the last Division I conference. If two or more Ivies shared a regular-season championship, a one-game playoff was used to decide the tournament participant. Since 2017, the league conducts their own postseason tournament; the remaining 36 tournament slots are granted to at-large bids, which are determined by the Selection Committee in a nationally televised event on the Sunday preceding the First Four play-in tournament and dubbed Selection Sunday by the media and fans, by a group of conference commissioners and school athletic directors who are appointed into service by the NCAA. The committee determines where all sixty-eight teams are seeded and placed in the bracket; the tournament is divided into four regions and each region has at least sixteen teams, but four additional teams are added per the decision of the Selection Committee.
The committee is charged with making each of the four regions as close as possible in overall quality of teams from wherever they come from. The names of the regions vary from year to year, are broadly geographic. From 1957 to 1984, the "Mideast" corresponding to the Southeastern region of the United States, designation was used. From 1985 to 1997, the Mideast region was known as "Southeast" and again changed to "South" starting from 1998; the selected names correspond to the location of the four cities hosting the regional finals. From 2004 to 2006, the regions were named after their host cities, e.g. the Phoenix Regional in 2004, the Chicago Regional in 2005, the Minneapolis Regional in 2006, but reverted to the traditional geographic designations beginning in 2007. For example, during 2012, the regions were named South, Midwest (St. Louis, Mis
Freedom Hall
Freedom Hall is a multi-purpose arena in Louisville, Kentucky, on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center, owned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is best known for its use as a basketball arena, serving as the home of the University of Louisville Cardinals It has hosted Motley Crue, Elvis Presley, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen and many more; as well as many Weeks events men's team from 1956 to 2010, the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association from 1970 until the ABA-NBA merger in June 1976, the Louisville Cardinals women's team from its inception in 1975 to 2010. Freedom Hall's last regular tenant was the Kentucky Stickhorses of the North American Lacrosse League, who used it from 2011 until the team folded in 2013. From 2015 to 2019 it has hosted the VEX Robotics Competition World Championships yearly in mid-April; the arena lost its status as Kentuckiana's main indoor sporting and concert venue when the downtown KFC Yum! Center opened in 2010, it is still used however, hosting concerts, horse shows and basketball games.
Freedom Hall was completed in 1956 in the newly opened Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center located 5 miles south of Downtown Louisville. It received its name as the result of a statewide essay contest sponsored by the State Fair Board and the American Legion. Charlotte Owens, a senior at DuPont Manual High School, submitted the winning entry over 6,500 others. Designed for the nation's premier equestrian competition, the Kentucky State Fair World's Championship Horse Show, the floor length and permanent seating were designed for the 300-foot -long show ring; the North American International Livestock Exposition is held there each November. Muhammad Ali fought his first professional fight at Freedom Hall when he won a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker. Freedom Hall was one of the major stops on the Motortown traveling music revue during the early and mid-1960s. Judgment Day was held at the Freedom Hall. A collegiate wrestling tournament was held at the arena in 2019; the Kentucky Colonels fielded successful teams during their tenure at Freedom Hall, winning the American Basketball Association Championship in the 1974-75 season and reaching the ABA Finals two other times.
The 1970-71 team played in the ABA Championship Finals. The 1972-73 team advanced to the Finals again; the Colonels were disbanded when the ABA merged with the National Basketball Association in 1976. Hall of Fame players Dan Issel and Artis Gilmore played for the Colonels during their successful run. Hall of Fame Coach Hubie Brown coached the Colonels Championship team. In 1984 the facility was refurbished, including lowering the floor to allow maximum capacity to increase from 16,664 to 18,865 for basketball, it was the full-time home of Cardinal men's basketball from the 1957-58 season to 2010, with the team winning 82% of home games in 50+ seasons. U of L was ranked in the Top 5 in attendance for the past 25 years, with 16 of the last 19 years averaging more than 100% of capacity. In addition to being the home of the Cardinals, Freedom Hall has hosted NCAA Tournament games ten times, including six Final Fours between 1958 and 1969; the arena has hosted 11 conference tournaments, nine Metro Conference Tournaments and two Conference USA tournaments—2001 and 2003.
It has hosted the Kentucky Boys' High School State Basketball Tournament 23 times, including every year from 1965 to 1978. In 1984, the floor of the arena was lowered about 10 feet to increase the capacity of the arena from 16,613 to its current figure. In the 1996-97 season Freedom Hall averaged an attendance of 19,590 surpassing arena capacity. Freedom Hall hosts the Championship tractor pull every February during the National Farm Machinery Show. In November 2008 the Louisville Fire of af2 ceased operations; the Louisville Fire was an Arena Football team. On the lower level is the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame where an engraved bronze plaque honors each inductee; the University of Louisville men's basketball team played their final game at FH in front of a record crowd of 20,138 on March 6, 2010 against Syracuse University, the #1 ranked team in the nation. The arena began to gain new tenants in 2012 with the addition of the Kentucky Stickhorses, in 2013, with the addition of the Kentucky Xtream.
However, the Kentucky Stickhorses folded in 2014 after the lack of attendance. The Kentucky Xtream was suspended in the middle of the season, with other teams playing their remaining games as the team's fate is still in the air. List of events in Freedom Hall KFC Yum! Center Sports in Louisville, Kentucky List of attractions and events in the Louisville metropolitan area University of Louisville athletics' website on Freedom Hall Official site of Freedom Hall
National Invitation Tournament
The National Invitation Tournament is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Played at regional sites and at Madison Square Garden in New York City each March and April, it was founded in 1938 and was the most prestigious post-season showcase for college basketball. Over time it became eclipsed by the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament – known today informally as "March Madness"; the NIT has since been regarded more as a "consolation" tournament for teams that did not receive a berth in the NCAA tournament. A second, much more recent "NIT" tournament is played in November and known as the NIT Season Tip-Off; the "Preseason NIT", it was founded in 1985. Like the postseason NIT, its final rounds are played at Madison Square Garden. Both tournaments were operated by the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association until 2005, when they were purchased by the NCAA, the MIBA disbanded. Unless otherwise qualified, the terms "NIT" or "National Invitation Tournament" refer to the post-season tournament in both common and official use.
The post-season National Invitation Tournament was founded in 1938 by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association, one year after the NAIA Tournament was created by basketball's inventor Dr. James Naismith, one year before the NCAA Tournament; the first NIT was won by the Temple University Owls over the Colorado Buffaloes. Responsibility for the NIT's administration was transferred in 1940 to the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Committee, a body of local New York colleges: Fordham University, Manhattan College, New York University, St. John's University, Wagner College; this became the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association in 1948. The tournament invited a field of 6 teams, with all games played at Madison Square Garden in downtown Manhattan; the field was expanded to 8 teams in 1941, 12 in 1949, 14 in 1965, 16 in 1968, 24 in 1979, 32 in 1980, 40 from 2002 through 2006. In 2007, the tournament reverted to the current 32-team format. In its early years, the NIT offered some advantages over the NCAA tournament: There was limited national media coverage of college basketball in the 1930s and'40s, playing in New York City provided teams greater media exposure, both with the general public and among high school prospects in its rich recruiting territory.
The NCAA tournament selection committee invited only one team each from eight national regions leaving better quality selections and natural rivals out of its field, which would opt for the NIT. From its onset and at least into the mid-1950s, the NIT was regarded as the most prestigious showcase for college basketball. All-American at Princeton and NBA champion with the New York Knicks and United States Senator Bill Bradley stated: In the 1940's, when the NCAA tournament was less than 10 years old, the National Invitation Tournament, a saturnalia held in New York at Madison Square Garden by the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association, was the most glamorous of the post-season tournaments and had the better teams; the winner of the National Invitation Tournament was regarded as more of a national champion than the actual, national champion, or winner of the NCAA tournament. Several teams played in both the NIT and NCAA tournaments in the same year, beginning with Colorado and Duquesne in 1940.
Colorado subsequently finished fourth in the NCAA West Region. In 1944, Utah lost its first game in the NIT but proceeded to win not only the NCAA tournament, but the subsequent Red Cross War Charities benefit game in which they defeated NIT champion St. John's at Madison Square Garden. In 1949, some Kentucky players were bribed by gamblers to lose their first round game in the NIT; this same Kentucky team went on to win the NCAA. In 1950, City College of New York won both the NIT and the NCAA tournaments in the same season, coincidentally defeating Bradley University in the championship game of both tournaments, remains the only school to accomplish that feat because of an NCAA committee change in the early 1950s prohibiting a team from competing in both tournaments; the champions of both the NCAA and NIT tournaments played each other for a few years during World War II. From 1943 to 1945, the American Red Cross sponsored a postseason charity game between each year's tournament champions to raise money for the war effort.
The series was described by Ray Meyer as not just benefit games, but as "really the games for the national championship". The NCAA champion prevailed in all three games; the Helms Athletic Foundation retroactively selected the NIT champion as its national champion for 1938, chose the NIT champion over the NCAA champion once, in 1939. More the mathematically based Premo-Porretta Power Poll published in the ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia retroactively ranked teams for each season prior to 1949, with the NIT champion finishing ahead of the NCAA champion in 1939 and 1941. Premo-Porretta ranks four NCAA champions as the best for each season, the rest being non-championship winning teams. Between 1939 and 1970, when teams could compete in either tournament, only DePaul, San Francisco and Holy Cross claim or celebrate national championships for their teams based on an NIT championship, although Long Island recognizes its selection as the 1939 national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation, made in 1943.
In 1943 the NCAA tournament moved to share Madison Square Garden with the NIT in an effort to increase the credibility of the NCAA Tournament. In 1945, The New York Times indicated that many teams could get bids to enter either tournament, not unco
Foul (basketball)
In basketball, a foul is an infraction of the rules more serious than a violation. Most fouls occur as a result of illegal personal contact with an opponent and/or unsportsmanlike behavior. Fouls can result in one or more of the following penalties: The team whose player committed the foul loses possession of the ball to the other team; the fouled player is awarded one or more free throws. The player committing the foul "fouls out" of the game; the player committing the foul is suspended from some number of subsequent games. Some of the penalties listed above are assessed only if a player or a team commits a number of fouls above a specified limit. Ordinary fouls are routine because of the constant motion inherent in the sport and are not viewed as bad sportsmanship; the penalty imposes a cost on violating the rules but does not disparage the player committing the foul. A player intending never to commit a foul might play so cautiously as to be ineffective. More serious fouls are regarded as bad sportsmanship, the penalties are designed to be disciplinary.
There are several classes of foul, each enumerated below and covered in greater detail in its own article. A personal foul is the most common type of foul, it results from personal contact between two opposing players. Basketball features constant motion, contact between opposing players is unavoidable, but significant contact, the fault of illegal conduct by one opponent is a foul against that player. Most personal fouls are called against a defensive player. A personal foul, committed by a player of the team in possession of the ball is called an offensive foul; when neither team is in clear possession of the ball, a foul is called a loose-ball foul. A flagrant foul is violent player contact that the official believes is not a legitimate attempt to directly play the ball within the rules; the NBA and NCAA men's competitions define a Flagrant-1 foul as unnecessary contact, two such penalties leads to ejection of the player. A Flagrant-2 foul is contact, both unnecessary and excessive, requires ejection.
FIBA and NCAA women's competitions penalize unjustified contact between opponents. Their terms for the respective levels of foul are a disqualifying foul. A technical foul is a foul unrelated to physical contact during game play; the foul may be called on a player in the game, another player, a coach, or against the team in general. This class of foul applies to all of the following: Unsportsmanlike conduct outside the scope of the game, such as taunting, profanity, or conduct toward an official. A personal foul committed by a player who has fouled out of the game but is readmitted to the game because of the lack of substitutes. Requesting a timeout when the team has used their last allotted timeout. Illegal gamesmanship, such as delay of game. A variety of other situations, such as arranging the players in an illegal defense. In the last two cases, the rules may call for the referee to give a warning rather than assess a technical foul on the first infraction. A player foul is any foul, but personal and flagrant fouls, by reference to the count of fouls charged against a given player.
A team foul is any foul by reference to the count against a given team. An overview of the accounting of fouls is at Personal foul. Detailed parameters, for FIBA, the NBA, college basketball, are at Bonus. Official Basketball Rules 2008.
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is a men's professional basketball league in North America. It is considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world; the NBA is an active member of USA Basketball, recognized by FIBA as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player; the league was founded in New York City on June 1946, as the Basketball Association of America. The league adopted the name National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball League; the league's several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in New Jersey; the Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada.
On November 1, 1946, in Toronto, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens, in a game the NBA now refers to as the first game played in NBA history. The first basket was made by Ossie Schectman of the Knickerbockers. Although there had been earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues, including the American Basketball League and the NBL, the BAA was the first league to attempt to play in large arenas in major cities. During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters. For instance, the 1948 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won that league's 1948 title, the 1948 NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers won the 1949 BAA title. Prior to the 1948–49 season, however, NBL teams from Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and Rochester jumped to the BAA, which established the BAA as the league of choice for collegians looking to turn professional.
On August 3, 1949, the remaining NBL teams–Syracuse, Tri-Cities, Sheboygan and Waterloo–merged into the BAA. In deference to the merger and to avoid possible legal complications, the league name was changed to the present National Basketball Association though the merged league retained the BAA's governing body, including Podoloff. To this day, the NBA claims the BAA's history as its own, it now reckons the arrival of the NBL teams as an expansion, not a merger, does not recognize NBL records and statistics. The new league had seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as large arenas and smaller gymnasiums and armories. In 1950, the NBA consolidated to eleven franchises, a process that continued until 1953–54, when the league reached its smallest size of eight franchises: the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors, Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Pistons, Tri-Cities Blackhawks, Syracuse Nationals, all of which remain in the league today.
The process of contraction saw. The Hawks shifted from the Tri-Cities to Milwaukee in 1951, to St. Louis in 1955; the Rochester Royals moved from Rochester, New York, to Cincinnati in 1957 and the Pistons relocated from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Detroit in 1957. Japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the NBA color barrier in the 1947–48 season when he played for the New York Knicks, he remained the only non-white player in league history prior to the first African-American, Harold Hunter, signing with the Washington Capitols in 1950. Hunter was cut from the team during training camp, but several African-American players did play in the league that year, including Chuck Cooper with the Celtics, Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton with the Knicks, Earl Lloyd with the Washington Capitols. During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by center George Mikan, won five NBA Championships and established themselves as the league's first dynasty. To encourage shooting and discourage stalling, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock in 1954.
If a team does not attempt to score a field goal within 24 seconds of obtaining the ball, play is stopped and the ball given to its opponent. In 1957, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, which featured guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, went on to lead the club to eleven NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt Chamberlain entered the league with the Warriors in 1959 and became a dominant individual star of the 1960s, setting new single game records in scoring and rebounding. Russell's rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the greatest rivalries in the history of American team sports; the 1960s were dominated by the Celtics. Led by Russell, Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, Boston won eight straight championships in the NBA from 1959 to 1966; this championship streak is the longest in NBA history. They did not win the title in 1966–67, but regained it in the 1967–68 season and repeated in 1969; the domination totaled nine of the ten championship banners of the 1960s.
Through this period, the NBA continued to evolve with the shift of the Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, the Syracuse Nationals to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia 76ers, the St. Louis Hawks moving to Atlanta, as well as the addition of its first expansion franchises; the Chicago Packers (now Wa
