The reason why the New York Knicks are called Knickerbockers: Origin and history of the team’s name

The New York Knicks are back in the NBA finals and are close to giving fans a long-awaited trophy. The team was founded in 1946 - the same year that the league was set up and, along with the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Stags are one of the ‘Original 11′ - the first teams to compete in the newly-founded league tournament.

The New York Knicks, one of the oldest teams in the NBA

In fact, along with the Celtics, the Knicks are the third oldest NBA team still in existence, only two franchises: the Sacramento Kings (1923) and the Detroit Pistons (1941) were founded before them.

The Knicks have a storied history, winning two NBA championships in 1970 and 1973 and producing many legendary players such as Walt Frazier, Patrick Ewing, and Willis Reed.

The Knicks play their home games at Madison Square Garden in New York City, one of the most famous arenas in the world and not just for basketball. The Knicks’ home arena, which opened in February 1968, has hosted many iconic groups and musicians over the years, including the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Led Zeppelin...

Despite some struggles in recent years, the team is up 2-0 against the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals and are trying to win the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy for New York City basketball fans.

The origin and history of the team’s name

In 1946, Max Kase and Walter Brown, two well-known sports journalists, and others met at the Commodore Hotel in New York City to establish the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and award charter franchises to major cities across the US. Ned Irish, the president of Madison Square Garden and a retired sportswriter, was present at the meeting.

Kase had initially planned to own and operate the New York franchise, but Irish impressed the owners with his vast resources, and the franchise was awarded to him instead.

Irish wanted a name for his franchise that would represent the city of New York, and after casting votes among his staff, the franchise was named the Knickerbockers.

The name comes from the pseudonym used by Washington Irving in his book ‘A History of New York,’ which referred to the descendants of the original Dutch settlers of what later became New York (for a while, Manhattan was considered a sort of Little Amsterdam) and, later, by extension, to New Yorkers in general. The name has essential meaning for Knicks supporters, reflecting the team’s deep roots in the city and its history.

Fred Podesta, a former executive at Madison Square Garden who passed away in 1999, once reminisced, “The name came out of a hat. We were all sitting in the office one day - Irish, (publicity man) Lester Scott, and a few others on the staff. We each put a name in the hat, and when we pulled them out, most of them said Knickerbockers, after Father Knickerbocker, the symbol of New York City. It soon was shortened to Knicks.”

From the 1964-65 season, the figure of Father Knickerbocker dribbling a basketball would no longer be seen on the team’s jersey. A new “roundball” logo was created by artist Bud Freeman, although Father Knick did end up mading a comeback in 2014-15, featuring as the primary logo of the G League’s Westchester Knicks.

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