SWC75
Bored Historian
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(I wrote this a decade ago and am re-posting it on the 60th anniversary of the Nat's title.)
The Nats and Their Fans
The Nats played at the Jefferson Street Armory in the NBL days then moved to the State Fairgrounds Coliseum when the entered the NBA in 1949. Many of the people interviewed in these books expressed a preference for that venue but when the War Memorial opened in 1953, the Nats moved to the new building. That’s the one that is most remembered. That’s where they won their title.
Syracuse Nats fans were famous for their raucous behavior but there weren’t many of them. The early games of the season were lucky to get much more than 2000 fans for their games. There’s probably that many in one section of the Dome when the house is packed. With 36 home games and 6 home playoff games, the team probably played before about 120,000 fans for the season. The SU basketball teams currently plays before about 350,000 a year and in 1988-89 they played before and NCAA record 537,949 fans- in only 19 games.
Still, the fans were famous. At the State Fairgrounds Coliseum, the baskets and backboards were held up by wires which fans would reach out and tweak when the other team attempted free throws. (Years later there were television commercials about the NBA of the future with “moving baskets”- been there, done that). Lights would also be flashed from behind the backboard to distract shooters. Nasty verbal debates between fans and players, coaches and referees would often erupt into violence. That Ron Artest thing was just another night at the office in the NBA of the 50’s. Once Minnesota coach John Kundla mentioned to an interviewer that his star, George Mikan, was allergic to smoke. At the next game against the Lakers, every Nat fan, (adults only, I assume) lighted up, producing enough second hand smoke to kill a herd of elephants.
But the most famous fan was someone called “The Strangler”, a brawny man in a black T-shirt who wasn’t shy about expressing his emotions by putting his arms around people- people he didn’t like. He believed in the first amendment. He just felt it extended to his hands. His most famous- but not his only- victims were Eddie Gottlieb, owner of the Philadelphia Warriors, Frank Ramsey of the Celtics and Charley Eckman, a referee. Ramsey was walking down a ramp when he was grabbed by the hair and pulled up. Soon hands were around his neck. 6-8 Gene Conley freed his teammate by punching the assailant in the mouth. Eckman staggered into the ref’s dressing room at halftime after an encounter with “The Strangler” and refused to come out until Commissioner Maurice Podoloff came in and ordered him to return. But Eckman soon left the whistle-blowing business. Gottlieb demanded to know who this “strangler” was because he had some ‘friends’ in Philadelphia who would like to meet up with him. If anybody knew, they never said.
Referees took their life in their hands when they came to Syracuse. Earl Strom once injured his ankle and was writhing on the floor in pain. A chant came out of the crowd “Shoot Him! Shoot Him! They shoot horses, don’t they? Shoot HIM”. His two young daughters burst into tears thinking the fans actually meant it. Sid Borgia was the personal target of a friend of Paul Seymour’s named Eli Roth. Roth sat behind the Syracuse bench and spent entire games calling Borgia “gutless”. Finally Borgia went over to Roth and asked him to prove it. Borgia got the better of Roth in the ensuing fight and then ordered him thrown out of the arena to boot, (literally). Seymour and the Nats intervened and Roth was allowed to stay. Afterwards Red Auerbach went over to Borgia and whispered in his ear “That’s the only good thing you’ve done all night.”
The Hated Celtics
The Celtics didn’t much like coming to Syracuse. Gene Conley said “They didn’t like us because we were a super-talented team and we were from that big city of Boston.” Frank Ramsey said “Syracuse is the coldest place in the world”. Bob Cousy “It snows in Syracuse in August. Yes, I hated it. Everybody develops their own little reasons for not liking one town. There were other cities that were far more exciting to me. Sorry, but that’s the reality. It wasn’t any fun coming to Syracuse.” Whenever Cousy came up lame prior to a trip to the Salt City, it was rumored he had developed “Syracuse Fever.” Auerbach told his friend, Rocco Pirro, (Ben Schwartzwalder’s line coach), “How can you live here? They’d have to pay me three times what I’m getting to live in this climate.”
Auerbach in his first autobiography, (the worst written book I’ve ever read), says “nobody mourned when that town left the league”. Syracuse didn’t mourn not seeing Auerbach anymore, either. He was famous for using “goons” to assault opposing players. Bob Brannum and in later years “Jungle Jim” Loscutoff where his most famous “enforcers”. Brannum would play a significant role in a confrontation between the Nats and Celtics in the post season. David Ramsey on Brannum: “When he took the court, fans immediately began to swear and jeer. He didn’t seem to care. He had been hired to play the role of a tough guy and that’s exactly what he did. He sometimes scared his own teammates with his willingness to commit sinister acts on the court”. Bob Cousy on Brannum: “Off the court, Bob Brannum was so gentle and polite, a pussycat. On the floor, Bob was…well, he was this MONSTER.”
The use of a goon by John Chaney that so shocked us last season was par for the course in those days, especially since few games were televised, (and without replays), and refereeing crews often consisted of only 1-2 guys who could hardly be expected to keep track of everything. Things really came to a head one night in a playoff game the early 60’s when Auerbach charged onto the War Memorial Court to argue a call and got hit by a spitwad thrown from the stands. Red pointed at the fan who threw it and shouted at him. The fan charged the court and was met by Jungle Jim who led the charge that decked the guy. More fans came to the rescue and Auerbach made a flying leap into the
pile, breaking a fan’s glasses. The fight was broken up but Loscutoff announced “We were 12 men against 6,706 but I still say we could have beaten them.”
Little Danny’s Big Idea
One of the problems in the NBA was its constantly rough play, which tended to get worse as the game went on, resulting in interminable endings. The team ahead would just hold the ball down the stretch and the team behind would have no choice but to foul them to try to get it back. No game better illustrated this than the March 21, 1953 at the Boston Garden against the Celtics where Bob Cousy scored a career-high 50 points in a quadruple overtime win over the Nats. He made 10 field goals and 30 free throws. Between them the teams made 54 field goals and 108 free throws, (the box score doesn’t list the attempts). 14 players were disqualified. Schayes and Brannum got into a fight and were thrown out, (Gee, I wonder who started that one?). The other 12 fouled out.
Danny Biasone, realizing that the game was getting tangled up in itself and losing fans, came up with a plan to loosen things up so players could display their basketball skills rather than their wrestling skills. He determined that in 1953-54, NBA teams had averaged 75 shots a game. He figured that if they averaged only 60 shots that would be 120 shots for the two teams, which divided by 48 minutes x 60 seconds, came to 24 seconds. He wasn’t trying to speed up the whole of the game but simply to avoid the stalling at the end.
Walter Brown, the owner of the Celtics, had a 24 second clock built by an electrical contractor he knew in Boston for $1200.00. Maurice Podoloff, the NBA Commissioner had a guy his brother knew, a fellow named Robert Ruston, build a clock for $200.00.
Danny's Nats tried them in a scrimmage. Brown’s expensive clock didn’t work at all but Ruston’s cheaper model worked just fine. The players found that while they hurried at the beginning, they could run their normal offense and almost always get a good shot off within the time limit. They tried it in an exhibition game against the Knicks, which they won 102-93 and the clock “met with fan approval”, with one exception. One of them wrote to Slattery, saying the new clock “would eliminate the adroitly executed play” from basketball. Slattery replied that that had already been eliminated by the jump shot. By the end of the 1954-55 season not only had the players, coaches and fans approved of the “new” game created by the shot clock but many college coaches demanded it be adopted at the collegiate level as well. It was- three decades later.
The Nats and Their Fans
The Nats played at the Jefferson Street Armory in the NBL days then moved to the State Fairgrounds Coliseum when the entered the NBA in 1949. Many of the people interviewed in these books expressed a preference for that venue but when the War Memorial opened in 1953, the Nats moved to the new building. That’s the one that is most remembered. That’s where they won their title.
Syracuse Nats fans were famous for their raucous behavior but there weren’t many of them. The early games of the season were lucky to get much more than 2000 fans for their games. There’s probably that many in one section of the Dome when the house is packed. With 36 home games and 6 home playoff games, the team probably played before about 120,000 fans for the season. The SU basketball teams currently plays before about 350,000 a year and in 1988-89 they played before and NCAA record 537,949 fans- in only 19 games.
Still, the fans were famous. At the State Fairgrounds Coliseum, the baskets and backboards were held up by wires which fans would reach out and tweak when the other team attempted free throws. (Years later there were television commercials about the NBA of the future with “moving baskets”- been there, done that). Lights would also be flashed from behind the backboard to distract shooters. Nasty verbal debates between fans and players, coaches and referees would often erupt into violence. That Ron Artest thing was just another night at the office in the NBA of the 50’s. Once Minnesota coach John Kundla mentioned to an interviewer that his star, George Mikan, was allergic to smoke. At the next game against the Lakers, every Nat fan, (adults only, I assume) lighted up, producing enough second hand smoke to kill a herd of elephants.
But the most famous fan was someone called “The Strangler”, a brawny man in a black T-shirt who wasn’t shy about expressing his emotions by putting his arms around people- people he didn’t like. He believed in the first amendment. He just felt it extended to his hands. His most famous- but not his only- victims were Eddie Gottlieb, owner of the Philadelphia Warriors, Frank Ramsey of the Celtics and Charley Eckman, a referee. Ramsey was walking down a ramp when he was grabbed by the hair and pulled up. Soon hands were around his neck. 6-8 Gene Conley freed his teammate by punching the assailant in the mouth. Eckman staggered into the ref’s dressing room at halftime after an encounter with “The Strangler” and refused to come out until Commissioner Maurice Podoloff came in and ordered him to return. But Eckman soon left the whistle-blowing business. Gottlieb demanded to know who this “strangler” was because he had some ‘friends’ in Philadelphia who would like to meet up with him. If anybody knew, they never said.
Referees took their life in their hands when they came to Syracuse. Earl Strom once injured his ankle and was writhing on the floor in pain. A chant came out of the crowd “Shoot Him! Shoot Him! They shoot horses, don’t they? Shoot HIM”. His two young daughters burst into tears thinking the fans actually meant it. Sid Borgia was the personal target of a friend of Paul Seymour’s named Eli Roth. Roth sat behind the Syracuse bench and spent entire games calling Borgia “gutless”. Finally Borgia went over to Roth and asked him to prove it. Borgia got the better of Roth in the ensuing fight and then ordered him thrown out of the arena to boot, (literally). Seymour and the Nats intervened and Roth was allowed to stay. Afterwards Red Auerbach went over to Borgia and whispered in his ear “That’s the only good thing you’ve done all night.”
The Hated Celtics
The Celtics didn’t much like coming to Syracuse. Gene Conley said “They didn’t like us because we were a super-talented team and we were from that big city of Boston.” Frank Ramsey said “Syracuse is the coldest place in the world”. Bob Cousy “It snows in Syracuse in August. Yes, I hated it. Everybody develops their own little reasons for not liking one town. There were other cities that were far more exciting to me. Sorry, but that’s the reality. It wasn’t any fun coming to Syracuse.” Whenever Cousy came up lame prior to a trip to the Salt City, it was rumored he had developed “Syracuse Fever.” Auerbach told his friend, Rocco Pirro, (Ben Schwartzwalder’s line coach), “How can you live here? They’d have to pay me three times what I’m getting to live in this climate.”
Auerbach in his first autobiography, (the worst written book I’ve ever read), says “nobody mourned when that town left the league”. Syracuse didn’t mourn not seeing Auerbach anymore, either. He was famous for using “goons” to assault opposing players. Bob Brannum and in later years “Jungle Jim” Loscutoff where his most famous “enforcers”. Brannum would play a significant role in a confrontation between the Nats and Celtics in the post season. David Ramsey on Brannum: “When he took the court, fans immediately began to swear and jeer. He didn’t seem to care. He had been hired to play the role of a tough guy and that’s exactly what he did. He sometimes scared his own teammates with his willingness to commit sinister acts on the court”. Bob Cousy on Brannum: “Off the court, Bob Brannum was so gentle and polite, a pussycat. On the floor, Bob was…well, he was this MONSTER.”
The use of a goon by John Chaney that so shocked us last season was par for the course in those days, especially since few games were televised, (and without replays), and refereeing crews often consisted of only 1-2 guys who could hardly be expected to keep track of everything. Things really came to a head one night in a playoff game the early 60’s when Auerbach charged onto the War Memorial Court to argue a call and got hit by a spitwad thrown from the stands. Red pointed at the fan who threw it and shouted at him. The fan charged the court and was met by Jungle Jim who led the charge that decked the guy. More fans came to the rescue and Auerbach made a flying leap into the
pile, breaking a fan’s glasses. The fight was broken up but Loscutoff announced “We were 12 men against 6,706 but I still say we could have beaten them.”
Little Danny’s Big Idea
One of the problems in the NBA was its constantly rough play, which tended to get worse as the game went on, resulting in interminable endings. The team ahead would just hold the ball down the stretch and the team behind would have no choice but to foul them to try to get it back. No game better illustrated this than the March 21, 1953 at the Boston Garden against the Celtics where Bob Cousy scored a career-high 50 points in a quadruple overtime win over the Nats. He made 10 field goals and 30 free throws. Between them the teams made 54 field goals and 108 free throws, (the box score doesn’t list the attempts). 14 players were disqualified. Schayes and Brannum got into a fight and were thrown out, (Gee, I wonder who started that one?). The other 12 fouled out.
Danny Biasone, realizing that the game was getting tangled up in itself and losing fans, came up with a plan to loosen things up so players could display their basketball skills rather than their wrestling skills. He determined that in 1953-54, NBA teams had averaged 75 shots a game. He figured that if they averaged only 60 shots that would be 120 shots for the two teams, which divided by 48 minutes x 60 seconds, came to 24 seconds. He wasn’t trying to speed up the whole of the game but simply to avoid the stalling at the end.
Walter Brown, the owner of the Celtics, had a 24 second clock built by an electrical contractor he knew in Boston for $1200.00. Maurice Podoloff, the NBA Commissioner had a guy his brother knew, a fellow named Robert Ruston, build a clock for $200.00.
Danny's Nats tried them in a scrimmage. Brown’s expensive clock didn’t work at all but Ruston’s cheaper model worked just fine. The players found that while they hurried at the beginning, they could run their normal offense and almost always get a good shot off within the time limit. They tried it in an exhibition game against the Knicks, which they won 102-93 and the clock “met with fan approval”, with one exception. One of them wrote to Slattery, saying the new clock “would eliminate the adroitly executed play” from basketball. Slattery replied that that had already been eliminated by the jump shot. By the end of the 1954-55 season not only had the players, coaches and fans approved of the “new” game created by the shot clock but many college coaches demanded it be adopted at the collegiate level as well. It was- three decades later.
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