The game goes national, by Ari Sclar

In December 1936, Stanford traveled east during the holiday break.  After defeating Temple, 45-38 in front of 9,000 fans in Philadelphia, Stanford arrived at the Garden to play LIU in one of the most anticipated games in college basketball history.  The predominantly-Jewish LIU team remained basically the same as the year before when the school rose to national prominence, and the New York media stated that the contest “will for the first time…[provide] the definite answer to the question of East-West supremacy.”  As the “smartest, smoothest team in the East,” LIU would defend eastern honor.  The game’s competitive pressure led LIU to follow “the example set by major colleges in football” by preparing at a “training camp” at Grossinger’s Resort in the Catskills.  According to the New York Times, “this is believed to be the first training camp trip any basketball team ever has made during the Christmas holidays.”[1]  New Yorkers believed that LIU’s zone would stop Stanford’s All-American Hank Luisetti but before a crowd of 17,623, Stanford ended LIU’s 43-game winning streak by a score of 45-31.  The result shocked ‘eastern’ basketball and resulted in the further standardization of basketball.[2]

In contrast to the east’s two-handed set shot, Luisetti and the rest of the Stanford team shot one-handed.  Some eastern commentators and coaches had doubted the effectiveness of the shot until Luisetti shredded the vaunted LIU defense for 15 points.  CCNY’s Nat Holman, an adamant defender of the set shot, had called Luisetti’s shot a “prayer” before the game.[3]  Within the decade, some CCNY players would use the one-handed shot even as others remained committed to the set shot.  The changing shooting style illustrated the impact of the Garden on New York, and Jewish, basketball.  Some players willingly incorporated improved methods of play into the traditional culture.  Others took a bigger step and began to leave the local area to play college basketball.

In the 1930s, William Silberstein traveled from Brooklyn to Indiana University and Bernie Opper left the Bronx to attend Kentucky.  Opper in particular found success as he received honors as All-Southeast Conference and All-America during his career.  Opper reportedly contacted Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp after seeing the 1935 NYU-Kentucky game as a high school student.[4]  Prior to the Garden games, personal contact with the larger basketball world was limited to the print media.  Sport radio remained relatively minor and television had yet to become a standard feature in American homes.  Garden promoter Ned Irish’s desire to attract an older audience notwithstanding, the Garden could exist as a space where players’ and spectators’ identities blended.  Opper’s first-hand exposure to teams from across the country was a common experience among Jewish youth in the New York area and his experience indicated the unique opportunity provided New York youth.[5]

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[1] “East-West Court Feud Ideal Test of Stanford,” New York Evening Post, December 30, 1936; “On Basketball Courts,” New York Times, December 24, 1936.

[2] Isaacs, All the Moves, 111-115.  The result helped Stanford capture the Helms National championship that season. 

[3] “LIU Victory String Now 43 as Result of 3 More Triumphs,” New York Times, December 28, 1936; “East-West Court Feud Ideal Test for Stanford,” New York Evening Post, December 30, 1936. 

[4] On Sliberstein, see John Laskowski with Stan Sutton, John Laskowsk’s Tales from the Hoosier Locker Room: A Collection of the Greatest Stories Ever Told (Sports Publishing Company, 2003), 77-81.  Silberstein later established the first endowed athletic scholarship at Indiana.

[5] For brief information on Opper, see Tom Wallace, Kentucky Basketball Encyclopedia (Sports Publishing LLC, 2002), 105.  After his Kentucky career, Opper returned to the northeast to play professionally with the Philadelphia Sphas and other ABL teams.  Opper also played in the National Basketball League (NBL), a Midwestern based professional league.  The Garden used radio to promote the double-headers and former football and track star Marty Glickman became the voice of college basketball during the 1940s.  He helped pioneer the sport on radio.  Also see Isaacs, All the Moves, 80.