‘March Madness’ Taps West End’s History of Hosting Big Games
With March Madness upon us again, we thought this would be a good time to highlight the history of Boston Garden as a gathering place for fans from across New England to witness the greatest professional and student athletes.
In all of major league sports there stand out a few destinations that transcend the sports played inside them. Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Michigan’s “Big House” in Ann Arbor, the Montreal Forum, Madison Square Garden in New York, Chicago’s Wrigley Field, and, of course, Fenway Park are tops on that list. Other famed venues have been lost to time and wrecking balls, like the original Yankee and Tiger Stadiums, the Philadelphia Spectrum and, of course, the original Boston Garden.
The Boston Garden opened its doors at North Station in 1928 and was demolished 70 years later. The first event held in the arena was a boxing match; few days later the Bruins hosted the Montreal Canadiens in an Original Six contest. (Those same two teams faced off in the old Garden’s final event in 1995.) Over the years, champions played and championships were won at the Garden.
Before the “madness” of the men’s college basketball tournament gained the national prominence it currently enjoys, basketball professionals were already thrilling fans on the Garden’s famous parquet floor. St. Patrick’s Day reminds us of the luck (and the skill) of those Boston Celtics teams that dominated the sport. “The Green” won 16 of their 17 NBA titles at the old Garden, including 11 in the 13-year span between 1957 and 1969.
The early history of college basketball at the Garden involve a team that didn’t even call the city of Boston home. The College of the Holy Cross played its home games in Boston because there was no proper gymnasium on their Worcester campus. A repurposed WWII-era surplus hanger from a military base in Rhode Island served as the home gym. Holy Cross proved to be New England’s first-ever national basketball powerhouse, winning the national championship – and creating madness – in March 1947.
That team, which featured a young Bob Cousy, finished the regular season at 27-3 and beat Oklahoma in the finals (played at Madison Square Garden) by a score of 58-47. The Crusaders have had many great seasons since, earning four more NCAA Tournament appearances and an NIT Championship, but have not won another national title.
It’s not just basketball that has thrilled local college sports fans, college hockey has long had a home on the Garden ice. The annual Beanpot Tournament, pitting locals Boston University, Harvard, Northeastern, and Boston College against each other, always generates a buzz in early February. This month, the Garden is hosting regional play for the NCAA Division I Men’s Hockey Tournament.
The old Garden and the TD Garden have hosted many local basketball tournaments, including the “Colonial Classic,” first played in 1976 and featuring BC, Holy Cross, UMass Amherst and Providence College. The Classic was conceived in an attempt to bolster interest in college basketball in and around Boston. Like the Beanpot, it was played over two nights with the first round determining the two teams that advance to the finals. Despite the fact that all four programs were nationally relevant during this time, the tournament lasted only three years with all the games being played in the Garden.
The similarly-titled, but more enduring “Commonwealth Classic” was created to highlight the basketball rivalry between Boston College and UMass Amherst. While these two teams first played each other in 1905, their real rivalry heated up during a game at the Garden in 1979, just after the “Colonial Classic” ceased play. Later, in 1995, then-Governor Bill Weld officially dubbed these rivalry games as the “Commonwealth Classic,” announcing the “Governor’s Cup” would be awarded to the winner. That 1995 game marked the first college basketball game played on the parquet floor of the newly-opened Fleet Center.
Despite being home to basketball greatness, the original Boston Garden never hosted any NCAA tournament games. It wasn’t until 1999 that March Madness came to Boston and the Fleet Center. For two dates in March, Causeway Street was home to six games between the first and second rounds of the East Regional bracket. Rhode Island was the only team from New England to make the tournament that year, but as a 12th seed, they found themselves travelling to Milwaukee where they lost in the first round to UNC Charlotte.
The tournament made return visits in 2003, 2009, 2012 and 2018. The Garden has also played host to the women’s tournament, including the 2006 Championship in which Maryland won its first national title. In 2024 the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament will return to the TD Garden, again giving local fans their chance to see the nation’s top men’s basketball players looking to win it all—and revel in the madness.