When I reminisce while celebrating the Rangers’ soon-to-be-celebrated 100th Anniversary, I’m reminded of a hit tune that fits what life at The Old Garden on Eighth Avenue was all about.
The tune is “The Little Things Mean A Lot.” The following are the “Little Things” that meant a lot to me at that old barn:
1. THE RANGERS PROGRAM: It was a super hockey magazine filled with stories by New York’s best hockey writers. The cover painting was done by famed New York Journal-American artist Burris Jenkins, Jr. and later by World-Telegram caricature ace Willard Mullin. Every issue had a lineup and an extra hockey insert with a story. It was wonderful reading on “The A Train” going home and thereafter.
2. THE ROVERS PROGRAM: If you went to a Sunday afternoon double-header – Met League game followed by a New York Rovers contest – you could buy the best, cheapest program in hockey history. In addition to its terrific cover picture of the old Garden marquee, you received a page of all leagues standings and scorers; Page 3 featured a column called “Around The Circuit. Page 4 had the Met League lineup and Page 5 an entire page of Met League News. The Rovers lineup was on Page 5 while the next page featured an Eastern Amateur Hockey League column. The backpage column by Ethel Mullaney was like a hometown bit of gossip. All about the fans; letters from servicemen and once a note about my grandfather, Simon Friedman, who saw his first hockey game. I loved it! And cost only a dime.
3. VISITING COSBY’S: In addition to carrying all manner of equipment, Gerry Cosby’s store on the ground floor facing Eighth Avenue, was a puck schmoozers paradise. Boss Gerry – later son Michael – Cosby was a pure hockey man – Rovers goalie, Rangers practice goalie, among other feats and his store was New York’s traditional hockey hangout. “I’ll meet you at Cosby’s” meant you’d drop into the store for as long as you liked and then take in the hockey game. I miss it big-time.
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4. BALCONY KICK HOCKEY: There always were enough puck nuts in the cheap seats who couldn’t get enough of the game on the ice. What to do? Crush a soda cup, turn it into a “puck” and – between periods – play “Kick Hockey” in any one of the balcony corners. Usually it was a two-man game and very intense.
5. PRINCETON SKATE SHOP: A block away on Eighth, between 49th and 48th Streets, diagonally across from The Garden was the hangout for roller hockey players. You could even get a pair of racing (ice) skates at Princeton but for us roller guys, it was the store’s shoe roller skates which the most respectable roller puck chasers would wear.
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