Today's Hours
The recently opened exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York City/Game: Basketball in New York explores New York’s cultural basketball history and the stories of players, coaches, and moments in schoolyards, playgrounds, gyms, and packed arenas.
In the 1950s, New York was the sports capital of America and Madison Square Garden was the mecca of basketball that hosted weekly double and sometimes triple headers during the college basketball season. City/Game relives these highs and lows and revisits the City College of New York’s magical sweep of the NIT and NCAA tournaments in the same year (1950), the prolific playing and coaching career of Hall of Famer Nat Holman, and the basketball scandal of 1951. My chapter, “Mr. Basketball: Nat Holman Invents the City Game,” in the exhibit’s eponymous book, City/Game: Basketball in New York (edited by William C. Rhoden with a foreword by Walt “Clyde” Frazier), delves into the controversy surrounding the scandal and the legacy of Nat Holman.
The exhibit also highlights the birth of Black professional basketball — highlighting the New York Renaissance, also known as the Rens, the first all-black professional basketball team owned by African-Americans.
"The heart of the exhibition is a chronology that gives an overview of basketball as it developed in New York City, really, as an immigrant sport in the neighborhoods and on the streets of New York City at the beginning of the 20th century," says Lilly Tuttle, curator of the exhibit.
Organized thematically, the exhibition is divided into three sections – “Lineage of Coaches Players and Places,” “Proving Grounds,” and “Cultures of Basketball”– that capture New York’s ongoing love affair with basketball.
On view from February 2020 through January 2021, City/Game features (many never shown before) original objects and ephemera along with photographs, archival footage, audio clips, and video highlighting New York’s unique history with basketball and its connections between music and fashion throughout the five boroughs.
Among the exhibit highlights is a sweater from Hall of Fame St. John's coach Lou Carnesecca and the Knick’s 1970 championship banner. Other items include sneakers from Knicks legend Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Bob Lanier, and Nancy Lieberman, the basketball Hall of Famer from Far Rockaway High School.
On loan from the City College Athletics department is the game ball from the 1950 NIT championship game and the championship trophies from NIT and NCAA.
Several audiovisual stations feature clips of great local players like Tiny Archibald and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar in high school competing for a championship when he starred for Power Memorial Academy 55 years ago.
There are also items highlighting women's contributions to the city game, including a video of Queens College legendary coach Lucille Kyvallos. The team played the first women's game at Madison Square Garden in 1974 against Immaculata.
There’s even a whole wall fully dedicated to basketball trash talk and a nod to the culture and outdoor game that has made New York famous.
Designed by a team from We Should Do It All in Brooklyn, the exhibition incorporates elements that were drawn from the city’s 1800 outdoor basketball courts and metal bleachers in NYC public parks.
City/Game underscores New York’s basketball heritage and the connection of a shared sports culture cut across race, ethnicity, class, and language.
(The Museum of the City of New York is temporarily closed due to COVID-19.)
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