Boston Garden

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Lore & Background

Rickard built the arena specifically with boxing in mind, believing every seat should be close enough to see the "sweat on the boxers' brows". Because of this design theme, fans were much closer to the players during Bruins and Celtics games than in most arenas, leading to a distinct hometown advantage. This physical proximity also created spectacular acoustic effects, much like the Chicago Stadium. Due to the success of the Celtics in the 1980s, the Boston Garden was one of the most difficult buildings for visiting NBA teams. During the 1985–86 season, the Celtics were 40–1 at home, setting the NBA record for home court mastery (the San Antonio Spurs tied the record 30 years later in the 2015–16 season). They also finished the post-season undefeated at home. Combined with the following regular season, the Celtics' Garden record was 79–3 between the 1985–86 and 1986–87 regular seasons. The parquet floor was built and installed in the Boston Arena (first home of the Bruins hockey team) and moved to the Garden in 1952. It is said the Celtics knew which way the basketball would bounce off any section of the floor; this was one contributing factor to the Celtics' many NBA championships. The floor became as much a part of Boston sports lore as the Green Monster of Fenway Park. The parquet floor was used at the FleetCenter until December 22, 1999. Portions of the original floor are integrated with new parquet. The floor was cut into small pieces and sold as souvenirs along with seats and bricks. The Naden/Day Industries overhead scoreboard (which was electro-mechanical, not electronic, as more recent arenas used) hung in the Boston Garden-themed food court of the Arsenal Mall in Watertown until 2018, when the mall began to undergo renovations. The Celtics' old championship banners and retired numbers now hang at the team's now-former practice facility in Waltham; a new set of banners was made for the move to the FleetCenter (now TD Garden). The Celtics used to raise Eastern Division championship banners at Boston Garden in the 1960s, but stopped this practice by the 1970s. Likewise, the Bruins made a new set of banners when they moved to the FleetCenter, which were again replaced after the 2011 Stanley Cup Final with six new banners, each using the contemporary logo of the Bruins when each Cup victory occurred. The Bruins also raised numerous Adams Division, Presi

In Their Own Story

The Garden was not without its flaws, often testing the endurance of players and fans alike. Its hockey rink measured 191 by 83 feet, significantly smaller than the standard 200 by 85 feet, forcing visiting teams to adjust to non-standard penalty box locations and opposing-side benches. The arena lacked air conditioning entirely; during some Bruins playoff games, fog formed over the ice. In Game 5 of the 1984 NBA Finals, temperatures soared to 97 °F (36 °C), requiring oxygen tanks for exhausted Lakers players. Power outages also disrupted history: on May 24, 1988, a vintage switchgear failure suspended Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final against Edmonton, which was replayed entirely two days later. Two years later, lights went out during overtime in Game 5 of the 1990 Finals but returned automatically after a triple-overtime Oilers victory. The old Naden/Day Industries electro-mechanical scoreboard hung in the Arsenal Mall food court until renovations began in 2018.

Reader's Guide

The Garden's hockey rink was undersized at 191 by 83 feet (58.2 m × 25.3 m), some nine feet shorter and two feet narrower than standard (200 ft × 85 ft or 61 m × 26 m), due to the rink being built at a time when the NHL did not have a standard size for rinks. This size matched the size of the Boston Arena ice surface, the original home of the Bruins. When the Bruins moved in as tenant, the Boston Arena had had a 220-by-90-foot (67 m × 27 m) ice surface; this was reduced so as to add more seats. The Boston Arena, later renamed the Matthews Arena, modified its ice surface in 1995 to the standard-length 200-by-80-foot (61 m × 24 m) rink, which was used until 2026 for college hockey. Visiting players were frequently thrown off their games by the differing setup of the players' benches being on opposing sides of the ice, as well as the non-standard penalty box locations. This also was the setup in the Boston Arena. This setup, still occasionally seen in college hockey, was done to ensure that each team could have a bench connected to their dressing room. Towards the end of the Garden's life as an arena, the NHL required all rinks to have both benches on the same side: the Garden obliged by moving the penalty boxes (formerly adjacent to the Bruins' bench) to the side vacated by the visitor's bench, and as such visiting teams were required to skate across the ice to head back to their rooms. The Garden's earlier Bulova-crafted "Sports Timer" game clock system using the typical analog dial-type game clock design of that era, said to have been installed at the Garden early in the 1940s, and essentially identical in appearance and function to the one used in the Chicago Stadium until September 1975, was removed and replaced by an all-digital-display unit created by the Day Sign Company of Toronto in time for the 1970 Stanley Cup playoffs, and remained in use until the Garden's closure. The Garden had no air conditioning, resulting in fog forming over the ice during some Bruins' playoff games. During Game 5 of the 1984 NBA Finals, the 97 °F (36 °C) heat in the facility was so intense that oxygen tanks were provided to exhausted Lakers players. The Bruins' Stanley Cup finals appearances in 1988 and 1990 were both disrupted by power outages. On May 24, 1988, a 1930s vintage 4160V switchgear failed and the emergency generator did not start during Game 4 of the Finals betw

Did You Know?

• The Garden's first event was on November 17, 1928, a boxing card headlined by Boston Native "Honey Boy" Dick Finnegan's defeat of Andre Routis.
• The first team sporting event was held three days later, an ice hockey game between the Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens, won by the Canadiens 1–0, attended by 17,000 fans, 2,000 over capacity, as fans without tickets s
• The Garden was built at a cost of $10 million – over double the cost for New York's arena three years earlier.
• The Garden's rink was undersized at 191 by 83 feet because it matched the size of the Boston Arena ice surface, the original home of the Bruins.