1922–23 Original Celtics season

Original Celtics Metropolitan Basketball League 1923 12 0 Johnny Whitty Jim Furey & Johnny Whitty Jim Furey & Thomas FureyNelson Murry R. The Originals: The New York Celtics Invent Modern Basketball 1999 Bowling Green State University Popular Press 0-87972-793-4, p. 57 Madison Square GardenNEW YORK CELTICS - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-05-26 2026-07-05 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/season/new-york-celtics-2/ 1st (1st half) Left league on November 17, 1922 before the second half of the season began.(The Elizabeth Club would later gain the Original Celtics' first place spot (unofficially).) Harrisburg Club / New York Giants / Original Celtics 1927 Original Celtics Atlantic City Sandpipers / Original Celtics Eastern Basketball League 1923 7 10 Marvin Riley (Atlantic City Sandpipers; 0–3)Doc Newman (Atlantic City Sandpipers; 2–6)Nat Holman (Original Celtics; 5–1)ATLANTIC CITY SANDPIPERS - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-05-26 2026-07-15 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/season/atlantic-city-sandpipers/ Thomas Hughes & Marvin Riley (Atlantic City Sandpipers (& Atlantic City Celtics?)Nelson Murry R. The Originals: The New York Celtics Invent Modern Basketball 1999 Bowling Green State University Popular Press 0-87972-793-4, p. 114)Jim Furey & Johnny Whitty (Original CelticsJOHNNY WHITTY - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-02-23 2026-07-15 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/player/Johnny-Whitty/) Thomas Hughes & Marvin Riley (Atlantic City Sandpipers)Jim Furey & Thomas Furey via The Nonpareil Club of Brooklyn (Original Celtics)Nelson Murry R. The Originals: The New York Celtics Invent Modern Basketball 1999 Bowling Green State University Popular Press 0-87972-793-4, pp. 57, 128 Steel Pier (Atlantic City Sandpipers / Original Celtics) 4th (1st half) Left league in December (23?), 1922 before the second half of the season began.(EBL folded operations on January 5 (or 19), 1923.)Nelson Murry R. The Originals: The New York Celtics Invent Modern Basketball 1999 Bowling Green State University Popular Press 0-87972-793-4, pp. 115–116 Harrisburg Club / New York Giants / Original Celtics 1927 Brooklyn Celtics The 1922–23 Original Celtics season was the second professional basketball season ever held by the team that was known as the Original Celtics officially. However, this season would also (potentially) be considered the ninth season of independent play as well for the Celtics. After previously winning the Eastern Basketball League's championship, the Original Celtics decided to leave the EBL to instead play in the Metropolitan Basketball League (at least early on at the time) going forward for that season. However, after the Original Celtics had a perfect 12–0 record to start out the first half of the season and essentially feeling like they were already confirmed to be the champions of the Metropolitan Basketball League if they continued playing there (at least during the first half of the season), they ended up leaving the Metropolitan Basketball League (which would only be in its second season of existence by this point in time with controversial inaugural champions due to the Brooklyn Dodgers technically being crowned champions of that season by default over the New York MacDowell Lyceum due to the latter team going on a player's strikeBradley Grasso Robert John Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia 2003 SPORT Media Publishing, Inc. 1-894963-01-6, pp. 407–408) on November 17, 1922 (just one week before the first half of the season was set to conclude) in order to later return to the Eastern Basketball League for the second (and final) season they could do so under a different name (and location) in the process there. Unlike the previous season in the Eastern Basketball League, where the Original Celtics were playing as their own selves after previously taking over for both the Harrisburg Club and the New York Giants franchises in the first half of the season, the Original Celtics would end up moving out to Atlantic City, New Jersey to become the "Atlantic City Celtics" in the games they played there instead of their official Original Celtics name. Similar to their first season in the Eastern Basketball League (which had existed since 1909, outside of one season due to a combination of World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic,Bradley Grasso Robert John Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia 2003 SPORT Media Publishing, Inc. 1-894963-01-6, p. 395) the Celtics would have to enter the first half of the season holding the record of the original team they were playing for (in this case, the Atlantic City Sandpipers) for the rest of that half of the season before later trying to compete in the second half of the split season format with a clean slate on their ends. However, after the "Atlantic City" Celtics ended up going 5–1 (.833) in the games they played in the Eastern Basketball League (only losing to the Trenton Tigers 29–23 on December 6, 1922), the Celtics would end up defecting from the EBL as well after a game they had previously scheduled against the Philadelphia Jaspers / Jewels on December 22 was postponed due to the Celtics taking a special Western road trip of games on their end, which related to the EBL forcing an ultimatum on the Celtics' ends on accepting a weekly salary of $400 per week instead of the previously agreed upon $900 per week. The declined ultimatum would later lead to not just the Atlantic City Sandpipers / Celtics defecting from the EBL by the end of the first half of the season (finishing their season with a combined 7–10 record between the games played by the Sandpipers and the Celtics, with the Original Celtics having a 5–1 record in Atlantic City and the Sandpipers going 2–9 under their own tenure) alongside the Reading Bears / Pretzels, but it would also lead to the EBL officially defaulting operations entirely, with its season officially ending on January 5, 1923 (though it would also be stated that they ended up quietly ending their season early and prematurely on January 19, 1923 instead). Following the ugly way things ended up going for the Original Celtics during their second and final season in the EBL (as well as the only season they played in the MBL with the perfect record that they had there), the Original Celtics would leave Atlantic City entirely and go back to their original home in New York for the rest of the season, with their games played starting on New Year's Day essentially being a long barnstorming tour that would have them travel throughout three different states and 114 different cities in the process.Nelson Murry R. The Originals: The New York Celtics Invent Modern Basketball 1999 Bowling Green State University Popular Press 0-87972-793-4, p. 116 This season would especially be notable for their barnstorming efforts throughout the entire season, as when they included the twelve straight games played (and won) within the Metropolitan Basketball League and the six games they played in the since-defunct Eastern Basketball League that had them finishing their time spent in that league with a 5–1 record for that season in the games they officially played there (even while playing as the "Atlantic City Celtics" instead of their proper Original Celtics name at the time), the Original Celtics franchise would end up finishing the 205 total games played that season (which officially began on September 1922 and ended on April 1923Peterson Robert Cages to Jump Shots: Pro Basketball's Early Years 1990 Oxford University Press, Inc. 0-19-505310-9, p. 73) with an insurmountable-looking overall record of 193–11–1 (.940, though it's currently not known what game was tied nor the circumstances for how and why it became a recorded tied game in the first place (though it's suggested that Celtics owner Jim Furey would attempt to play teams to a tie and then extract teams to pay more cash (i.e., having the promoter of the match pay more cash to the Celtics) to try and play games for extra minutes in something like an overtime period in order to determine the official winner of a matchPeterson Robert Cages to Jump Shots: Pro Basketball's Early Years 1990 Oxford University Press, Inc. 0-19-505310-9, p. 76)), including the 17–1 record (.944) they had within the two professional basketball leagues they played in.Nelson Murry R. The Originals: The New York Celtics Invent Modern Basketball 1999 Bowling Green State University Popular Press 0-87972-793-4, p. 76 Interestingly, the Original Celtics felt like they had one more team to go up against in order for them to officially consider themselves the "world champions" of basketball for the season, with the team they were most interested in competing against that season being against the Franklin Wonder Five, a high school basketball team from Franklin High School representing the state of Indiana. Despite their best efforts to compete against the Franklin Wonder Five, however, the Original Celtics were ultimately declined the challenge against Franklin to determine who the best basketball team from this season truly was between them both due to Franklin's roster being "too tired" to compete against them after a grueling season of their own that they had to deal with during that same period of time, with Franklin's head coach trying to give them the offer again for next season instead.https://www.newspapers.com/clip/18763994/the-indianapolis-star/ Franklin Declines to Play Celts Five The Indianapolis Star Franklin, Indiana 10 1923-03-03 2020-04-10 Newspapers.com With that being said, despite not having an official final match to determine who they thought was basketball's ultimate champion for the season (as well as there being two teams that had previously beaten the Celtics this season also considering themselves the official champions for the sport of basketball this season due to the Eastern Basketball League's Trenton Tigers (sometimes referred to as the Trenton (Royal) Bengals) beating the Celtics during the one loss they had in the EBL that season with a 29–23 road loss on December 6, 1922 and the Metropolitan Basketball League's Paterson Legionnaires (sometimes referred to as the Kingston/Paterson Legionnaires instead due to them also playing in Kingston, New York as the Kingston Legionnaires within the New York State Basketball League) winning three out of five games played against the Celtics (including a doubleheader series that they had before getting a 24–19 final score on April 6, 1923) before the Legionnaires later won league championships in both the local New York State League and the bigger MBLPeterson Robert Cages to Jump Shots: Pro Basketball's Early Years 1990 Oxford University Press, Inc. 0-19-505310-9, p. 74Original Celtics www.luckyshow.org 2026-08-06 http://www.luckyshow.org/basketball/OrigCelts.htm), the Original Celtics during this season would still hold what can be described as the greatest overall record in basketball, if not sporting history throughout an entire season of play (at least in terms of overall scope). Following this season's conclusion, the Celtics would remain an independent team until the 1926–27 season, where they would compete in the "original" National Basketball League as the Original Celtics before competing in the American Basketball League under the Brooklyn Celtics name, with them also sometimes being referred to as the Brooklyn Arcadians / Celtics (if only in an unofficial manner) for at least the first half of the ABL's second season of existence. Original Celtics Roster Due to information on older professional basketball leagues being generally hard (if not outright impossible these days) to find for players from leagues like the Eastern Basketball League and the Metropolitan Basketball League, there are bound to be more gaps and/or inaccuracies found in certain areas on the team's roster spots than usual.Nelson Murry R. The Originals: The New York Celtics Invent Modern Basketball 1999 Bowling Green State University Popular Press 0-87972-793-4, p. 183 1922–23 Original Celtics #04824c #FFFFFF #FFFFFF #04824c Pete Barry basketball, born 1896 1 G/F 5 11 170 No college 1896-11-16 John Beckman G/F 5 9 160 St. Gabriel's Catholic School (NY) 1895-10-26 Eddie Burke 1 G/F 5 9 160 Boys HS (NY) 1894-09-03 Dutch Dehnert G/F 6 0 185 No college 1898-04-05 Horse Haggerty basketball 1 C 6 4 235 No college 1891-07-04 Nat Holman G/F 5 11 170 Savage School of Physical Education 1896-10-19 Chris Leonard basketball 1 F/C 6 3 190 Manhattan 1890-02-10 Johnny Whitty 1 G/F 5 9 175 No college 1896-02-02 Johnny Whitty Atlantic City Sandpipers Roster Due to information on older professional basketball leagues being generally hard (if not outright impossible these days) to find for players from leagues like the Eastern Basketball League in the case of the Atlantic City Sandpipers specifically (and the Metropolitan Basketball League in the case of the Original Celtics as well), there are bound to be more gaps and/or inaccuracies found in certain areas on the team's roster spots than usual. However, from what was gathered in "The Originals: The New York Celtics Invent Modern Basketball", the original players from the Atlantic City Sandpipers that first represented their team before the Original Celtics took over for a brief period of time were originally players that were a part of the Wilkes-Barre Barons from the previous season before they became the Atlantic City Sandpipers to start out this season instead.Nelson Murry R. The Originals: The New York Celtics Invent Modern Basketball 1999 Bowling Green State University Popular Press 0-87972-793-4, pp. 112–113 As such, the listing of players from this roster would ultimately be a separate listing from that of the Original Celtics' roster, outside of some potential overlapping between the Atlantic City Sandpipers' roster and the Original Celtics' roster in this case, in a way that's somewhat similar to that of what can be considered the merged operations both the Harrisburg Club and New York Giants from the previous season in the Eastern Basketball League. Player PositionJohn "Pete" Barry*G/FJohn Beckman*G/FFrank BruggyG/FRay CrossF/CGeorge "Horse" Haggerty*CQuack HarveyG/FNat Holman*G/FJack LawrenceF/CChris Leonard*F/CJoe MangoldG/FAlly McWilliamsG/FStretch MillerCDoc NewmanG/FObie OberholzerG/FHerman "Chickie" PassonG/FEmil RosenastG/FCharlie TettemerG/FEddie WhiteG/FJohnny Whitty*G * – Played for the team while representing the Atlantic City Celtics name. Team Standings Metropolitan Basketball League Standings +First HalfTeamWinsLossesWinning %Original Celtics1201.000Elizabeth Club93.750Greenpoint Knights of St. Anthony75.583Brooklyn Visitations86.571Brooklyn Pros47.364Paterson Legionnaires48.333New York MacDowell Lyceum510.333Brooklyn Dodgers212.143 The Original Celtics dropped out of the Metropolitan Basketball League after the first half of the season concluded since they felt they were too strong to compete in that league for the rest of the season. As such, the Elizabeth Club was considered the official champions of the first half of the season following the Celtics' departure, with the Yonkers Chippewas replacing the Original Celtics for the second half of the season. +Second Half TeamWinsLossesWinning %Paterson Legionnaires1810.643Brooklyn Pros1810.643Greenpoint Knights of St. Anthony1612.571Yonkers Chippewas1513.536Brooklyn Visitations1413.519Elizabeth Club914.391Brooklyn Dodgers1016.385New York MacDowell Lyceum719.269 The Paterson Legionnaires would end up winning the second half tiebreaker series for the Metropolitan Basketball League's season 2–1 over the Brooklyn Pros, with Paterson later winning the league's championship 3–1 over the Elizabeth Club.METROPOLITAN BASKETBALL LEAGUE - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-05-26 2026-07-15 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/league/metropolitan-basketball-league-2/Bradley Grasso Robert John Total Basketball: The Ultimate Basketball Encyclopedia 2003 SPORT Media Publishing, Inc. 1-894963-01-6, p. 408 Despite the official standing of the MBL as a professional basketball league, however, the Original Celtics were more seen as either the official champions of the sport of basketball (once again) this season or close to that mark due to the similarly competitive nature of the Franklin Wonder Five high school team by comparison due to the overall record that team had, including the perfect record held in the MBL and the near-perfect record held while playing in the EBL, though the Legionnaires would make a decent case on being the overall champions for the sport due to them previously beating the Original Celtics in three out of five matches played (even if they were competing under their alternative name of the Kingston Legionnaires at the time when they were in the New York State Basketball League instead of the Paterson Legionnaires name within the MBL). Eastern Basketball League Standings +First HalfTeamWinsLossesWinning %Trenton Tigers163.842Camden Skeeters164.800Coatesville Coats911.450Atlantic City Sandpipers / Celtics710.412Philadelphia Jaspers / Jewels513.278Reading Bears / Pretzels315.167 The first half of the season would end with the Reading Pretzels and the Atlantic City Sandpipers / Celtics leaving the Eastern Basketball League due to financial and competitive issues involving the EBL this season. +Second Half TeamWinsLossesWinning %Trenton Tigers21.667Camden Skeeters21.667Coatesville Coats22.500Philadelphia Jaspars / Jewels02.000 The Eastern Basketball League would officially cease operations on January 5, 1923 (though they would considerably be quiet about shutting down operations until January 19, 1923 instead). It can be assumed that the Trenton Tigers would be deemed the unofficial champions of the Eastern Basketball League for this season had it continued onward.EASTERN BASKETBALL LEAGUE - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-05-26 2026-07-15 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/league/eastern-basketball-league-13/ (Interestingly enough, the Trenton Tigers could also see themselves as the official basketball champions (in a sense) as well due to them previously beating the Original Celtics in the one Eastern Basketball League match they had against the Celtics this season.)" after the sentence saying "It can be assumed that the Trenton Tigers would be deemed the unofficial champions of the Eastern Basketball League for this season had it continued onward.EASTERN BASKETBALL LEAGUE - Pro Basketball Encyclopedia en-US Pro Basketball Encyclopedia 2014-05-26 2026-07-15 https://probasketballencyclopedia.com/league/eastern-basketball-league-13/%7D%7D References Category:Original Celtics Original Celtics Original Celtics Original Celtics Original Celtics Original Celtics