[While rummaging through newspaper clips from the early 1970s, I stumbled onto a sports column that mentioned in passing a bench-clearing NBA brawl during the 1950s. According to the columnist, the fisticuffs dragged on for a gruesome half an hour. I thought, “Wow, never heard of that one.” A quick web search pulled up nothing. Changed my search terms. Still nothing.
With some further detective work, I found the game. It took place on January 10, 1959 and involved the visiting New York Knicks and the Philadelphia Warriors. With some further reading, I discovered that the Warriors were trailing in the fourth quarter, made a late comeback, and, with time running out, Philadelphia coach Al Cervi yelled for his 6-foot-5, 215-pound rookie Andy Johnson, a former Globetrotter, to intentionally foul Knick guard Richie Guerin.
What follows is a synopsis of what happened next. The synopsis is a compilation of newspaper accounts of the game, primarily from the Philadelphia Inquirer but also the New York Daily News, the Jersey Journal, and a brief mention of the fight in Mark Johnson’s 2010 book Basketball Slave. Having poured through it all—as well as speaking briefly with one of the combatants, who still remembered the details but shrugged off the fight (“things were rougher back then.”)—I now doubt that all the swinging lasted half an hour. Nevertheless, this rumble in Philadelphia’s Convention Hall did drag on for quite a while, maybe 20 minutes, or long enough, by today’s standards, that it’s an intentional foul to remember.]
****
Shorthanded though they were, the Philadelphia Warriors snapped their four-game losing streak as they defeated New York, 103-97, and then whipped the taller Knicks in a battle royal between the teams in the final minute of the NBA contest before 3,267 excited fans last night at Convention Hall.
Peerless Paul Arizin led the Warriors to victory with 38 points in the stormy contest that saw Philadelphia’s Andy Johnson and New Yorker Richie Guerin—whose fisticuffs touched off the storm—banished by referee Sid Borgia with 53 seconds left to play.
The Warriors, bothered by the Knicks’ belated press that had notched eight straight points, led at 99-94 when husky Johnson, late of the Harlem Globies, applied a hard intentional foul on the ex-Marine Guerin near the New York basket. Though Handy Andy was charged with the personal, Guerin glared back at him red-faced.
“What’s wrong with you,” Johnson reportedly asked.
“I am a Marine.”
“But this is the NBA, not the service.”
Guerin started swinging, only to find Johnson a sharper hitter. As the two lunged, ramming into the floor-side crowd, they were joined by all the members of the two squads and disappeared from the view.
As the mass battle continued, arbiters Borgia and Marty Cribbons went into a dither, then the combatants surged back onto the playing floor. It took police 10 minutes to break up the donnybrook.
When peace appeared to be restored, Warrior Woody Sauldsberry tangled anew with Knick rookie Guy Sparrow. Spectators once more poured onto the floor. A spectator took a hand coming to Woody’s aid, and Tom Gola and Andy Johnson were embroiled in the melee that found Sparrow slugged groggy.
“We were in the stands fighting,” said Sparrow, “when this policeman grabbed me with a hammerlock. I thought he was pulling me away so that the fight would stop. But when I raised my free hand to swing at a fan who was coming at me, this cop says to me, not him, ‘You swing at him, and you’ll go to jail.’”
Borgia, in his excitement, screamed that the game was called off because of inadequate police protection. Warrior owner Eddie Gottlieb pointed out numerous police who were engaged in restoring order, and Borgia changed his mind.
When the smoke cleared, Knick coach Fuzzy Levane was slugged on the back of his head. Levane said Vern Hatton of the Warriors slugged him, Hatton insisted it was a fan. Anyway, Carl Braun rapped Hatton on the back of the head just to make sure. Ron Sobie got tagged by two punches (assailant unknown), Sparrow had a bruised forehead and a cut scalp, and Braun had a finger stuck in his eye and injured his punching hand (the right). Guerin was also well-lumped and scratched.
No Warrior was scuffed.
Borgia charged not only Guerin but also Johnson with technical fouls. Guerin went to the line to shoot the personal, his right eye badly swollen, and missed it.
Ron Sobie, who suffered a bruised hand and knee in the altercation, made the technical foul for the Knicks, while Arizin made good for the Warriors.
Sparrow, still loopy, missed a foul try, but shortly clicked with a set shot for the final New York basket. The best-in-show Arizin drove in for his 15th field goal (in 25 shots). Ernie Beck, who contributed a much-needed 17, sank a foul to close out the scoring.
After the game, Guerin explained his misunderstanding with Johnson: “He has a filthy mouth, and he uses it all the time.”
From Way Downtown 
And the irony of the whole thing was that when the game was over, Knicks had to take a bus back to New York.And the bus took the Warriors too, because they were gonna play in the Garden the next night. So here were these two teams who just had this terrific brawl were locked together in a darkened bus from Philadelphia to New York. The ride was pretty quiet.
LikeLike