Ned Irish

Edward S. "Ned" Irish (May 6, 1905 – January 21, 1982) was a basketball promoter and one of the key figures in popularizing professional basketball. He was the president of the New York Knicks from 1946 to 1974. He was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964.

A pioneer in the late 1930s in the big-time promotion of college basketball, Ned Irish took the sport from small venues to Madison Square Garden. He also founded the New York Knicks and assisted in the organization of the National Basketball Association. For his part in popularizing basketball, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964.

Irish was born and raised near Lake George, New York. He had already launched his business career at age 10. Following in his late father's footsteps, he earned money by selling sodas and newspapers and by renting boats. His mother, a practical nurse, then moved the family to Brooklyn. As a student at Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School, Irish covered prep and amateur sports for three New York dailies, managed the school's swimming and tennis teams, was class president, was a member of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity and worked in the school cafeteria.

He then attended the University of Pennsylvania as a business major, where he worked for the school paper and edited the monthly literary magazine. To earn money he sold sheet music and organized the university's first student job-placement bureau. While he seemed destined to succeed in a career in business, Irish grew more interested in journalism, working as a reporter for the Philadelphia Record and as a stringer for several New York newspapers.

Journalism won out after he graduated in 1928. Irish went to work at $60 per week for the New York Telegram, one of several daily newspapers in New York City. Always industrious and ambitious, he also took part-time jobs with the National Football League's Information Bureau, and as the New York Giants’ public relations director.

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