You know, it’s funny what triggers old memories. My kid was going on and on the other day about the AC in our local mall not working right. Made me think, kids these days, they really don’t know how good they’ve got it, especially when it comes to old sports venues.
I’m talking about places like the old Boston Garden. That place was a legend, but not always for the right reasons if you were there on a hot day.
No Frills, All Sweat
Here’s the deal: the old Boston Garden, the original one, it didn’t have air conditioning. Seriously. For decades. All those historic Celtics games, Bruins playoffs deep into spring? Folks were just baking in there. My dad used to go, and the stories he told, man. He’d say it wasn’t just a game; it was an endurance test.
Think about it:
- Thousands of fans packed in like sardines.
- No real ventilation to speak of.
- Boston summers, or even late spring, can get surprisingly warm and humid.
He always said you’d leave drenched, win or lose. It was just part of the ‘Garden experience’. You’d walk in, and the wave of heat and stale air would just hit you. But nobody turned around and left, not if you had a ticket to see Bird or Orr.
I actually went once with my uncle, not for a huge playoff game, but a regular season Bruins game in early fall. It wasn’t scorching, but you could tell the air was just… thick. And that was on a mild day. I can only imagine what it was like in May or June under those playoff lights.
The most famous instance everyone brings up is Game 5 of the 1984 NBA Finals. Celtics vs. Lakers. It was apparently scorching in there, something like 97 degrees Fahrenheit on the court. Players were struggling hard. I remember watching highlights later, even on our old TV, you could tell it was brutal. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the all-time greats, was on the sideline with an oxygen mask. The Lakers were fuming, thought it was some kind of home-court advantage cooked up by Red Auerbach. Knowing Red, maybe it was! That old Garden had its ways.
We used to hear these stories and almost couldn’t believe it. My buddies and I would play basketball out in the blazing sun in July, pretending we were in the Garden, trying to be as tough as those guys. We’d even skip water breaks sometimes, just to see who’d complain first. Didn’t quite work like the real thing, but you get the idea. It was a different era, that’s for sure. The idea of “home-court advantage” took on a whole new meaning.
Now you go to the TD Garden, the new place, and it’s all state-of-the-art. Climate control, comfy seats, the works. And that’s great, don’t get me wrong. Much more comfortable, for sure. But there’s a part of me that thinks something was lost. That shared struggle, the sheer grit of playing and watching in those conditions, it built a certain character, a certain legend around the place and the teams. You don’t get that same raw feeling from a perfectly chilled arena.
So yeah, no AC in the Boston Garden. It’s one of those “back in my day” things that actually holds up. Wild stuff when you really stop and think about it.