The New York Knicks won the first game in the history of the Basketball Association of America (which later merged to form the NBA) against the Toronto Huskies on November 1, 1946.

The New York Giants were originally named the New York Football Giants in 1925, so as not to be confused with the baseball team, which also played at the Polo Grounds.

The New York Rangers were named when sportswriters, impressed with Madison Square Garden President G.L. “Tex” Rickard’s ability to pull together an impressive roster of players for a sports franchise, dubbed the team “Tex’s Rangers.”

In 1934, the New York Giants won the NFL title game against the Chicago Bears by switching from cleats to basketball shoes at half time in order to gain better traction on the freezing ground, in what is now known as the “Sneakers Game.”

The Knicks won both the last game played in the old Madison Square Garden, and the first game at the new Madison Square Garden in February 1968.

The Giants advanced to the 1951 World Series after Bobby Thomson hit a home run off the Dodger’s Ralph Branca in the bottom of the ninth in the final National League pennant game, which has since been immortalized as “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”

The Polo Grounds were named after the New York Giant’s original playing field, a polo ground in Central Park.

On August 26, 1939, the Brooklyn Dodgers played the Cincinnati Reds, insignificant except for the fact that it was the first Major League Baseball game broadcast on television.

Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Elmer Stricklett debuted the spitball on May 29, 1905.

The first “subway series” baseball game was played between the New York Giants and the New York Yankees in 1921. The Giants won.