The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-12-29
PHILADELPHIA, BUFFALO ENTERPRISES EXPAND

Mild, sote-SpoKen, paldlnG Neu Irish Is the S6-year old ex-newg- papermalr who capitalized on an Idea so simple and workable, 1t bor. dered on the obvious. Yet today, Irish-two room cubbyhole end all --has 0 $300,000 gold mine boom- Ing in New York, expanding erls terprises in Philadelphia and Buff falo.
 Irish's business is basketball. His brainstorm ran something like this: New York liked basketball, It had all the earmarks of 6 natural ct the gate. There were 10 colleges in tho greater New York area which played ftrst-rate ball.
 These schools were limited by seating capacities. New York Uni- verslty, for example, had some e. 500 students, Q gym seating only l. 500. Tordham's top was 2,600. City College, with an enrolment of l2,- 900, could handle no more than i,2o0.
 This was c spot for middle man, unused Irish. Why not bring basketball to Madison Square Gar den2 Make New York colleges the home representatives. Bring in the cream of other sections. With dou. bio headers, the student bodies alone offered a siEeable nucleus, And Irish had on Idea the city gentry would back the scheme, too,
 That was eight years ago, and Irish, who was pounding out bass ketball copy for Q New York news paper, went to work. The prellm- tnaries took more than eight months. Irish was also doing foot ball publicity for the New York Giants. He found that his two sidelines had become full time propositions.
 So he quit newspapering, Q dc. clSion foStered by his boss, who advised him that anyone with such natural promotional ability was Q sucker tI pound & typewriter. He rented the Garden and set sail.
 The first year Irish lined up six double e-headers. Opening night sold the show As Westminster met st. Johns and Notrc Dame tangled with N, Y. U. The customers loved 1t.
 Irish wastd no time. He expand- ed pronto. Last season, Irish spon- sored i8 regular double.headers at the Garden leverage attendance i4,B3S), two A. A. U. games (before 82l0) and four nights iof National Invitation games (gate 70,826). NONE LOSE MONEY BOOKED UNDER TRISH'S BANNER
 It's c year-around joh The Sched- ulo runs from fnid-Novembe iin- til the end of March. Not until July are the bookings for the fol- lowing season set. Eighteen nights mean 36 games and "a teams. Wise itorS from other sections like to play their way into New York, which involves arranging stopover contests.
 The finest of the nations col- legiate basketball crop jump at IrlSh invitations.
 Fame brought new business to Irish. The Garden Invitation Tour nalnent, in which two selected New York teams face six crack outfits from other sections of the country, was originally sponsored by metro. politan basketball writers. Irish now promotes these contests, high point Of his season.
 Other cities came to him for help. He now handles Convention Hall basketball in Philadelphia, with La- Sale, Temple and St. Joseph as home teams. Canisius College Of Buffalo is c new client. Hershey, Pa., was on his list. Irish became c basketball counsellor.
 Schools get no guarantees, but they don't lose any money playing under 1rish'S banner.
 There Is no question that Irish hit the basketball jackpot. 1ie lives ln c Fifth Avenue apartment with his wife and two children, spends summers at his Spring Lake, N. J., homo.
 Irish started in 1893 when busl- ness indices were taking c pro- nounced neither slant.
 Pretty risky starting in 6 de- pTeSsiosl, wasn't it2
 What depression?" asks Ned Irish, without c blink.
 You lot it 20 At that.