I Miss Ralph Kaplowitz

The New York Times obituary tells the story of one of the very first Knicks.

On Nov. 1, 1946, the Knicks and the Toronto Huskies, both members of the Basketball Association of America, the forerunner of the N.B.A., squared off at Maple Leaf Gardens before an estimated crowd of 8,000.

Kaplowitz, a 6-foot-2 guard from the Bronx who had starred at DeWitt Clinton High School and later at New York University, joined a lineup that included Ossie Schectman, Sonny Hertzberg, Jake Weber and Leo Gottlieb. They beat the Huskies, 68-66.

“Ralph was often called one of the great Jewish players of his time,” said Lou Bender, who starred at DeWitt Clinton a decade earlier and went on to play at Columbia and throughout the 1930s for the Original Celtics, a barnstorming team from New York, and later in the American Basketball League.

“But why not just call him a great player?” Bender, who is 98, said in a telephone interview Friday from his home in Longboat Key, Fla. “What does being Jewish have to do with it? Ralph was a great scorer and a great all-American, and had as good a reputation as a person.”