On this day: New Boston Garden opens; Ruben Wolkowyski born
On this day in Boston Celtics history, the storied franchise’s current home venue, TD Garden, opened for business in 1995. Created as a replacement for the outdated and undersized original Boston Garden — located a mere nine inches to the south of the recurrent building during its construction — the new venue was officially opened on this date on the day after a similar celebratory closing event was held in the original Boston Garden.
Relocation rumbles began as far back as the 1970s when the Boston Bruins nearly moved to New Hampshire, and the Celtics considered relocating to Revere, Massachusetts.
Rights for a new arena were granted in 1985, but concrete plans did not materialize for most of a decade, with funding for construction secured in 1993, and construction beginning in April of that year.
Total construction time was 27 weeks, with heavy snowfall adding seven weeks to the overall period needed to finish.
The day after the farewell to the old Garden — complete with appearances from news anchor Dan Rather, hockey great Bobby Orr, Larry Bird, and Red Auerbach — the opening ceremony at the new Garden was held on September 30th, 1995.
Walt Disney’s World On Ice, Patti LaBelle, James Taylor, and a number of other performers were in attendance for the festivities.
The Celtics would play their first game in the new building — now known as TD Garden — a little over a month later on November 3rd.
Happy birthday Rubén Wolkowyski! #Celtics pic.twitter.com/zrCYqtk8c8
— Honest☘️Larry (@HonestLarry1) September 30, 2020
It is also the birthday of former Boston big man Rubén Wolkowyski, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1973.
Wolkowyski played stints with a number of teams in his home country and the (then) Seattle Supersonics (now, Oklahoma City Thunder) before joining Boston as an unrestricted free agent in 2002.
He would play just seven games for the team before being waived in February of 2003, averaging 0.7 points and 0.1 rebounds per contest as a Celtic.
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