If you are a Knicks fan you might know that the original and still official corporate name of the basketball team is the New York Knickerbockers. You might even know that “Father Knickerbocker” dribbling a basketball was the team logo from 1946 to 1964. But who was the real Father Knickerbocker?

Original 1946 logo for the New York Knickerbockers, by sports cartoonist Willard Mullin.

Herman Knickerbocker was from an old Dutch New York family. As a young lawyer, he befriended the struggling writer Washington Irving. In 1809, Irving pulled off the 19th Century equivalent of a viral media stunt. Borrowing the name of his friend, he placed several missing persons advertisements in New York newspapers saying he was looking for Diedrick Knickerbocker, whom he described as a Dutch historian missing from a Manhattan hotel. Posing as the hotel proprietor he said Knickerbocker had left behind a manuscript, which he would publish if the man did not come forward. The story of the missing historian created a buzz. On December 6, 1809, Irving published A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty by Diedrich Knickerbocker. The book was a satirical look at the history and politics of New York and America, and it was an instant success.

The fictional “Diedrich Knickerbocker” from the frontispiece of Washington Irving’s *A History of New-York*, drawn by Felix O.C. Darley in 1809.

The name Knickerbocker, and the character of an old Dutchman from the frontispiece, caught the 19th Century public’s imagination. Soon after “Knickerbocker” became shorthand for a resident of Manhattan and was adopted as the name of an Albany newspaper, a New York literary magazine, a publishing house, a hotel built by the Astors, the baggy short trousers popular with young men, golfers and liberated women, a baseball franchise, a posh club, a beer brand and any number of other businesses. Washington Irving later marveled:

“When I find after a lapse of nearly forty years the haphazard production of my youth still cherished among them [New Yorkers]—when I find its very name become a ‘household word’ and used to give the home stamp to everything recommended for popular acceptance, such as Knickerbocker societies, Knickerbocker insurance companies, Knickerbocker steamboats, Knickerbocker omnibuses, Knickerbocker bread and Knickerbocker ice—and when I find New Yorkers of Dutch descent priding themselves upon being ‘genuine Knickerbockers’—I please myself with the persuasion that I have struck the right chord.’[1]

“Father Knickerbocker’s Fight for a Sensible Sunday Law.” *Puck Magazine*, November 27, 1901. Courtesy Library of Congress.

In 1877, Puck magazine first published a cartoon featuring the character “Father Knickerbocker” as a symbol of New York City in the way that Uncle Sam is used to represent the United States. By the 1900s, Father Knickerbocker was a familiar character used in editorial cartoons, sheet music, and in NYC government publications. The Department of Health published a weekly series of articles “Dr. Knickerbocker Says” to inform New Yorkers in the 1930s and 40s.

So, in 1946, when Ned Irish was looking for a name for his new basketball franchise, the “Knickerbockers” won the vote. The Father Knickerbocker logo was drafted by sports cartoonist Willard Mullin.

“Father Knickerbocker on Rockefeller Center terrace overlooking midtown,” March 25, 1952. Official Mayoral Photographs, NYC Municipal Archives.

But soon a walking talking Father Knickerbocker appeared. His name was James J. O’Brien, a professor of modern languages at Fordham University. O’Brien started working for Mayor O’Dwyer in 1947 as an assistant and then became secretary to the Department of Public Works. In 1949, he adopted the colonial garb of Father Knickerbocker and embarked on a 17-day global trip to promote “World Trade Week,” and New York City as a trading capital. His return was captured in an interview by the newly formed WNYC Film Unit.

Through the early 1950s he continued to make public appearances as Father Knickerbocker, including on February 1, 1953, when New York marked the 300th anniversary of the incorporation of New Amsterdam. O’Brien went on to become the Deputy Chairman of the Mayor’s Reception Committee (1954-1955), Manager - Business Government Liaison of the Department of Commerce and Public Events (1955-1961), and then Deputy Commissioner of Commerce and Public Events (1962-1968). He gave tours of City Hall, handed out “keys to the city” and greeted distinguished guests under four mayors, William O’Dwyer, Vincent R. Impellitteri, Robert F. Wagner and John V. Lindsay.

REC0047_1_0016: “Father Knickerbocker’s Return,” April 16, 1949. WNYC-TV collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

According to a 1952 New York Times article, the City never purchased an outfit for O’Brien, they rented one from a costumer. “Dr. O’Brien still rents, either from Brooks, or from Eaves, at $15 a rental. He gets his gray periwig from Birnstein & Migliore, and he owns two pairs of square-rimmed spectacles done to his prescription by Schoenig & Co.”[2] The article also mentioned that there was another Father Knickerbocker “who poses for beer ads—actor chap named O’Neill...” O’Brien was dismissive of this rival, “He’s a commercial Knickerbocker.... We don’t recognize him down here at City Hall.”

“Father Knickerbocker (James J O’Brien) on ABC Zeke Manners Show,” June 1950. Official Mayoral Photographs, NYC Municipal Archives.

O’Brien (aged 65) died in Ireland in 1968, while on vacation. His correspondence from 1946 to 1961 is preserved in the Municipal Archives and consists of thousands of letters to and from civic and trade groups, congress members, presidents, and prime ministers. A few bulging folders are correspondence with soldiers from New York stationed in Korea whom, upon request, he would send a New York State Flag to. He is usually addressed in the letters by his official title, but some of the letter writers added “Father Knickerbocker.”