The New York Knickerbockers , more popularly known as New York Knicks , are an NBA basketball franchise. Still being one of the founding franchises of the BAA in 1946 (changed its name to NBA in 1949 by merging with the NBL ), one of the only two teams, along with the Boston Celtics, that are still in the same city of their foundation and the most valuable franchise, the Knicks have been standing out for several years more for glamor and spotlight than for their game and, much less, for the titles (the only ones are 1970 and 1973). So where did the Knickerbockers come from and who was that imaginary character?
On a settlement occupied by Dutch settlers at the beginning of the 17th century, located in the southern part of the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the Dutch West India Company founded the city of New Amsterdam in 1625.> , the largest Dutch settlement in North America. In 1664 it would pass into the hands of the English who would rename it as New York. Those early Dutch settlers who arrived in the early 17th century wore a type of pants that rolled up the sleeves or rolled up below the knees called knickerbockers or knickers .
Knickerboker-style pants
But it would be a local lawyer and writer, Washington Irving , which would make the term knickerboker in a referent, synonym or symbol of the city. Until 1809 Washington Irving had barely written a few articles in local newspapers, and he thought it was time to write his first book. Although he fully trusted his possibilities and knew of the quality of his work, he was also aware of the difficulty of succeeding with your first book and, above all, of finding a publisher to publish it or, simply, to read it. So, he decided to create interest and mystery around the book…before publishing it. The book in question was «History of New York » , originally “History of New York from the beginning of the World to the end of the Dutch Dynasty ” (History of New York from the beginning of the world to the end of the Dutch dynasty), an ironic and satirical work on the history of the city. He wrote the book under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker and before his publication he prepared his particular “marketing campaign”. He flooded the New York media with announcements about the disappearance of Diedrich Knickerboker, a supposed Dutch historian. In addition, he placed a note in the room where this imaginary character was supposedly staying. The note said that if he didn't come back, the hotel owners (Washington Irving's accomplices) were authorized to post the hidden manuscript in the room to meet the bill. This case, shrouded in controversy and mystery, shocked New York society, even offering a reward for a clue. Logically, Diedrich Kinckerboker never appeared and, when the time came, the owners of the hotel asked for the manuscript to be published in order to collect the debt of the Dutch historian. There were no shortage of publishers who offered to publish it, and New York City was already aware of the book's existence before it was published.
Advertisement in Federal Gazette Ad announcing publication of Diedrich Knickerbocker's manuscript (referencing author's mysterious disappearance)
On December 19, 1809, the book was published with great success in sales (I don't know if it was out of pity, morbidity or curiosity) and critically (besides, it was really good). Since then, knickerboker it became the term for purebred New Yorkers, the descendants of those early Dutch settlers and thus of the city's origin.
Although in Spain Washington Irving he is best known for being the author of the short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow , I would like to remind you that thanks to the position he held, ambassador of the United States in Madrid, he toured a large part of the geography of our country, especially the south, and became a great connoisseur of our history and passionate about our literature . In fact, several of his works have our story as the protagonist: My trip to the Columbian places (1828), Chronicle of the conquest of Granada (1829), Tales of the Alhambra (1832), Story of the life and voyages of Christopher Columbus (1833) and Moorish Chronicles:Legends of the Conquest of Spain (1835).