A number of sports personalities, sports-related personalities, and newsmen and newswomen from the papers and television, the mayor of New York City, the governor of New York State, Cardinal Cooke, and almost two hundred people who just happened to be passing by gathered the other day in the mall at Madison Square Garden to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Madison Square Garden (there were three Madison Square Gardens before the present one, the first two really on Madison Square, and the third up at Fiftieth and Eighth) and to unveil a bronze statue of the goddess Diana, a duplicate of a statue of the goddess Diana which used to stand on top of the second Madison Square Garden.
Jack Dempsey was there, seated in a chair.
Dave Maloney, Phil Esposito, and Mike McEwen (the Rangers hockey stars) were there, and they stood behind Jack Dempsey, with their arms folded across their chests.
Joe Frazier was there, and he stood next to Jack Dempsey, with his hands folded across his chest.
A man wearing a toupee that made him look exactly like George Steinbrenner was there.
Jackie Stone, the television-news reporter, was there. After the taping of her report, she worried out loud about the angle at which her nose had been shot.
Howard Cosell, acting as master of ceremonies, was there.
Some of the people who were there made elaborate speeches. Some of the people who were there applauded the end of the elaborate speeches.
One man, whose name we didn’t catch, named, in his elaborate speech, some boxing event as the most electric moment in the history of Madison Square Garden. Cardinal Cooke, in his elaborate speech, said that Madison Square Garden and St. Patrick’s Cathedral were both a hundred years old this year. Howard Cosell began his elaborate speech, “I think you know the nature of the circumstances under which we are gathered here.”
After that, Mayor Koch, Governor Carey, and a number of the other guests, grabbing the ends of two pieces of gold cord, unveiled the statue. The goddess Diana stood stark naked on tiptoe with a drawn bow.
—June 18, 1979