By Terry Boehmker
NKy Tribune sports reporter
Recent news reports about Cincinnati Gardens being sold to a company that plans to tear down the historic arena triggered some high school memories for 74-year-old Tom Freppon of Cold Spring.
When Freppon was a freshman on the Newport Catholic High School basketball team in 1956-57, the regular season game against Newport High School was moved to the Gardens because neither high school had a gym big enough to accommodate the large number of fans that turned out for the crosstown rivalry.
Tom Freppon of Cold Spring made the winning basket for Newport Catholic in the 1960 game against Newport that was played at at Cincinnati Gardens.
The game was played at the 11,000-seat arena located a few miles north of downtown Cincinnati for the next three seasons. In the final game on the neutral court, Freppon made a field goal and free throw in the closing seconds to give NewCath a 52-50 win over Newport on January 14, 1960.
“Quite honestly, it was probably the biggest shot I ever made,” Freppon said. “Newport was by far our biggest rival back then so that was a huge win for us. And playing over there was neat because the Gardens was only 11 or 12 years old at that time and it was a big deal playing there.”
When Cincinnati Gardens opened in February of 1949, it was the seventh largest indoor arena in the country, according to the www.cincygardens.com website. Over the years, the venue hosted a wide range of events that included professional sports, concerts, circuses, political rallies and rodeos.
The Gardens became the home court for the Cincinnati Royals professional basketball team in 1957. The University of Cincinnati and Xavier University also played basketball games there.
But scheduling a high school basketball game at the Gardens between two teams from Northern Kentucky was a bit of a gamble in the late 1950s. There was no interstate highway at that time so fans had to do some driving to get there.
Tom Freppon photo in 1960 Newport Catholic High School yearbook.
A newspaper reporter for The Kentucky Post and Times Star who covered the NewCath-Newport game in 1958 wrote, “Despite the minor inconvenience involved in traveling to Cincinnati Gardens, coaches and school officials feel it’s to the advantage of the spectators to hold the game at a spot where everybody can get in. In the past, when the game was played in a high school gym, doors were closed at least an hour before game time and many fans were turned away.”
The main arena at the Gardens had an ice rink for hockey games. Whenever a basketball game was scheduled, a temporary hardwood floor was laid over top of the rink.
“There were dead spots on the floor that you had to be aware of,” Freppon said. “You’d be dribbling up the floor and hit one and the ball wouldn’t come back up very far. It was a strange feeling.”
The hardwood floor didn’t do a very good job of blocking the chilly air emanating from the ice underneath it. Freppon said reserve players on the bench always wore their practice pants and jackets to remain warm.
NewCath and Newport each won two of the four games played at the Gardens. In 1959 and 1960, those games were preceded by another crosstown rivalry – Covington Catholic vs. Holmes. That double-header drew an estimated crowd of 3,000 fans in 1960, according to a newspaper story.
One of the starting guards for CovCath in 1960 was Kenney Shields, who went on to become a highly successful high school and college basketball coach. He scored a game-high 19 points in his team’s 62-40 win over Holmes at the Gardens.
“It was really exciting playing there,” Shields said. “I mean, that was hitting the big time for us. It was extremely thrilling because that was the place to be (for basketball) back then.”
The final game of the 1960 high school double-header at the Gardens had a dramatic ending thanks to Freppon making the winning basket and free throw in the final seconds.
“The students stormed the floor and they hoisted us all up on their shoulders and carried us off,” Freppon recalled. “We were kings for the day at that point.”
