General
George Kalinsky, 88, Madison Square Garden’s First Official Lensman, Dies
With camera in hand, he parlayed a chance encounter with Muhammad Ali into a photography career documenting the Knicks, the Rangers and Garden headliners like Elvis Presley.
George Kalinsky was on vacation when he spotted Muhammad Ali and the sports commentator Howard Cosell walking together on a street in Miami Beach. Camera dangling from a shoulder, he followed them to a boxing gymnasium and talked his way in by claiming to be a photographer for Madison Square Garden.
At the time, in 1966, Mr. Kalinsky said, “I was lucky to be the photographer for my own family.”
He capitalized on his contrived access by approaching The Miami Herald and selling it a photo of Ali training for an upcoming fight. As soon as he returned home to New York, Mr. Kalinsky used the one roll of film he had shot of Ali, the world heavyweight champion, to land a freelance assignment from the Garden’s boxing department.
He began shooting boxing matches regularly, as well as working Knicks basketball games and Rangers hockey games, and by the time a new Garden opened on the West Side of Manhattan in 1968, he had become its first official photographer.
Mr. Kalinsky — perhaps best known for his photo of Willis Reed, the Knicks’ wounded captain, stepping onto the Garden floor for Game 7 of the 1970 N.B.A. finals against the Los Angeles Lakers — died on Thursday at his home in Manhattan, his son, Lee, said. He was 88.
Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, said in a statement: “I can’t think of anyone who has been part of more events at Madison Square Garden than George Kalinsky. He was a gentle soul who loved many generations of Knicks players, who in turn loved him back.”
