How Does Boston Garden Magically Flip From Basketball Court to Full Hockey Ice?
They are legends in their own right. They've never won a championship, but no championship would be won by the Celtics nor the Bruins without them.
They are the "Bull Gang", and they are the team responsible for flipping the parquet floor back to ice, or vice versa. The Bull Gang can do it in a record two hours, so if you ever wonder how there could be two playoff games, one for hockey and one for basketball, back to back, or hours within each other, they are the reason it can and will happen.
At the beginning of hockey season, the Bull Gang makes the ice, paints it white, adds the lines, and then maintains it throughout the season.
When there's a basketball game, the work begins to place a cover over and protect the ice, and then lay down the infamous parquet floor in the middle of the arena. It's no small feat, but it happens regularly, and the Bull Gang has it down to a science.
Here's a fun fact. Boston Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk' s father, John, has been part of the Bull Gang for years, so Matt grew up around a rink (originally from Charlestown, Massachusetts).
If you're wondering how fast it happens, check out this time-lapsed video.
The name "Bull Gang" come from the 1920s, when switching out the floors was hard manual labor. They didn't have the machines of today, and worked like bulls to push, pull, and place the pieces all together.
Now you know.
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