The Celtics Beagle FAQ and Myth-Debunking Section

This is where common questions will be answered, and common misconceptions will be corrected.  Click on the FAQ for what will be an ever-expanding list of questions and answers.  Or, you can click on the Myths to reach the Truth (not Pierce, a more generalized Truth), or just scroll down and have fun.

If you have a suggestion for the FAQ, or a Myth that needs Debunking, feel free to send e-mail to the Celtics Beagle.

Special thanks to Kim Malo, who gave the CBW permission to raid her Celtic FAQ from the alt.sports.basketball.nba.boston-celtics newsgroup, which was originally posted in 1998.

The FAQ
When were the Boston Celtics Created?
Who created the team?
Why are they called the Celtics?
Who came up with the team logo/mascot?
Why do they have a  "Parquet Court", anyway?
How many Championships have the Celtics won, and which years?
What's this about "Laker balloons"?
What's with those nasty cigars Red Auerbach smokes, anyway?
Which Championship ring does Red Auerbach wear?
Which Celtics have had their numbers retired?
Which Celtics are in the NBA Hall of Fame?
Which Celtics have had numbers retired AND are in the NBA Hall of Fame?
Who has coached the team over the years?
Who are "McFilthy and McNasty"?
Why do the Celtics only wear black sneakers?
What is the "Sixth Man"?
Was the first Celtics game really delayed by a broken backboard?
Did Bill Russell really throw up before every game?
How many plays did the Dynasty Celtics use?
Did the Celtics draft a player who was paralyzed?
Were the Celtics the first team to sweep a Finals series?
Did Dave Cowens really take time off from the C's to drive a cab?
Is John Havlicek's memento of the 1976 championship a dishpan?
Who hit the first NBA 3-point shot?
What does the "KC" in KC Jones stand for?
Has anyone ever won an NCAA, ABA & NBA title?
Is it true that Red Auerbach originally didn't want Bob Cousy on the Celtics?
Who was the first black player in the NBA?
When was the Celtics first Championship?
When did Havlicek steal the ball?
What's the correct pronunciation- "Sell-tic" or "Kell-tic"?









When were the Boston Celtics Created?

They were one the original professional teams created in 1946 by the group that eventually became the NBA.
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Who created the team?

The Celtics were created by Walter Brown, who was the team's first owner, and one of the "Founding Fathers" of the NBA.
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Why are they called the Celtics?

Team founder and owner Walter Brown took the name from the Original Celtics, a barnstorming basketball team from NYC, and used green uniforms to attract Boston's large Irish population.
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Who came up with the team logo/mascot?

The design was originally done in the 1950s by Zhang Auerbach, Red's brother, who passed away in 2003.  The design has had some slight modifications over the years, but has basically remained unchanged.  Lucky the mascot recently had a makeover, which has yet to land him a photo spread in any fashion magazine.
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Why do they have a "parquet court", anyway?

When the floor was originally built in 1946, WWII had just ended less than a year before, and a lot of things were in short supply, driving up the cost of whatever was available--including hardwood.  By using secondhand (or scrap) wood from the DiNatalie family of Brookline, MA, the floor was manufactured into 264 interlocking squares.  Not only was it financially necessary, but since the Boston Bruins played hockey in the same place, the floor HAD to be portable.  The Celtics saved a lot of money, which was in chronically short supply for most of the first twenty-five years the team played.
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How many Championships have the Celtics won, and which years?

Seventeen:
1956-57, 1958-59, 1959-60, 1960-61, 1961-62, 1962-63, 1963-64, 1964-65, 1965-66, 1967-68, 1968-69, 1973-74, 1975-76, 1980-81, 1983-84, 1985-86, 2007-2008
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What's this about "Laker balloons"?

In 1969, the Celtics were, frankly, an aging team that struggled a bit during the regular season.  In the finals against the Lakers, the hated West Coast rivals were overwhelmingly favored to win it all.  The Lakers, being Lakers, bought into the hype, figuring it was a done deal with game seven in their building.

Bill Russell got ahold of a program detailing the Lakers planned celebration, including lots of balloons suspended by nets from the ceiling, which would be released after the presumed victory.  The champaigne was even already opened.  He passed this information to his teammates, who were all offended by this presumption.

The Celtics proceeded to win the game, and the championship.  Accounts differ as to who it was--Russell or Red or someone else-- that moved the bubbly to the visitors locker room, but the stuff didn't go to waste.
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What's with those nasty cigars Red Auerbach smokes, anyway?

There are several versions of the origins of the "victory cigar".  At the time he was coaching the Celtics, Red simply remarked that they helped him relax, and that the symbolic act of relaxing with a cigar told the team, the opponents, and the fans that the game was won.

Another--and given Red's contentions history with the league, probably accurate--story has it that Red was tired of being singled out by the league for fines, complaints, and general abuse.  He started smoking a cigar on the bench to annoy them, and got a nastygram saing it didn't look good to be on the bench smoking. 

However it started, it hasn't stopped.  Complaints from the League, fans, other teams, and even his own players didn't stop him from lighting up.  A few years ago, Red was eating dinner at Legal Seafoods in Boston, a restaurant that, like many, did not permit cigar smoking, and printed a rule to that effect on the menu.  Red, of course, was puffing away when a patron at a nearby table chided him telling him to read the menu and put it out.  "No," Red replied, "YOU read the menu."  She did, only to find it said that cigar smoking was not permitted--EXCEPT for Red Auerbach.
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Which Championship ring did Red Auerbach wear?

The 1969 ring, which he quipped was "lighter".  However, that was also the year Russell retired, and of the balloon victory.
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Which Celtics have had their numbers retired?

First, there are "symbolic" retirements, no less venerable though they represent people who never actually played basketball for the Celtics.  They are:

1, Walter Brown, founder and first owner of the Boston Celtics and one of the founders of what became the NBA. After he died of a heart attack on September 7, 1964, a symbolic #1 was retired for him on October 17 of that year.

2, Arnold "Red" Auerbach, legendary Celtics Coach, who set a standard for excellence, winning, and unexpected moves that literally rewrote the book on professional basketball.  A symbolic #2, showing his importance to the Celtics second only to Walter Brown, was retired on January 4, 1985.  He died in 2006.

A symbolic microphone high above courtside for Johnny Most, the longtime "Voice of the Boston Celtics" from 1953-1990, when he retired due to health reasons, was installed in December of 1990.  It was attached to the vantage point in the stands he always described as broadcasting from, "high above courtside".  He died in 1993.

Then, there are the player's numbers (and the date they were retired):

00 - Robert Parish (January 18, 1998)
3 - Dennis Johnson (December 13, 1991)
6 - Bill Russell (March 12, 1972 in private ceremony which he did not attend, Retired again in a public ceremony May 6, 1999)
10 - JoJo White (April 9,1982)
14 - Bob Cousy (October 16, 1963)
15 - Tom Heinsohn (October 15, 1966)
16 - Tom "Satch" Sanders (January, 1973 - even his own website doesn't give the exact date)
17 - John Havlicek (October 13, 1978)
18 - Dave Cowens (February 8, 1981)
"Loscy" - Jim Loscutoff, who wore #18 before Cowens, but wanted the number to remain available after his retirement in 1964.  The Celtics retired his nickname instead, the only NBA team to have done so.
19 - Don Nelson (1978 - exact date not listed)
21 - Bill Sharman (October 15, 1966)
22 - Ed Macauley (October 16, 1963)
23 - Frank Ramsey (exact date unknown, Ramsey himself retired in 1964)
24 - Sam Jones (March 9, 1969)
25 - K.C. Jones (Feb 12, 1967)
31 - Cedric Maxwell (December 15, 2003)
32 - Kevin McHale (January 30, 1994)
33 - Larry Bird (February 4, 1993)
35 - Reggie Lewis (March 22, 1995)

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Which Celtics are in the Hall of Fame?

Here's the list, by name, of everyone associated with the Celtics who is in the Hall, why they were inducted (player, college player, coach, contributer), and the year they were enshrined.

Ed Macauley, player, 1960
Andy Phillip, college player, 1961
John "Honey" Russell, player, 1964
Walter Brown, contributer, 1965
Bill Mokray, contributer, 1965
Alvin "Doggie" Julian, coach, 1967
Arnold "Red" Auerbach, coach, 1968
Bob Cousy, player, 1970
Bill Russell, player, 1974
Bill Sharman, player, 1975
Frank Ramsey, player, 1981
John Havlicek, player, 1983
Sam Jones, player, 1983
Tom Heinsohn, player, 1986
Bob Houbregs, player, 1987
Pete Maravich, player, 1987
Clyde Lovellette, player, 1988
K.C. Jones, player, 1989
Dave Bing, player, 1990
Nate "Tiny" Archibald, player, 1991
Dave Cowens, player, 1991
Bill Walton, player, 1993
Bailey Howell, player, 1997
Larry Bird, player, 1998
Arnie Risen, player, 1998
Kevin McHale, player 1999
John Thompson, coach, 1999
Wayne Embry, contributor, 1999
Robert Parish, player, 2003
Dominique Wilkins, player, 2006
Dave Gavitt, contributor, 2006
Dennis Johnson, player, 2010
Tom "Satch" Sanders, contributer, 2011
Don Nelson, coach, 2012
Don Barksdale, contributer, 2012

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Which Celtics have had their number retired AND are in the Hall of Fame?

Red Auerbach, Larry Bird, Walter Brown, Bob Cousy, Dave Cowens, Tom Heinsohn, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, Ed Macauley,
Don Nelson, Robert Parish, Frank Ramsey, Bill Russell, and Bill Sharman
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Who has coached the team over the years?

John "Honey" Russell 1946-48
Alvin "Doggie" Julian 1948-50
Arnold "Red" Auerbach 1950-66
Bill Russell 1966-69
Tom Heinsohn 1969-78
Tom "Satch" Sanders 1978
Dave Cowens 1978-79
Bill Fitch 1979-83
K.C. Jones 1983-88
Jimmy Rodgers 1988-90
Chris Ford 1990-95
M.L. Carr 1995-97
Rick Pitino 1997-2001
Jim O'Brien 2001-04
John Carroll 2004
Glenn "Doc" Rivers 2004-present

It's interesting to note that seven of the C's first nine coaches are in the Hall of Fame.
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Who are "McFilthy and McNasty"?

They are Jeff Ruland and Rick Mahorn, two players who opposed the Celtics by means of what could charitably called overly physical play.  They received these interchangable nicknames courtesy of Celtics radio announcer Johnny Most, who had a knack for vilifying everyone not playing for the Celtics.
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Why do the Celtics only wear black sneakers?

Like so many of the Celtics traditions, it has it's roots in practical finance.  Back in the early days, teams bought all the equipment for their players--including sneakers.  (There were no $90 million dollar sneaker contracts for ANYONE.)  Red, as coach and man in charge of what little money Walter Brown could send his way, picked black sneaks because they wouldn't show wear and tear as much or as fast.

In recent years, the team has allowed the players to wear white sneakers.
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What is the "Sixth Man"?

The idea was started by Red Auerbach.  When one of the five starters came out of the game, he wanted the first player off the bench to be at least as good as the player he was replacing.  This way, the other team couldn't "let up" against the substituting player.

Frank Ramsey had the honor of being the first Sixth Man for Boston.

In 1982, the NBA instituted the "Sixth Man Award", given to the most valuable bench player, who had to have come off the bench more often than starting the game.

Kevin McHale won the award twice, in 1983-84, and 1984-85.
Bill Walton won in 1985-86, the last Celtic player to win as of 2007-08.
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Was the first Celtics game really delayed by a broken backboard?

Yes.  On November 5, 1946, the Celtics were going through pregame warmups at Boston Arena when Celtic player Chuck Connors (later famous as the star of "The Rifleman" television series) broke a backboard.  The game was delayed an hour because the only spare backboard was at the Garden, where the circus was in town.  The elephant was, sadly, not housebroken.  It was deemed a good idea to clean the replacement backboard before transporting it.
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Did Bill Russell really throw up before every game?

Yes, he did.  It became part of the team's pregame ritual, to such an extent that, prior to a seventh playoff game against Philadelphia, Red learned that Russell had not tossed his cookies.  Red pulled the team off the floor and ordered Bill to go throw up.  He did, and the Celtics won the game, and the series.
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How many plays did the Dynasty Celtics use?

There were a grand total of seven basic plays with 28 total options from those plays.  It tells you how good the Celtics were, when every opponent knew exactly what play would be called and the Celtics still won.
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Did the Celtics draft a player who was paralyzed?

Yes, in 1982.  Indiana State's Landon Turner had been paralyzed in a car accident just prior to the draft, a few months after his team won the NCAA title.  As a favor to then coach Bobby Knight (who started a fund that raised $400,000 to defray expenses)--and to lift Landon's spirits--Red drafted him in the 10th round, so that no matter what happened, Landon could proudly state he was drafted by the Boston Celtics.

As of 2008, he was working as a motivational speaker in Indianapolis, and still keeps contact with the basketball world.
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Were the Celtics the first team to sweep a Finals series?

Yes, in 1959, fittingly against the (Boo!) Lakers.
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Did Dave Cowens really take time off from the C's to drive a cab?

Yes, he did.  He was suffering burnout and took the time to "clear his head".  Yes, it's also true he celebrated the 1974 championship by sleeping on a park bench in Boston Common, after wandering all over the city to celebrate with everyone he knew.
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Is John Havlicek's memento of the 1976 Championship a dishpan?

Yes, it surely is.  He'd played most of the season with a torn fascia in the arch of his right foot.  He used a square torquoise dishpan to keep icing the foot down and took it nearly everywhere with him.  He still has the dishpan. 
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Who hit the first NBA 3-point shot?

Former Celtics player and Coach Chris Ford, on October 12, 1979.
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What does the "KC" in KC Jones stand for?

Nothing.  KC is his given name.
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Has any Celtic ever won an NCAA, ABA, and NBA title?

Yes, Tom Thacker, who played for the Celtics in 1967-68, winning an NBA title.  He won the NCAA title with the Cincinnati Bearcats, and the ABA title with the Indiana Pacers (then an ABA team).

He is the only player in history to do so.  Needless to say, no one has won these plus an Olympic Gold Medal.
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Is it true Red Auerbach originally didn't want Bob Cousy on the Celtics?

Absolutely.  Cousy's path to the Celtics intertwined with not one, but TWO Celtics coaches, and three different teams.  Cousy was a college player at Holy Cross under Coach Alvin "Doggie" Julian, who was a Celtics Coach from 1948-50.  Julian was an old-school coach, and regarded Cousy's dribbling and behind the back passes as showboating.  Cousy became a sensation in a game taking place at none other than Boston Garden (Holy Cross didn't have a gym sufficient for big games back then), where the crowd chanted for Cousy.  Julian put him in, and he responded by scoring 11 points in 5 minutes.

All this led many people to assume that Cousy was a "gimme" for the Celtics territorial pick in 1950.  But new Head Coach Red Auerbach wanted a big man, and got him with Charlie Share.  He, like Julian, had little use for what he considered "showboating", and at a press conference after the fact, Red uttered the famous line asking if he was here "to win ball games, or impress the local yokels".

So Cousy went on to the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (which Auerbach used to Coach before coming to Boston), which traded him to the Chicago Stags.  But the Stags went bankrupt before the season began, and after a dispersal draft, there were three players left, and three teams in contention.  New York, Philadelphia and Boston were going to decide the fates of three players: Andy Phillip, Max Zaslofsky, and Bob Cousy.  Everyone, including Red, wanted Max.  No one, including Red, wanted Cousy.  The names were literally drawn from a hat, with Walter Brown drawing out Cousy.  Zaslofsky went to the Knicks, and Philip to the Warriors.

Red has long since realized his near disastrous misjudgement of Cousy, recognizing the "Houdini of the Hardwood" as one of the finest players he ever had.
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Who was the first black player in the NBA?

This is a convoluted situation, which has often been unfairly shortened, leaving out important people and facts.

OK, as far as the NBA as we know it is concerned, this is the order of events.

Chuck Cooper was the first to be drafted, by Boston, in the second round. 

Earl Lloyd was drafted in the ninth round, and was the first to play in a regular season NBA game, for Washington, on October 31, 1950, just one day before Cooper's debut with the Celtics. 

The first to have a signed contract was Harold Hunter, who had played Guard at North Carolina College.  He signed with the Washington Capitols, who cut him in training camp.  

Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton was the first to have a signed contract and play a regular season game, with the New York Knickerbockers.

But...NONE of them was really the first.  The NBA as we know it began with the 1946-47 season, and became the NBA in 1950.  Prior to that, it was comprised of two different leagues, the BAA and the NBL, several teams of which had black players on their rosters.  The Dayton Rens, playing in 1949, was comprised entirely of black players. 

While professional Baseball was making news with Jackie Robinson in 1947, professional Basketball had already gotten "Dolly" King and "Pop" Gates.  The Chicago Studebakers had an integrated roster in 1943.

So "who was first" really depends on where you start counting from.
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When was the Celtics first championship?

April 13, 1957, as the Celtics beat the St. Louis Hawks, 125-123 in double overtime.











When did Havlicek steal the ball?

It was April 15, 1965, as the Celtics faced Philadelphia in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.  In the final seconds of the game, Bill Russell tried to inbound the ball beneath the Celtics own basket with Wilt Chamberlain defending.  The ball misfired, hitting one of the guy wires that used to support the backboards, and careening out of bounds.

Ironically, Auerbach had only recently successfully argued that this situation should result in a turnover, when the opposing team had a similiar situation.

Antoine Walker insists on hoisting up three point shots and is hurting the team.

Danny Ainge bit "Tree" Rollins.

The parquet floor--especially in the old Garden--has "dead spots".

The Celtics are racist.

Because the League intentionally screwed the Celtics when Reggie Lewis died, Team X should not get any help when Y happens.




Myth:
Antoine Walker insisted on hoisting up three point shots and was hurting the team.

The Truth:
It was Coach Jim O'Brien who insisted on basing the offense at the three point line, largely due to the total lack of an inside player that wouldn't get squashed like a bug.  Obie did everything but stand at center court and scream that this was his doing, not Antoine's (not that he needs to stand there--you can hear him pretty well from way over there at the sideline most nights).  While the effect on the team is debatable--some feel it hurt, others do not--the fact remains that it was not a case of Walker being selfish.
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Myth:
Danny Ainge bit "Tree" Rollins.

The Truth:
I saw the game, people.  It was Tree biting Man in the 1983 playoffs, not the other way around.  It's just that Danny was, to put it kindly, a bit of a big mouth when he played, and was not universally beloved in the league.  His rep worked against him, but the fact is, those teeth marks weren't Danny's.
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Myth:
The parquet floor--especially in the old Garden--has "dead spots".

The Truth:
Sixty years on, and they're STILL debating this one.  Bob Cousy has been known to dismiss the notion of dead spots, yet in his book "Cousy on the Celtics Mystique" he states that there were such dead spots.  Red Auerbach, in more recent years, asserted there were none.  But some former players say he used to point them out to the new guys on the team.

The fact is, there almost certinly ARE a few such spots.  Anyone who has a hardwood floor can tell you as much.  It's not as bad as legend has it, though, and certainly not enough to have signifigant impact on a player's control--or lack thereof--of the ball, or the league would have stepped in and done something.  Probably the myth built up to keep some players from having to admit they simply lost the ball.  They just blamed it on the floor.
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Myth:
The Celtics are racist.

The Truth:
This is so wrong, it's hard to know where to begin.  Boston (as noted in detail above) drafted the first black player, Chuck Cooper, in 1950.  The following is a report of the reaction of an unnamed team owner, reacting with utter shock at the selection of Cooper by Celtics owner Walter Brown:

"Walter, don't you know he's a colored boy?"
Brown: "I don't care if he's striped or plaid, or polka dot.   Boston takes Charles Cooper of Duquesne."

Red Auerbach would paraphrase that statement often over the ensuing decades when discussing race and basketball.  It's even possible Brown was quoting Red, who had just been hired to coach the Celtics, though neither man ever claimed to originate the comment.

In the 1964-65 season, Boston fielded an all-black starting lineup of K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, Willie Naulls, Bill Russell, and Tom Sanders.  In fact, four of the players were part of the regular starting lineup for the Celtics.  Naulls was inserted to the lineup when starter Tom Heinsohn was injured.  From December 26, 1964 to January 20, 1965, Boston went undefeated in the 12 games played with that starting lineup.  Heinsohn recovered from that injury, and then returned to his starting job.   Auerbach didn't even know he'd made history until someone pointed it out to him weeks later.  Auerbach just wanted the best players on the court. 

Bill Russell was the first black coach in the NBA.  Red consistently stated he didn't give a damn what color a person was.  He was only interested in getting the best players--black, white, whatever--on his team.

Black and white players routinely roomed together.  When the Celtics encountered racism, stood against it.  Bob Cousy, in his book "Cousy on the Celtic Mystique", relates how on one occasion, a hotel in the south wouldn't let Cooper stay with the team.  Cooper--and Cousy--got on a train north to the next town ahead of the other players.  In the same book, Cousy allows how while he condemns racism, he feels might not have done all he could to speak out against it in his playing days.

Certainly, there was--and still is, sad to say--racism in Boston.  When Bill Russell was helping the Celtics win unprecedented numbers of championship banners as a player and a coach, some ignorant fools--including alleged Celtics fans--called him names I won't repeat here.  You've probably heard them in some context or another, and all of them were used at some point. 

Does anyone seriously think he--or ANY of the black players would have endured that kind of abusive idiocy if the team itself were racist?  Give the man, and his teammates, more credit for intelligence and self-worth.

Or, as Russell said (paraphrased), when asked if it was a step forward in combating bigotry that he was the first black coach of an NBA team--he believed it would be a step forward if the word "black" wasn't used.
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Myth:
Because the League intentionally screwed the Celtics when Reggie Lewis died, Team X should not get any help when Y happens.

The Truth:





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