By: Michael D. McClellan | Four years, four rings. Few could ever accuse Gene Guarilia of not being in the right place at the right time, nor could they accuse him of not making the most of a truly golden opportunity. Dropped into the greatest sports dynasty the world has ever known, Guarilia responded the only way he knew how: By working hard to keep the world champion Boston Celtics squarely on top. Whether those contributions occurred in a game or on the practice court is of little consequence, because for Guarilia, like everyone else who played for Arnold “Red” Auerbach during the make-hay days of the 1960s, winning championships was all that really mattered. The Celtics conquered the NBA 11 times in 13 seasons because everyone who suited up for the green-and-white knew their role and played it to perfection. From Bill Russell’s blocked shots and timely rebounds, to Sam Jones’ signature bank shots, to John Havlicek’s heroics off the bench, the Boston Celtics were the perfect amalgam of talent and intelligence, winning games as much with their wit as with their workmanship. Guarilia was no exception. He came to the Celtics with a reputation as a rugged rebounder and consummate team player, and for four seasons he roamed the Boston Garden’s fabled parquet floor, intent on adding to the Celtics’ growing cache of championship banners.
Guarilia was born on September 13th, 1937, in the Luzerne County borough of Duryea, Pennsylvania. Located nine miles south of Scranton on the Lackawanna River, and with a population of just over 8,000 during the 1940s, Duryea was an uncomplicated, blue collar town where coal mining and the manufacture of silk had been the chief industries in the early years of its existence. Duryea also proved to be the perfect place for the young Guarilia to hone his basketball skills. He took to the sport at an early age, excelling on the makeshift hoops erected at Holy Rosary Grade School, and he remained keenly interested even though he didn’t play organized basketball until the ninth grade. Still, few at the time would have expected Guarilia to earn a living roaming the hardwood; the Basketball Association of America and the rival National Basketball League – precursors to the NBA – had floundered during much of the 1940s, as ‘cage ball’ struggled to compete with baseball and football as a major professional sport. Kids dreamed of being the next Babe Ruth, or perhaps the next Slingin’ Sammy Baugh. But the next Bob Cousy, Bob Pettit, or Bill Russell? Professional basketball had yet to produce its first wave of legends. Sure, there was George Mikan, but he was more curiosity than charlatan, a 6’10” giant viewed by the masses as something straight from under P.T. Barnum’s circus tent. Guarilia played the game without benefit of baseball’s rich history and larger-than-life heroes. He played it without benefit of a Red Grange or a Jim Thorpe, athletes who lifted professional football to a status approaching that of our national pastime. Gene Guarilia simply played it because it was fun, because he was good at it, and later because maybe – just maybe – scoring points and grabbing rebounds might one day help pay for a college education.
Gene Guarilia’s story begins in Duryea at the age of four, when he would follow his older brother Joseph to Holy Rosary Grade School, making such a nuisance of himself that the school’s nuns suggested that young Eugene might benefit from the structure of first grade. Never mind that Guarilia was two years younger than the normal starting age; it was better to have him in class, where they could apply structure and discipline in equal doses, rather than contend with his disruptions from the street and the schoolyard. This isn’t to suggest that Guarilia was a problem child – far from it, in fact; he simply looked up to his older brother, tagged along with him everywhere, and missed him terribly whenever school was in session. So it was that Guarilia entered first grade at four, keeping pace with surprising ease and sparking a lifetime interest in education.
Starting school early means leaving school early, and Guarilia graduated at sixteen. By then he was a strapping lad, big, strong and athletic. He found himself being recruited by George Washington’s legendary coach, Bill Reinhart, but Reinhart and the coaching staff felt that he was too young to succeed in a major college environment. They suggested that he enroll at a smaller prep school first, and then transfer. Guarilia obliged, spending a year at Potomac State College in Keyser, West Virginia.
Potomac State proved to be the perfect stopping place for the young Guarilia. He was able to acclimate himself to college life without the added pressure of the big city, and he was able to play basketball immediately, which wouldn’t have been the case had he gone directly to George Washington. Competing against quality West Virginia Conference schools, such as NAIA power Fairmont State, and West Virginia Tech’s 100-point-per-game Century Club, Guarilia was able to log big minutes and gain invaluable game experience in the process. He also grew three inches, from 6’-3” to 6’-6”, and began to excel underneath the basket. It was just the type of physical and mental maturation that Reinhart had hoped would take place, and by 1956 Guarilia – now three inches taller and 70 pounds heavier than his senior season at Duryea High School – was clearly ready to don a GW uniform.
As a sophomore, Guarilia averaged an incredible 18.6 rebounds-per-game, putting him among the nation’s leaders in that category. He was an overnight sensation, a 1950s version of Charles Barkley. His relentless play on the glass became his calling card, and helped trigger Reinhart’s classic fast break. He finished his next two seasons as one college basketball’s top rebounders, catching the attention of Reinhart’s close friend and former pupil, the brash head coach of the Boston Celtics – Arnold “Red” Auerbach.
Auerbach had spent much of the 1950s winning games in Boston but never advancing to the NBA Finals. That all changed in 1956, when Auerbach and team founder Walter Brown engineered the biggest trade in NBA history, sending “Easy” Ed Macauley to the St. Louis Hawks in exchange for the draft rights to Bill Russell. In Russell, Auerbach finally had the missing piece to a dynasty-in-the-making. He had his rebounder, shot-blocker, and fast break triggerman, all rolled into one. Russell and fellow rookie Tom Heinsohn joined established stars Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman, and the Celtics captured their first NBA championship following the 1956-57 season. An ankle injury to Russell prevented a repeat, but the Celtics were once again champions in 1958-59.
Guarilia was drafted in the second round following that title run, with the goal of providing additional toughness underneath the basket. He didn’t disappoint, proving himself ever ready and always capable, doing whatever Auerbach needed to make the Celtics a better team. He practiced hard and he played hard, earning the respect and admiration of Boston’s established stars. Guarilia was rewarded for his unselfish commitment to team, as the Celtics repeated as NBA champions. It was a third title in four years, and the Celtic Dynasty was officially underway. Guarilia was right smack in the middle of it all.
Satch Sanders’ arrival in 1960 relegated Guarilia to a reserve role, but it was one that he played with pride. The Celtics won titles in each of the next three years, with Guarilia playing well when called upon, until his retirement following the 1962-63 championship season. When he walked away, he knew that the Celtic Dynasty was truly something special, and that the family atmosphere made it all the better.
“Everybody was friends on that team,” he said when asked about those four very special years in a Boston Celtic uniform. “There was no animosity toward one another. We all ate at one another’s houses, including the black players. Our wives got along great. We were talking about that the other day when I was in Boston for a card show with Sam Jones and Jim Loscutoff. We were saying how good everything was. It was a privilege to be associated with the men on that team.”
Guarilia returned to Duryea following retirement, where he pursued his other passion, working as a teacher in the public school system. (The nuns at Holy Rosary would surely be proud.) He also became a musician, earning a reputation as one of the best bass players in the country. Still, his memories of his days as a Celtic remain as fresh as ever. He is appreciative of his place in history, and of what he has been able to accomplish on the basketball court. He was honored, along with the immortal Red Auerbach, as part of George Washington University’s All-Century men’s basketball team. He has four NBA championship rings to show for his hard work and sacrifice. He has played, practiced and sacrificed alongside some of the greatest players in NBA history. Lucky? No question about it. But even luck requires a certain amount of diligence, and Guarilia was more prepared than most.
You were born on September 13, 1937, in Duryea, Pennsylvania, which is a few miles northeast of Pittston. Please tell me a little about your childhood, and about your family What are some of the things that stand out?
Right up the street from where we moved, in Duryea, was a Catholic school – Holy Rosary Grade School. My brother was in second grade at the time, and I used to go up and sit on the street corner and call his name out while he was in class. So, a nun called my mother and said, ‘You know, Eugene has been disturbing the lessons in my classroom.’ I was four at the time [laughs]. My mother said, ‘Gee, I don’t know what to tell you. Every time Joseph goes to school, Gene follows along behind him because they’re used to playing together.’ So my mother suggested that the nun just take me into the school and keep me out of trouble. The nun says, ‘I don’t know, he looks kind of young for first grade.’ But somehow my mother convinced her to take me in, and I did pretty good. I kept up with the other first graders, who were all at least a year older than me. So the nun calls my mother and says, ‘I think he’s going to be okay.’ And that’s how it started.
As I’ve said, my older brother was Joseph. He was a very good football player at Duryea High School, but he hurt his knee. He got married at a very early age – actually, it was the day after he got out of high school, and I was the best man in his wedding. My younger brother’s name was Gerald. He had rheumatic fever when he was a youngster, which was a very scary time. He joined the navy after graduating from high school, then went to college, and became an administrator with Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Both Joseph and Gerald have since passed away, and my parents are no longer living. I’m the last of the Mohicans.
I really didn’t play organized basketball at Holy Rosary. What they had was physical education, and they put a couple of barrels on top of a table. That’s how I got started [laughs]. I was pretty proficient at it, so I decided that I liked it because I could do it well. The first time I played organized ball was in ninth grade, and we played every Saturday morning. That was my extent of my basketball experience up to that point.
You were set to play collegiate ball at George Washington University, but you took a brief detour. What happened?
When I graduated from high school, the George Washington basketball scouts came to me and said they thought I was kind of young – I graduated from high school when I was sixteen years old – and they wanted to send me to a prep school for a year. Basically, they wanted me to mature a little bit. So I went to Potomac State in Keyser, West Virginia. That was a great experience playing for Potomac State, because we played a lot of four-year schools, and I was only a freshman. I did pretty well, and there were so many great schools down there – Fairmont State, Glenville, West Virginia Tech, and Concord, just to name a few. When we played West Virginia Tech, they were the highest scoring team in the nation at that time. They were averaging something like 114 points-per-game. They became known as the Century Club because they averaged more than 100 points-per-game that season. They beat us, but it was actually a very good game. It was 119-111, or something close to that. Playing at Potomac State was quite an experience – I’ll never forget it.
From there, it was on to George Washington University.
After Potomac State I went down to George Washington. Naturally, I had to be red-shirted because I left Potomac State after my freshman year. If I had stayed for my sophomore year, then I could have gone straight into GW and played – that was the rule at the time. So I got red-shirted – that meant I didn’t play at all for George Washington during my sophomore year. So I played for Hagerstown-Fairchild, which was sponsored by Fairchild Industries, a big aircraft organization based in Hagerstown, Maryland. I got to play against a lot of All-Americans, such as guys like Jesse Arnelle from Penn State. We play mostly against Air Force bases, and other AAU teams. So I kept busy during my sophomore year, rather than laying around and doing nothing.
You played collegiate basketball for Bill Reinhart at George Washington, as did Red Auerbach. Auerbach admired Reinhart greatly, and patterned Boston’s up-tempo attack after the offense that Reinhart had installed at GW. Please tell a little bit about Bill Reinhart.
Bill Reinhart, believe it or not, took the place of my father. My father died when I was twelve years old – I had just finished up with Holy Rosary Grade School, and he died that following August. So even though my mother re-married when I was a senior at Duryea High School, I really didn’t have a father during that period in my life. When I went to GW, Bill Reinhart called me in his office and he said he knew that I’d been through some tough sailing. He was very supportive – he helped me out a lot, gave me a tremendous amount of very good advice, and he was the one who really set me on the straight and narrow. He became my father figure – Reinhart was a great, great man.
You led GW in rebounding three times during your college career, including an impressive 18.6 rebounds-per-game average in ‘59. What was it that made you one of the premiere rebounders in the nation?
I was about 6’-6”, and I had pretty good leaping ability. I also lifted weights, so I’d built myself up to become a lot stronger on the boards. I was aggressive – that helped – and I had a pretty good nose for the ball. I just knew where to be, which is something you can’t really teach. It’s more of an instinct than anything else. But those were some of the things that helped me to become a good rebounder.
On Saturday, March 1, 1958, George Washington squared off against West Virginia University. Jerry West scored 25 points in the Mountaineers’ 113-107 victory. Please tell me a little bit about Mr. West. What was it like to play against him?
Jerry West was a great competitor. What a leaper, too. He could really get off the floor. He could stop on a dime and shoot the jumper, and when he drove he could take it all the way in to the hoop and float that ball up above the bigger guys. Later on I played against him when he was with the Lakers and I was with the Celtics. His college coach – Freddie Schaus – later became his head coach in Los Angeles.
The game you’re referring to was the double-overtime game at Uline Arena, which was where the Washington Capitols used to play hockey. That place was always cold [laughs]. But I remember that game well. “Hot Rod” Hundley was also a Mountaineer at the time. They had a great team.
You were honored, along with the immortal Red Auerbach, as part of George Washington University’s All-Century men’s basketball team. What does this recognition mean to you personally, and what does it mean to share this honor with Mr. Auerbach?
Red was my coach at Boston, as you well know. I always respected him, and to be linked with a person like him is a great honor, because George Washington had some pretty darned good basketball teams through the years. Joe Holup was a Third Team All-American for GW in 1955-56. At one time we were ranked fifth or sixth in the nation. So there is a great tradition at GW, and it was an honor to be selected as a member of the All-Century team.
The Boston Celtics selected you in the 2nd round of the 1959 NBA Draft. Two of your teammates were also drafted – Bill Telasky in Round 5 by Philadelphia, and Bucky McDonald in Round 6 by New York. What does this say about the strength of that George Washington team?
Bucky died a few years ago – I went to his funeral. He was an army person. He came in midway through my sophomore season…he’d been discharged from the service. As soon as he joined the team we really jelled.
Bill and I were recruited by GW in 1955. There were 11 of us that came in together, but nine of us flunked out. And a lot of the guys that we lost were big guys, 6’-9” and 6’-10”, and we were left without any height. Naturally, we had a disastrous season my first year. Had those guys been able to play it may have been a lot different, because some of them were really good players. You take three or four guys off the team that are 6’-9” or 6’-10”, and there goes your inside game. I was basically a corner player, and I played mostly on the wing or in the corner. The loss of those guys forced me underneath. I had to play with my back to the basket, which is something I’d never done – even in high school I was on the wing, because we had a big center. I had a good corner shot, so the wing was my natural position. Telasky and McDonald was a guard, and most of our forwards were 6’-4” and 6’-5”. So we were usually over-matched on the glass.
The Celtics won their second consecutive NBA championship – and third overall – following your rookie season. What was that first Celtics’ training camp like for you?
It was brutal [laughs]. It was two weeks of two-a-day practices, and after it was over I felt like a different person – I felt like I could run faster, jump higher, and move quicker. I said to myself, ‘Boy, why didn’t I do this in high school and college?’ A lot of times, you may dog it a lot in practice, especially when you’re the kingpin. The kingpin knows he has the team made – but when you get to the pros, all of that goes out the window because you have to prove yourself all over again. If you’re a rookie, and you’re fighting for a roster spot, then you’re going to be out of work pretty quick if you dog it in practice. With the Celtics, Bill Russell and Bob Cousy were the ones doing all the dogging, because they were the kingpins [laughs]. They knew they were going to be playing the big minutes when the season started. They knew they had the team made. Me, I was just a rookie trying to make it.
In Game 7 of the 1960 NBA Finals, Bill Russell pulled down 35 rebounds and scored 22 points as the Celtics defeated the St. Louis Hawks, 122-103. Please take me back to that series – what was one of your most memorable moments in that series?
The game before that, we were leading 3-2. In those days, the format was 2-2-1-1-1, and we were playing the sixth game in St. Louis. We were down by 28 points going into the fourth quarter. I guess Auerbach gave up on winning that game, because he pulled his starters and inserted me, KC Jones, Sam Jones, Gene Conley and Jim Loscutoff. We tied the score with two minutes to go in the game – we couldn’t miss, and they couldn’t make a basket. St. Louis called timeout with two minutes to go. Auerbach says, ‘I don’t know if I should leave you guys in there, or put the first team back in.’ So he decides to put the first team back in there, and we end up losing the game in overtime. Afterwards, Auerbach apologized. He said, ‘I should have left you guys in there. That was my mistake.’
Cousy and Sharman were the starters at the guard positions, but at that point in their careers KC and Sam were probably a little better – they were younger and had fresher legs. Cousy and Sharman were fabulous shooters. Sam was a fabulous shooter. KC was a tremendous defensive player. He had several big steals during that comeback. I was guarding Sihugo Green, who had been an All-American at Duquesne, and I had a couple of big blocks against him. That was at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. It was quite a game.
Former Celtic “Easy” Ed Macauley was a member of that Hawk team. Boston had traded him to St. Louis for the draft rights to Bill Russell, primarily on the advice of your college coach, Bill Reinhart. Please tell me a little about the biggest trade in NBA history.
George Washington went out to play San Francisco in the Oklahoma City All-America Tournament. I was red-shirting at that time, but I went out with the team because I was like the manger – it allowed me to keep my scholarship. So when we went out there, Joe Holup had the reputation of being one of the greatest scorers in college basketball. He was averaging 27 points-per-game, and Bill Russell just dominated him. He held Joe Holup to 10 points, and blocked twelve-to-fifteen shots. So we lost that game. We came back to George Washington, and we were having breakfast in the athletic dormitory. I was with my coach, and Red came in. Reinhart turns to Red, and he says, ‘Red, I’m going to tell you something – I just saw the greatest player in the world. His name is Bill Russell. That guy is phenomenal. Whatever you’ve got to do, get the draft rights to him.’ And that’s how Cliff Hagan and “Easy” Ed Macauley – two All-Pro players – were traded for the rights to draft Bill Russell. The rest is history [laughs].
I know this for a fact – when Bill Russell was a rookie, he signed for $20,000. Then he went up to $60,000, and then he went up to $100,001. He had that extra dollar written into his contract because Wilt Chamberlain was the highest paid player in the NBA at the time, and he was making 100 grand. Russell wanted to make sure that he was making more money that Wilt, so he insisted on that extra dollar. I found that to be quite interesting.
The Celtics selected Satch Sanders the following season, and the rookie responded by playing the rugged, hard-nosed defense for which he is famous. Bill Sharman also finished the season by leading the league in free-throw accuracy for the seventh consecutive year. Please tell me a little about each of these men.
Well, when Sanders came in I knew that my playing time was going to go down. I played quite a bit my rookie year. I remember Sanders coming to his first practice wearing big knee pads and big glasses, and I’ll never forget Auerbach telling me, Frank Ramsey and Jim Loscutoff to grab Sanders’ knee pads and throw them away. Auerbach didn’t want that extra weight, and he didn’t care how secure they made Sanders feel – to Auerbach, extra weight was not good. The knee pads might only weigh three or four ounces each, but Auerbach didn’t want Sanders lugging those things up-and-down the court all game long. So we hid his knee pads, and he ended up getting a pair of contact lenses. That’s when he really started playing good ball. He was a great leaper.
A lot of people mistook Sanders on the planes for Bill Russell, because Sanders was 6’-7” or 6’-8”, and Russell was about 6’-9”. Russell always told people that he was 6’-9” and fifteen-sixteenths [laughs]. That was his running joke. But Sanders was a great defensive player. He had a wingspan like you wouldn’t believe. It was a wingspan of someone who was seven-feet tall.
Sharman was an unbelievable free throw shooter. He used to challenge you in practice – he’d say, “Come on, I’ll shoot fouls [foul shots] with you. I’ll spot you two and shoot you twenty-five fouls.’ He’d beat you every time. Even if you made twenty-one out of twenty-five from the line, he’d still beat you – and that’s counting the spot [laughs]. He was a great shooter, and a great competitor.
The Celtics battled the Lakers in the 1962 NBA Finals, a classic series that went seven games and turned on Frank Selvy’s misfire that could have won Game 7 – and the championship – for the Lakers. Please take me back to that classic series in general, and that game in particular.
Actually, the game before that was in Los Angeles, and the Lakers were ahead 3-2. We had to win out there or we were done. We played a great game out in LA, and we ended up making it 3-3. The final game was in Boston Garden and we got lucky, we really did. Frank Selvy took a shot, it bounced up off the rim, Elgin Baylor tipped it, it hit the rim and came off, and that was the end of regulation.
It was nip-and-tuck in the first overtime. Baylor had 64 points by that juncture. At the end of the first overtime, all of our forwards had fouled out – Ramsey fouled out, Sanders fouled out, Loscutoff fouled out. Auerbach said, ‘Gene, go in there.’ I was nervous. Red said, ‘Hey, kid, do the best you can. Just play like you do in practice. Just play hard, and everything will fall into place.’ I had to guard Elgin Baylor. I tried to keep him from getting the ball – I tried to front him, and he didn’t get a point off of me…I played the whole overtime, and he did not score one point off of me. I grabbed two or three key rebounds. Russell came over to me afterwards and congratulated me. He said that the Celtics probably wouldn’t have won that game if I hadn’t done a great job on Baylor. But you have to remember that Baylor was tired, and I was fresh – I hadn’t played the whole game and I had a lot of energy. Boy, I was keyed up afterwards – I don’t think I slept for two days [laughs].
Let’s talk road life in the NBA. I’ve heard that Red would front you in the card games that inevitably broke out on those long flights to and from games. Notoriously tight with his money, Red must have seen something in your card-playing. Were you a team’s card shark?
I don’t know about that [laughs]. We used to play high-low poker. On the planes we always played hearts, because we didn’t want the passengers or the crew to see money on the table. When we’d get to the hotels, we’d designate somebody’s room and we’d play poker…either after the game, or if we had a layover. In high-low poker there were always two winners – if you were going high, you put one quarter in your hand so nobody would see it, and if you were going low you put two quarters in your hand. If you were going both ways – you could actually be high and low – then you put three quarters in your hand. Then you would get the whole pot. And it was always seven card stud. It never got into serious money. We used to get $8 a day in meal money, which was $40 if we were on the road a week. If you lost that $40 in a poker game, that was considered a lot. So it wasn’t outrageous money. And if you ran short, Auerbach would always loan you enough money to eat on until you got back to Boston.
What about those annual preseason barnstorming trips that involved the Celtics and another NBA team, usually the Lakers?
My second year with the Celtics we played the Lakers – they’d selected Jerry West that year, so he was a rookie – and we played our way up through New England. We played in places like Bangor, Maine, and Augusta, Maine. We played in Hanover, New Hampshire, where Dartmouth is located. Would you believe that we beat the Lakers fourteen out fifteen times during that tour, and then the regular season starts. We’re playing the Lakers in Minneapolis, we were 7-0, and they smeared us in that game. They murdered us. Baylor went nuts in that game – I think he had 60 points when it was over. Nobody could guard him, not even me. I couldn’t believe it.
But New England is beautiful in the fall. It’s a gorgeous place to be. In fact, we even took in a football game when we were on that that tour. I think it was Colby versus Amherst, up in Maine, and what a setting – beautiful small college campus, the fall foliage…it was a great break from all of those games against the Lakers [laughs].
We didn’t take buses on those trips – I rode with Red and Gene Conley…I think Gene had a red Ford convertible. Russell took his car…he had a big Lincoln. Bob Brannum drove his car. And the writer that was covering the exhibition games at the time always took his car. We had some great times on those trips, but we were always glad when they were over.
Please tell me about Walter Brown.
Walter Brown, what a great guy. If you wanted more money, you went to Walter Brown. If you talked contract with Red, you always ended up with $2,000 less than you probably should have [laughs]. I went to Walter Brown – he was the guy to see. Great, great guy.
You played four seasons with the Celtics, winning four NBA championships. Which championship is most meaningful to you, and why?
I think the one in 1962, when I held Elgin Baylor scoreless, was the most meaningful to me. I say that because anytime you help your team win, then you feel like you are a part of something special. And it was big for me to come in like that and guard Baylor the way that I did. So that championship probably means a little more to me than the others. I’ll never forget it – all of the sportswriters came into the locker room, wanting to talk to Bill Russell, who played the whole game, including the two overtimes. He said, ‘Today you’re interviewing the wrong guy…go over there – that kid over there, Gene Guarilia, he’s the one that won it for us.’ So coming from Russell, that made me feel pretty good…the man was responsible for 11 championships.
The 1963-64 season marked your last with the team, as the Celtics completed that campaign by winning it’s fifth consecutive championship. Two other memorable events occurred that season; John Havlicek was selected out of Ohio State, and an emotional “Bob Cousy Day” was celebrated on the last regular-season playing date at the Boston Garden.
John Havlicek was drafted Number 1 by the Celtics. We rented a house with Clyde Lovellette in Brighton, Massachusetts. He was my roommate on the road. Great guy. The only thing was that he was a health fanatic – you couldn’t play the radio, you couldn’t watch TV…he had a window open all the way in the middle of the winter [laughs]. Everything had to be quiet – he had to get his rest. And if you went to a restaurant with him, it would take forty-five minutes to eat a steak – he would trim every little piece of fat off of it [laughs].
Bob Cousy Day – that was the first time I’d ever seen Bob Cousy cry. They gave him a new car, and all kinds of elaborate things…like a television, which was a big deal back them. That’s the first time I fully realized how important Bob Cousy was to Boston.
Please tell me about great battles between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain.
The first time they ever played against each other was in Minneapolis. It was benefit game – Ingemar Johansson was at the game; he was the new heavyweight champion, because he’d just beaten Floyd Patterson. It was some kind of fundraiser. Russell held Chamberlain to 16 points in that game. Obviously, the Celtics won. That was the first of many battles between them. I’ll never forget how cold it was – that has to be the coldest place in the United States [laughs].
Russell could always key himself up for a big game – and those games against Wilt were always big, regardless of what was at stake. Wilt Chamberlain was drafted the same year as me, in 1959, but he played with the Globetrotters before joining the NBA. It seemed that Wilt was always the one with the greater statistics, but Russell was the one who almost always came out on top in the win column. You can’t argue with 11 championships in 13 years. Russell was the greatest ever.
From an offensive standpoint, Sam Jones was the go-to guy for the Boston Celtics. Please tell me a little about Sam Jones.
Sam was a great shooter. He had a nickname – he was so fast that they called him ‘Slippery Sam’. He was cat-like; he could run, jump and stop on a dime. He was a fabulous basketball player.
Final Question: You’ve achieved great success in your life. If you could offer one piece of advice on life to others, what would that be?
I’m a retired coach and teacher, and I’ve always told this to my kids – I coached and I taught. There’s more to life than basketball. Education is the most important thing in your life. If you’re an educated man, then the possibilities are endless.
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