The Arnie Risen Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Wednesday, December 13th,
2006
Like
many of your Boston Celtic teammates, you were born during the decade of The
Great Depression. Please share some of the memories from your childhood,
and also some of the events in your life that led you to the basketball
court.
I
grew up in the country, in a small town called Williamstown, which holds the
county seat in Grant County, Kentucky. The town is situated between
Lexington and Cincinnati. It was a very small town, very rural, and I spent
a large part of my childhood working and playing outside. I didn’t have a
real basketball growing up – I would use makeshift balls out of whatever I
could find, and shoot them at a bottomless can nailed to the side of the
family house. I was raised in the country. I knew nothing about
basketball, and nothing about professional sports. I didn’t know there was
a pro basketball team until I was approached to play for the Indianapolis Kautskys. I was very naive. I don’t think I had goals, especially when
compared to the guys playing basketball today. The guys today start so
early. And their parents, they start dreaming of them being the next LeBron
James, or the next Bill Russell, or what have you. I didn’t have those
aspirations. The goal back then was purely day-to-day.
You
played your high school ball at Williamstown High School in Kentucky.
Please tell me about this period in your life.
I
didn’t begin playing organized basketball until I was a sophomore in high
school. I played three full seasons for Williamstown. I was a tall, lanky
boy, and I didn’t have much meat on my bones. The coaches took an interest
in me, so I started playing for the high school team, and they really worked
with me to develop my game. Back then, basketball was just something to do
– you really didn’t think about it as a career . At some point you might
think of it as a way to get a college education, but that was really about
it. World War II was going on then, and that was on everybody’s mind at
the time. A lot of good college and professional athletes ended up serving
in the military, and a lot of them saw combat duty. By the time I was
drafted, I was 6’9” and deemed too tall to serve in the army.
Your
first stop in college was in Richmond, Kentucky, where you attended Eastern
Kentucky State. How did you end up there, and how did you later end up at
Ohio State University?
The
school was close to home, so it made sense for me to go there. I played one
season before the school dropped the basketball program. Someone talked me
into visiting the Ohio State campus, and after that trip I decided to
enroll. I am proud to be a part of the Ohio State basketball program. The
school reached three consecutive Final Fours, two while I was there and one
after I left. And back then only 16 teams in tournament. Today, how many
teams qualify?
You led
Ohio State into the 1944 NCAA Basketball Tournament, defeating Temple in the
Regional Semifinals. Please take me back to that 10-point win, and also to
the battle against Dartmouth in the Regional Finals.
I
don’t remember a lot of the details, but we were excited to get that far.
Had we beaten Dartmouth, I think we would have played Utah for the
championship. Dartmouth had Dick McGuire on that team, who is in the Hall
of Fame. He had started the season at St. John’s, which won the NIT, but
then a war commitment forced him to transfer. The rest is hazy – that was a
long time ago [laughs].