The Harold Furash Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan | Wednesday, March 30th 2005
He was right there when it all started, when the league
and its teams were more curiosity than fan favorite,
when the college game was the toast of the town and when
television – all three channels worth, in grainy
black-and-white – was still years away for becoming The
Great American Gathering Place. He was there
thirty-five years before the Golden Age of Basketball,
which is to say that he was there long before a pair of
iconic players named Larry and Magic revived the league
and propelled it onto the world stage. Want to talk
dark days? He can tell you about an owner unable to
meet payroll, teams folding, sparse crowds and general
public disinterest. He can tell you about a dizzying
array of promotional events, all designed to lure the
average basketball fan to a professional game in the
Boston Garden. In short, he can tell you about life in
the NBA, 1946 BC – Before Cousy – and what it was like
to witness a game with barely more in attendance than
those Celtic scrimmages that he’d officiate.
Yes, Harold Furash knows.
Eighty-six years young, he has seen it all and recounts
it with crystal clarity, his mind sharp and his memories
a virtual treasure trove of Boston Celtics history.
Priceless stories all, many of which simply do not exist
on the printed page. There aren’t many like him left,
the ones who rooted for the team through the decades –
before the arrival of Red Auerbach, before the pantheon
of greatness that runs from Cousy to Russell to Bird,
and well before the sixteen world championships that set
the standard in a league that few back then thought
would survive.
And before you discount this as simply another story of
a fan and his love for the game, think again: Harold
Furash is the ultimate insider, a beloved member of the
Celtic Family, and the godfather to Bill Russell’s
oldest son. He is on a first-name basis with everyone
from Auerbach to the current Celtic cognoscenti. He has
shared the microphone with Johnny Most and golfed with Cousy. He has
had players name their children after him. Choose a
Celtic – any Celtic – and he can tell you something
personal he has shared with that player, like the
spelling contests he used to have with Sam Jones as the
team barnstormed its way across New England. Mention
the Boston Garden, and he can tell as much about what
happened inside the locker room as what transpired on
the basketball court. Sportswriters with national name
recognition and books on the bestseller list seek him
out, because they know he was there, in the middle of it
all, when the Celtics were winning world championships
by the bushel and forging the greatest dynasty in the
history of professional sports.
And while many may ask, Furash is positively
Russellesque when it comes to keeping the Celtic Family
secrets just that – secret. He rarely grants
interviews, and is quick to dismiss those bent on
tarnishing the team and its storied history. Would you
expect anything less from a man whose own past is so
closely intertwined with the franchise that now
captivates millions of fans worldwide?
With that said, Celtic Nation counts itself among the
fortunate few who have been allowed to see the Boston
Celtics through the eyes of Harold Furash. It is a
unique vantage point, and this interview is truly a
once-in-a-lifetime event. To Mr. Furash, we would like
to simply say 'Thank You'. To Boston Celtics fans
everywhere, sit back and enjoy. This is true inside
stuff.
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