The Ernie Barrett Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Sunday, August 22nd, 2004
Bob Brannum was a teammate during your first
season with the Boston Celtics, in 1953-54.
Mr. Brannum grew up in Winfield, Kansas,
which is roughly 25 miles from Wellington.
What can you tell me about Mr. Brannum?
Bob was a hard-nosed player who gave it everything he
had. He wasn’t the best shooter on the court, but he
worked hard and he didn’t take any grief from anyone.
He had a twin brother named Clarence, who played at
K-State and was drafted by Tri-Cities in the third round
of the 1950 NBA Draft. Both men were built the same,
and both were offered scholarships to play at the
University of Kentucky. Bob went to Kentucky, but
Clarence got homesick and ended up coming home.
I got to know Clarence, and you really couldn’t tell the two of them apart. During my rookie year I thought I’d pull a joke on Ed Macauley and Bob [Cousy]. We were playing a game in St. Louis, so I arranged for Clarence to drive down. I was going to have him show up, and then put him in uniform and have him pretend to be Bob. Well, when Clarence showed up he had a big pot belly – needless to say, the joke didn’t pan out [laughs].
You did not play for the Celtics during the 1954-55
season. Please tell me about this period in your life.
I wanted to play – I’m a competitor. Red could tell you
about the fights [laughs]. After my rookie season I
went back to K-State and took a job, but after one
season away the NBA instituted the 24-second shot
clock. Red thought that this change suited my style of
play, so he asked me to come back. I said that I would,
but only if I got a chance to play. Red was true to his
word – I played in every game that season. I really
wanted to stay on, but the next season the Celtics got
Heinsohn and Russell. Tex Winter was the head coach at
K-State at the time, and he offered me a position as
assistant coach. I jumped at the opportunity, and went
to work at my alma mater.
Coach Auerbach approached me after I went back to Kansas, and said that he was interested in the University of South Carolina job, which was open at the time. Red and I had a great relationship, and I had the good fortune to work with him while I was young. He had great people skills. He really knew how to treat people and how to work with them, which is what made him such a great coach. Red offered me an assistant coaching position if he decided to take the South Carolina job, but he ended up staying in Boston. That was in the 1954-54 timeframe. It might have happened, had he accepted, but I stayed on at K-State. It proved to be the right decision for me – I became assistant athletic director in 1961, and was named athletic director in 1969.
When you returned for the 1955-56, Jim Loscutoff had
replaced Mr. Brannum as the team’s enforcer. Please
tell me about Mr. Loscutoff.
They were practically identical on the court – they both
had the same hardnosed style, and both of them were very
aggressive players. Jim was a better shooter than Bob,
and that’s probably what set him apart. He was a small
forward in those days, and handicapped because a lot of
the taller players blocked his shots. Wilt Chamberlain
comes to mind. But he was cantankerous and didn’t back
down from anyone, Wilt included. So nobody pushed him
around on the court [laughs]. And he could run. He
never stopped running. Jim and I are good friends – we
saw a lot of each other in Boston after I retired – we’d
go to the Final Four together, and get together whenever
we could.
Brawls were commonplace in the NBA when you played. One
that comes to mind is the fight between Bob Cousy and
Philadelphia Warriors center Neil Johnston in the Boston
Garden. Were you ever a part of the festivities?
I wasn’t involved in the Philly brawl, but I was
involved in fights with Rochester and Fort Wayne. Fred
Schaus, who later coached Purdue University, checked off
on me one night because his coach wanted him to guard
the little man. We went at each other pretty good, and
he said to me, “Hell, you’re not very little.” I got in
a fight that night with one of the Fort Wayne guards,
and official Sid Borgia called a technical and threw me
out of the game. There were always fights in games back
then. You knew they were going to happen. Red always
said, “Listen, just make sure you get the first punch
in.” [Laughs].
