The Henry Finkel Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Monday, March 20th,
2006
You
were born April 20th, 1942, in Union City, NJ. What childhood memories stand
out after all of these years, and what were some of the things that led you to
the basketball court?
First
of all, Union City, New Jersey is exactly that – all city. In a matter of five
minutes you could have gotten ten guys together and gone down to the court and
played five-on-five. It was that urban. We definitely weren’t the suburbs. So
that’s what stands out most in my mind. That, and all of the friends you make
coming from the city. I think it’s easier because of the concentration of
people, as opposed to the suburbs where things are more spread out.
You
played high school basketball at Holy Family, in Union City, NJ – please
take me back to this period in your life; what memories remain with you
after all of these years?
The
only thing that I remember clearly is that it was a parochial school. I
went from kindergarten to twelfth grade in the same building – after that, I
said ‘thank you very much’ [laughs]. It’s very unusual for somebody to go
from kindergarten to twelfth grade in one building. The grade school was on
one floor, and the high school was on another floor. The gymnasium was
downstairs below.
I started playing basketball during my sophomore year in high school. Up until then I didn’t want to play organized basketball, because I was having fun just playing in backyards and on schoolyards. I entered high school during my freshman year at six foot, and by my sophomore year I was six-five. I stood head-and-shoulders above everybody else. Of course it was a parochial high school, and we only had 150 boys and 150 girls in the entire school. So I was taller than everybody else, and the coach said, ‘Who’s that big guy walking down the hall?’ And they said, ‘That’s Finkel.’ The coach had my sister Louise in his physics class, so he looks at my sister and says, ‘I want to see your brother at the first basketball practice.’ And that’s what started it. I went on to play three years of high school ball. I just didn’t want to play as a freshman, and to be honest with you, I didn’t want to play as a junior or senior, either. I was seven feet tall when I graduated from Holy Family. I went from six feet as a freshman to seven feet as a senior. The problem was that I was seven feet tall and only weighed 175 pounds, so the big guys on the other teams used to move me around pretty good. But looking back on how my life has been touched by basketball, I thank God that I did end up playing.
You
played collegiate basketball at the University of Dayton, as did another
former Boston Celtic, Jim Paxson. What led you play your collegiate
basketball at Dayton?
I
spent one year at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, New Jersey. I played
my freshman year there before I moved on Dayton – and there is actually a
funny story behind that. I was standing on a street corner, at a Dairy
Queen, talking to my buddies. That’s when an opposing coach from high
school drove by and saw me standing around – I was hard to miss, because I
was seven feet tall – and he pulled the car over and said, ‘What are you
doing?’ And I said, ‘Nothing.’ Which was true, because I had just left St.
Peter’s College. Then he says, ‘How would you like to go back to school?’
Well, I told him that I would have to talk to my mother first, because my
dad had just passed away. My mom never even batted an eyelash. She looked
at me and simply said, ‘You go back to school.’
The coach that I’m referring to was quite a player himself – his name was Harry Brooks, and he was an All-American basketball player at Seton Hall. So we’re standing there on the corner that day, discussing a possible basketball scholarship, and at some point during the conversation I say, ‘Where are you talking about? Seton Hall?’ And he says, ‘No, no. I’m talking about the University of Dayton, in Ohio.’ I thought about it for a second, if that, and I say, ‘Okay, that’s great.’ And that was it. One minute I’m hanging out on a street corner, with not real plans for the future, and the next I’m playing basketball Division I basketball at Dayton.
