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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Nov 10, 2020 21:39:38 GMT -5
His son played football for Duke and I believe a daughter went to HC,
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Post by princetoncrusader on Nov 10, 2020 22:18:42 GMT -5
Yes his daughter was in the class of 1979. I believe I was in an economics or accounting class with her. She was tall and not surprisingly had reddish hair. I think she married a fellow Crusader. My only recollection of Tom in person was in the 1979-80 season or thereabouts. After a game at the Hart in which HC beat St. Francis of Brooklyn, a player for St. Francis approached Tom, who was doing the broadcast, to say hello. Tom graciously shook hands with the young man.
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Post by hchoops on Nov 11, 2020 8:45:34 GMT -5
Would a Globe subscriber please post today”s Shaughnessy article on Tommy
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Post by hchoops on Nov 11, 2020 8:54:45 GMT -5
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Post by HC13 on Nov 11, 2020 9:17:23 GMT -5
Would a Globe subscriber please post today”s Shaughnessy article on Tommy Tom Heinsohn was an immeasurable, irreplaceable part of Celtics history By Dan Shaughnessy Globe Columnist,Updated November 10, 2020, 5:55 p.m. 97 Tom Heinsohn (left) with other members of the 1960 champion Celtics: Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, and Frank Ramsey. BOSTON GLOBE ARCHIVE/THE BOSTON GLOBE No. 15 in the rafters. No. 1 in the heart of every Celtics fan. Tommy Heinsohn. Boston Celtics. Impossible to separate, one and the same. He was a Hall of Fame player, coach, and broadcaster. If you are a New England sports fan under the age of 75, you have no memory of a time when Tommy Heinsohn was not part of the Celtics. Tommy died Monday at the age of 86. It’s a huge loss. Bet he had some NBA draft tips he was ready to share with Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens. Tommy always had an opinion and never lost his fastball. Ask those smart young folks at NBC Sports Boston who remember a huge man in his mid-80s still driving himself to Burlington two or three times a week for lively, late-night analysis duty. Who does that at that age? If you are a Celtics fan, Tommy’s career frames the timeline of your own life. You remember him as a hook-shooting forward, a foot-stomping coach, and a Fred Flintstone-esque broadcaster. Those of us who grew up in Massachusetts in the 1950s and 1960s remember Tommy as part of a team that won the championship every spring. It was an April-May ritual. Take down the storm windows, watch the forsythia bloom, and listen to Johnny Most tell us that the Celtics had beaten the Lakers in the Finals again. The Celtics won the championship when I was in first grade in 1959 — and every subsequent year until I entered high school in 1967. Tommy was a mainstay of that dynasty, starting alongside Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Satch Sanders, and Sam Jones. Tommy was the gunning forward with the flattop haircut who rarely looked to pass. He played nine NBA seasons, and the Celtics won the championship in eight of those seasons. It always bothered me that so many young fans who came to love Tommy’s green-bleeding TV work had no idea how good he was as a player. A native of Union City, N.J., Tommy was an All-American and NIT champion at Holy Cross. He was NBA Rookie of the Year in Russell’s rookie season (in fairness, Russell didn’t arrive until December because of his Olympics commitment). When the Celtics won their first championship in double overtime against the St. Louis Hawks, it was rookie Tommy — not Russell or Cooz — who led the way with 37 points and 23 rebounds before fouling out. Tommy retired from playing in 1965 when he was only 30 years old. He was a big smoker back then, and some of us believed that shortened his career. When Russell retired after the 1969 championship, Red Auerbach turned to Tommy to lead the team through a quick rebuilding period. By 1974, the Celtics were world champs again with Tommy as head coach. If you went to Holy Cross in the 1970s, you bragged about two graduates: Bob Cousy and Tommy Heinsohn. When I got to know Tommy in the 1980s, I was ecstatic to learn that I’d lived in two of the same dorms where he lived in the 1950s. We swapped stories about the food at Kimball Dining Hall, which magically made me feel at one with the Celtic universe. I felt it again Tuesday when Cooz returned a call and officially confirmed the sad news of Tommy’s passing. Tommy had the perfect grasp on all things Celtics. He understood the brilliance of Red because he was brilliant himself. He explained Red’s crafty psychology, telling us, “Red respected our intellect as players. In timeouts, he would ask, ‘Anybody got anything?’ That was smart. He knew that if one of us suggested something, we would work like hell to make that play work because we had pride of authorship.” All of us who covered the Celtics are indebted to Tommy. He would hold court in the press dining room before every game. Tommy was a guy who stood up to Wilt Chamberlain and coached against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He could talk about brawls in Philadelphia and Syracuse. He was the ultimate go-to guy if you wanted to know LeBron James’s place in NBA history. He had the stories. Here’s Tommy on “negotiating” his contract in the early 1960s: “You went in to talk contract with Walter Brown. You’d walk into the men’s room, and he’d say, ‘What you do want?’ And you’d say, ‘What do you want to give me?’ And it would be back and forth, and by the time you zipped up, you had a deal.” He was a husband, father, grandfather, artist, and insurance salesman. He loved the running game and occasionally hated the officials. He rocked plaid jackets and wide ties in the 1970s. He feuded with young Bob Ryan when our hoop scribe covered the team in the ’70s. Tommy inspired Dennis Johnson with some rare critical commentary while covering the epic Celtics-Lakers Finals for CBS in 1984. DJ was officially hurt when Tommy questioned his play, and he responded with four stellar 20-point games to close out the series. Late in life, of course, he treated us to Tommy Points. Tommy’s fans flooded my inbox with e-mails Tuesday afternoon. “This is officially the most horrible year,” one wrote. “Basketball will never be the same for me.” A lot of folks feel that way. Tommy Heinsohn is gone and the Celtics will never be the same. ________________________________________ Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @dan_shaughnessy.
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Post by lou on Nov 11, 2020 9:56:24 GMT -5
NYTimes: Tom Heinsohn, Champion Celtic as Player and Coach, Is Dead at 86 Tom Heinsohn, Champion Celtic as Player and Coach, Is Dead at 86 nyti.ms/36nxxwj
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Post by hchoops on Nov 11, 2020 9:58:30 GMT -5
Thanks, HC 13 Dan S Great reading for us fellow grads
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Post by gks on Nov 11, 2020 11:06:49 GMT -5
Brain droppings about my namesake. Probably more longwinded than my typical post - Tommy's passing was the top story on the 6:00 TV news out of Boston. In front of COVID. In front of presidential transition/challenges. In front of Boston first night's being cancelled. Covered in more detail during the sports segment. HC mentioned - Back in the mid 80's Red Auerbach held a charity basketball game for the Auerbach foundation. At one point Heinsohn had an assist. They stopped the game and gave him the ball commemorating his first career assist.- If you're a shooter and you're hot. you gotta keep sheep shooting. If you're a shooter and you're cold, you gotta keep shooting because you're gonna get hot. - Tommy wasn't always as energetic broadcasting as he has been recently. I think he notched things up after Johnny Most died. Back in the 80's he was also the lead color guy for CBS coverage of NBA games. (back in those days, it was a bigger deal than it is today because fledgling ESPN and TNT had very little NBA coverage). I thought he was actually a little anti-Celtic, overcompensating his Celtic pride. That all ended in the 1987 eastern conference finals when Robert Parish punched Bill Laimbeer in the head. Heinsohn was almost giddy about it and I think even said Laimbeer deserved it. If I recall correctly, Heinsohn wasn't back the next year. - I was in the Garden one Sunday afternoon back in 1986 when they announced Tom Heinsohn had been voted into the Hall of Fame. Heinsohn was courtside doing the game for CBS. The place went wild for quite a while. A friend watching at home said that after a few minute play by play guy Dick Stockton just gave up trying to pre-game and told Heinsohn the game would never get started unless he took a bow - which he did - On a personal note, I knew that my father did some work for the fledgling NBA coaches' association back in the 70's when Celtics coach Heinsohn was the president of the union. Fast forward many years and I happened to bump into Heinsohn and Ron Perry Sr a couple of weeks after my father's death. Mr Perry offered his condolences, Tommy asked who we were talking about. At hearing the name, Tommy was so nice about a guy he hadn't seen (to the best of my knowledge) in 30 years. He told me that my dad was critical in getting the coaches' union certified and that every NBA coach owed him a debt of gratitude. I can't tell you how cool that was right on the heels of his death - A cool guy who was an integral part of the Boston sports scene for my entire life Togo and Tommy would rip each other about who had the fewer career assists. Great stuff!
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Post by hchoops on Nov 11, 2020 11:12:54 GMT -5
Ironic that today’s ESPN obit short video shows two Tommy assists One may be questionable . A lefty hook which hits the glass, misses the rim and is dunked by Russell.
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Post by nhteamer on Nov 11, 2020 11:17:37 GMT -5
"school-record 51-point, 42-rebound masterpiece against Boston College."
Maybe the most beautiful words ever printed.
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Post by purplenurple on Nov 11, 2020 11:37:45 GMT -5
A few years ago I had played tennis with a fellow Sader at some courts in Newton Upper Falls, and afterwards we went to grab a beer and a bit across the street at the Echo Bridge Restaurant (aka Virgilio's and as old school Italian as it gets). We sat in the bar and I had my HC hat on the bar. I had just put my hat on my lap when my friend says, "you might want to put that back on the bar". I looked to my left and Tommy H. had just sauntered in and sat down, one empty stool between us. We chatted about HC hoops, the Celtics, and life, and he was quite congenial.
Time to get a statue for Tommy up by Hart!
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Nov 11, 2020 11:54:13 GMT -5
Re: Tommy "Gunner" and his preference for shooting over passing-I believe I read (or maybe calculated) some time ago that he was #2 all-time in NBA career FGA/48 minutes, second only to Rick Barry. I believe that Michael Jordan may now be #1 in that category
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Post by Tom on Nov 11, 2020 12:35:21 GMT -5
Brain droppings about my namesake. Probably more longwinded than my typical post - Tommy's passing was the top story on the 6:00 TV news out of Boston. In front of COVID. In front of presidential transition/challenges. In front of Boston first night's being cancelled. Covered in more detail during the sports segment. HC mentioned - Back in the mid 80's Red Auerbach held a charity basketball game for the Auerbach foundation. At one point Heinsohn had an assist. They stopped the game and gave him the ball commemorating his first career assist.- If you're a shooter and you're hot. you gotta keep sheep shooting. If you're a shooter and you're cold, you gotta keep shooting because you're gonna get hot. - Tommy wasn't always as energetic broadcasting as he has been recently. I think he notched things up after Johnny Most died. Back in the 80's he was also the lead color guy for CBS coverage of NBA games. (back in those days, it was a bigger deal than it is today because fledgling ESPN and TNT had very little NBA coverage). I thought he was actually a little anti-Celtic, overcompensating his Celtic pride. That all ended in the 1987 eastern conference finals when Robert Parish punched Bill Laimbeer in the head. Heinsohn was almost giddy about it and I think even said Laimbeer deserved it. If I recall correctly, Heinsohn wasn't back the next year. - I was in the Garden one Sunday afternoon back in 1986 when they announced Tom Heinsohn had been voted into the Hall of Fame. Heinsohn was courtside doing the game for CBS. The place went wild for quite a while. A friend watching at home said that after a few minute play by play guy Dick Stockton just gave up trying to pre-game and told Heinsohn the game would never get started unless he took a bow - which he did - On a personal note, I knew that my father did some work for the fledgling NBA coaches' association back in the 70's when Celtics coach Heinsohn was the president of the union. Fast forward many years and I happened to bump into Heinsohn and Ron Perry Sr a couple of weeks after my father's death. Mr Perry offered his condolences, Tommy asked who we were talking about. At hearing the name, Tommy was so nice about a guy he hadn't seen (to the best of my knowledge) in 30 years. He told me that my dad was critical in getting the coaches' union certified and that every NBA coach owed him a debt of gratitude. I can't tell you how cool that was right on the heels of his death - A cool guy who was an integral part of the Boston sports scene for my entire life Togo and Tommy would rip each other about who had the fewer career assists. Great stuff! two Winter Homecoming stories when they showed the Purple Reign movie and had the panel discussion At one point Togo was telling a story about playing one on one with Cousy. He didn't remember who won. Heinsohn interrupted Togo with a loud "Bull": He went on to clarify that Togo not only knew who won that game but the final score of every game he played in. On his assists. in the lower Kimball lobby before the movie, some guy asked Tommy if he had any basketball advise for his son (kid about 10 years old). Tommy was really nice about and told the kid to practice dribbling. That was the most important thing. You can be a great basketball player, but if you can't dribble you're only a great player in a 3 foot circle. If you can dribble, you can be a great basketball player on the whole court. The second thing to work on is passing, because then all your teammates can be great all over the court
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Post by hchoops on Nov 11, 2020 13:15:14 GMT -5
Hoops wisdom by a Ph.D.
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Post by rgs318 on Nov 11, 2020 14:26:51 GMT -5
No apology needed! Thanks for sharing that story/memory.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Nov 12, 2020 8:02:28 GMT -5
A few years ago I had played tennis with a fellow Sader at some courts in Newton Upper Falls, and afterwards we went to grab a beer and a bit across the street at the Echo Bridge Restaurant (aka Virgilio's and as old school Italian as it gets). We sat in the bar and I had my HC hat on the bar. I had just put my hat on my lap when my friend says, "you might want to put that back on the bar". I looked to my left and Tommy H. had just sauntered in and sat down, one empty stool between us. We chatted about HC hoops, the Celtics, and life, and he was quite congenial. Time to get a statue for Tommy up by Hart! I think they should name the Hart court after Heinsohn. I don't know whether naming rights were on the table when the Luth was built, e.g., Blaney court, but if they were, no one offered to pick up the tab.
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Post by CHC8485 on Nov 12, 2020 8:32:10 GMT -5
"school-record 51-point, 42-rebound masterpiece against Boston College." Maybe the most beautiful words ever printed. Maybe. But I bet there are a few others ahead of it. And since this is a Holy Cross and a sports message board and think you'd agree this ranks above Tommy's most impressive stat line ...
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Post by alum on Nov 12, 2020 8:45:40 GMT -5
"school-record 51-point, 42-rebound masterpiece against Boston College." Maybe the most beautiful words ever printed. Maybe. But I bet there are a few others ahead of it. And since this is a Holy Cross and a sports message board and think you'd agree this ranks above Tommy's most impressive stat line ... I never knew you were the John 3:16 guy with the rainbow hair. Crossports is a fun place.
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Post by hchoops on Nov 12, 2020 10:37:00 GMT -5
Just terrific memories.
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Post by hchoops on Nov 12, 2020 11:04:11 GMT -5
Perhaps a Globe subscriber would please post today’s Bob Ryan piece on Tommy H.
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Post by timholycross on Nov 12, 2020 14:38:44 GMT -5
“Inculcate.”
Who uses the word “inculcate”? Tom Heinsohn; that’s who.
Back in those innocent days of the 1960s and ’70s, press luncheons were an important part of NBA life. We had them for years in Boston, the purpose to secure a little newspaper attention (nothing else mattered) for what was far from the most important sporting event in town. One of the most sought-after guests on the NBA circuit was Boston Celtics coach Tom Heinsohn, a man never at a loss for words.
Good words. Big words. Words such as “inculcate,” one of his favorites. The word means to “instill (an attitude, idea of habit) by persistent instruction,” and the thing Tom Heinsohn was “inculcating” was a fast-break concept into his team. Modern fans of his broadcasting will have no trouble believing that since he spent a large portion of his air time imploring every Celtics team of the past four decades to run, run, and run some more.
Red Auerbach had done his best to inculcate a fast-break philosophy into Tom Heinsohn, and he, in turn, felt it was his sacred duty to inculcate it into generations of new Celtics. I would go to those luncheons with him and there was never a time he wouldn’t come out with that word.
More than anyone you can think of, Tom Heinsohn was Mr. Celtic. Red Auerbach was the acknowledged patriarch, yes. Bob Cousy? Larry Bird? They both coached other teams, for God’s sake. Tommy Heinsohn joined the team in 1956 and remained a Celtic until his death at age 86 on Monday.
Yes, he earned a living as an insurance salesman — make that a champion insurance salesman — in the first few years after retiring as a player in 1965, but he was a broadcaster on the side until becoming the team’s head coach in 1969. For sheer longevity, I will take the liberty of assuming there is no comparable figure in any other team’s history.
There are a dwindling number of us who remember Tom Heinsohn, No. 15, the Hall of Fame player. The basic facts testify to his greatness. Six-time All-Star. Four-time second-team All-NBA (each time behind only legends Elgin Baylor and Bob Pettit). Eight championship rings. But that’s not the fun part.
The word that best describes his playing style was “swashbuckling.” The game has changed dramatically. There are no more Tommy Heinsohns. He was a 6-foot-7-inch forward with a line-drive jump shot, for starters. The folklore was that the shot trajectory was developed when he played in a high school gym with a low ceiling. Whatever, the shot was uniquely his.
In addition, he had inculcated — what else? — a second go-to offensive weapon into his game. He was a college center at Holy Cross, and a center couldn’t be a proper center in those days without a hook shot.
He, of course, did not play center in the NBA. But he did not abandon his hook shot. As a Celtic, it became a running hook, and he was particularly deadly from the corner. Oh, how he loved that hook. For years afterward, it was not uncommon to see him showing off that hook before games while wearing a sportcoat and dress shoes.
A third weapon was offensive rebounding. He was a master. He would lead the Celtics in scoring three times during his nine-year career and would be the team’s No. 2 scorer twice.
He, not Bill Russell, was the official NBA Rookie of the Year during their mutual inaugural campaign of 1956-57 (Russell joined the team fresh from the Melbourne Olympics after 24 games). And he saved his best that season for last. In the thrilling, exhausting, 125-123 double-overtime Game 7 win over St. Louis in the Finals, he had 37 points and 23 rebounds before fouling out in the second OT. Imagine the accolades if a rookie came up with a performance like that in a comparable Game 7 today.
Why only nine years? Why retire at age 30? It’s simple. He had bad knees. The heavy smoking didn’t help, either, but it was his knees that brought a premature end to his Hall of Fame career.
Our paths crossed in 1969. He was the rookie coach of the Celtics and I was the 23-year-old rookie beat man for the Boston Globe. I loved basketball, but my primary orientation had always been college. I needed someone to instruct me in the whys, wherefores, and nuances of the NBA. That someone was Tom Heinsohn.
At the same time, I also was absorbing the wisdom of the Havliceks, Nelsons, Silases, and Sanderses of the world, and the time would come when Tommy would take issue with some of my writing when the thoughts expressed differed with his. But all that was resolved in time and I want to make it clear I am very happy Tom Heinsohn came into my life.
We more than got along these past 40-odd years. He was one of the few people to call me “Bobby,” and I would consider him to have been a friend. What’s more, Tom Heinsohn was an accomplished painter, and we are proud to have a Heinsohn hanging in our living room.
John Havlicek, Don Nelson, and Satch Sanders really didn’t need a coach at that point in their careers. But younger players such as Jo Jo White, Don Chaney, and Dave Cowens did. Heinsohn’s approach to Jo Jo rankled some of the vets, who felt Tommy was allowing him to be too offensively oriented at the expense of other aspects of his game.
What he does not get enough credit for is the way he brought the best out of Cowens, by installing a 3-2 offense that exploited Cowens’s quickness and shooting ability.
He also worked diligently on a one-on-one basis to fix Chaney’s shaky shooting mechanics. You might say he inculcated some good habits into Chaney. There is no way Chaney would ever have averaged as many as 13 points a game for a season without Tom Heinsohn’s expert post-practice individual instruction.
He coached with passion, and there is no question he spent too much time worrying about the officials. But he won two titles and he coached another team that won 68 games and would have won it all had Havlicek not gotten hurt. That 68-14 team ran as beautifully orchestrated a fast break as the league has ever seen. All that inculcation — have I just coined a word? — kicked in to the nth degree.
The career was enough to make him one of only four people to make the Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach.
He carried that passion for the game and the organization through more than four decades of broadcasting. He bled green and his fans loved him for it. Sadly, there will be no more “Tommy Points.” Mr. Celtic has left us.
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Post by timholycross on Nov 12, 2020 14:43:28 GMT -5
Re: Attached Photo. Would the Knick #17 be Richie Guerin, whose son played a wee bit for HC? Notice the smoky background. No doubt due to anyone being able to light one up during the ballgame.
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Post by KY Crusader 75 on Nov 12, 2020 15:19:42 GMT -5
One site states that Guerin wore #9 as a Knick
Knicks who wore #17 Dick Atha Ron Sobie Dick Garmaker Sam Stith
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Post by hchoops on Nov 12, 2020 16:59:44 GMT -5
It is not Sam Stith or Guerin. My guess is Garmaker. I have never heard of Atha.
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Post by timholycross on Nov 12, 2020 19:14:47 GMT -5
Yes his daughter was in the class of 1979. I believe I was in an economics or accounting class with her. She was tall and not surprisingly had reddish hair. I think she married a fellow Crusader. My only recollection of Tom in person was in the 1979-80 season or thereabouts. After a game at the Hart in which HC beat St. Francis of Brooklyn, a player for St. Francis approached Tom, who was doing the broadcast, to say hello. Tom graciously shook hands with the young man. Yeah, she and her husband are alums and live locally.
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