On this day in Boston Celtics history, guard Saul Mariaschin was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1924. Mariaschin played his college ball at Syracuse and Harvard University. While at Harvard, he also played baseball and was a teammate of future United States President George H.W. Bush.
He helped drive the Crimson to a 19-1 record and their sole NCAA Tournament appearance until the 2011-12 team that was led by Jeremy Lin. The Brooklyn native was drafted 63rd in the 1947 Basketball Association of America (BAA — a precursor league of the NBA) by the (now defunct) Washington Capitals, but he did not report to that team.
Instead, he signed with the Celtics, for whom he played one season. He was the last Harvard graduate to make an NBA or BAA postseason until Lin did it with the Houston Rockets in 2013. Mariaschin averaged 7.7 points and 1.4 assists per game. Rebounds were not yet tracked as a statistic.