A couple of hours down the Mass Pike in Springfield, no fewer than four dozen players, coaches, and contributors with ties to the Celtics franchise have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame over the years, spanning the decades from the first years of the storied ball club’s existence up to the team’s last era of contention.
Below, Celtics Wire celebrates the 49 members of the Hall of Fame with Celtics connections in a photo gallery.
Damon and Mark Wahlberg, sitting courtside with floor seats, were enthusiastically cheering for the Celtics when Jackson lost his cool and shouted at them https://t.co/eASRHKFXMU
On this day in 1982, the Boston Celtics nearly moved to the North Shore; 36 years earlier, they hired Holy Cross’ Alvin Julian as head coach.
On this day in Boston Celtics history, the team hired their second coach, Alvin “Doggie” Fred Julian, in 1948. Julian joined the team after coaching Holy Cross and future Celtic legend Bob Cousy at the collegiate level.
His tenure with the Celtics was a brief one. Recording a 47-81 record with the team over two seasons, the collegiate champion coach was soon let go by Boston, at the end of his second season as head coach for the franchise. Julian is one of only three coaches hired directly from the NCAA ranks in the history of the storied franchise to date.
The others are Rick Pitino (previously with Kentucky) and Brad Stevens (previously with Butler).
On this day, the Boston Celtics’ first coach Alvin Julian was born.
On this day in Boston Celtics history, the Celtics’ first coach, Alvin “Doggie” Julian, was born in 1901 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Before landing the job as head coach of the nascent Celtics franchise, Julian would play football, baseball, and basketball at Bucknell, having a four-year pro career playing baseball for various teams between 1922 and 1926.
At various points in his life, he’d coach all three sports at the collegiate and high school levels but began coaching basketball at Muhlenberg College in 1936. In 1945, Julian started coaching at Holy Cross, winning an NCAA Championship there with future Celtic Bob Cousy, who would later join him on the Celtics in 1950.
The Reading native would of course leave Holy Cross for Boston in 1948 and would leave the pro ranks at the end of Cousy’s rookie season.
On this day, a trio of former Boston Celtics were born – Don Chaney, Ed Macauley, and Brian Shaw.
On this day in Boston Celtics history, a trio of former Boston Celtics were born. The first of which is former Celtics guard Don Chaney, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana today in 1946. Chaney would play his college ball at the University of Houston and would be picked up 12th overall by Boston in the 1968 NBA Draft.
He would win a championship in his rookie year with the Celtics, and another with them in 1974 before season-long stints with the Spirits of St. Louis in the ABA, and rival Los Angeles Lakers. Chaney would return to Boston to finish his career in 1977, retiring as a player in 1979 with the Celtics, averaging 8.7 points and 3.9 rebounds over 10 seasons with the team.
He would go on to coach basketball for 22 more years and is the only Celtic who played with both Boston legends Bill Russell and Larry Bird.
The Boston Celtics might not be making history under quarantine, but we can have trivia nights on their storied past while we wait.
While we wait for the return of the 2019-20 Boston Celtics, the Celtics Wire put together an evening trivia series.
Each night, we’ll post three questions about an era of Celtics history for you to try to test your knowledge on and see if you’re a Boston fan…
…or a Celtics fanatic.
We’ll start with the foundational years of the NBA’s winningest franchise, since the beginning is usually a good place to get started. And those years would be the late 1940s and 1950s, with roots going back further than the NBA itself.
So, try your hand at the quiz below — it’s a tough one for anyone but the most hard-core fans, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you miss a few.
On this day, the Boston Celtics’ first coach Alvin Julian was born, and veteran forward Gordon Hayward had 21 points against the Indiana Pacers without missing a shot.
On this day, the Boston Celtics first coach, Alvin “Doggie” Julian, was born in 1901 in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Before landing the job as head coach of the nascent Celtics franchise, Julian would play football, baseball and basketball at Bucknell, having a four-year pro career playing baseball for various teams between 1922 and 1926.
At various points in his life, he’d coach all three sports at the collegiate and high school levels, but began coaching basketball at Muhlenberg College in 1936.
In 1945, Julian started coaching at Holy Cross, winning an NCAA Championship there with future Celtic Bob Cousy, who would later join him on the Celtics in 1950.
Stevens is first C's coach hired from college with no NBA experience since Doggie Julian hired from Holy Cross in 1948. Julian went 47-81.
The Reading native would of course leave Holy Cross for Boston in 1948, and would leave the pro ranks at the end of Cousy’s rookie season.
It is also the birthday of former Celtic center George Nostrand, who played for the team under Julian in 1949.
Nostrand was born in Uniondale, New York in 1924, and would play two seasons for Boston after his college ball at High Point and Wyoming, and several professional teams afterwards.
In those two seasons with the Celtics, Nostrand averaged 8.3 points and 1.2 assists plus an unknown number of rebounds per game — they had not yet begun tracking the statistic.
#DidYouKnow at the NBA's first game in 1946, any fan taller than Toronto's 6-8 center George Nostrand got in free?!
It is also the birthday of ex-Boston guard Shammond Williams, who was born on this day in 1975 in the Bronx. He happens to be the cousin of recent Hall of Fame electee Kevin Garnett, and played his collegiate basketball for the UNC Tarheels.
After being drafted 34th overall by the Chicago Bulls in the 1998 NBA Draft and traded the same night to the Atlanta Hawks, Williams would play for the Seattle Supersonics.
He would come to Boston as part of the trade sending Vin Baker to Boston in exchange for Kenny Anderson, Joseph Forte and Vitaly Potapenko in the summer of 2002.
Williams would play less than a full season before being traded again, this time to the Denver Nuggets for Mark Blount and Mark Bryant, and averaged 7.3 points, 2.2 boards and 2.5 assists in his sole season as a Celtic.
It is the anniversary of three wins since the season Boston won their last championship in 2007-08 as well.
The first was a 101-78 victory over the Charlotte then-Bobcats that cemented the team’s record as the greatest single-season turnaround in league history, breaking their tie with the San Antonio Spurs set earlier in the month.
On this day: Celtics tie greatest single-season turnaround in history https://t.co/WZLe4hYtFE
The Celtics also clinched home-court advantage for the duration of the postseason with the win.
They did all this while resting their best players, too — Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen sat for the contest, with forward Leon Powe leading the way with 22 points and 9 boards.
“If you could write a script on the way to clinch home-court, this would probably be it,” opined head coach Doc Rivers at the time (via ESPN).
Boston also blew out the Philadelphia 76ers 99-82 in 2011, as point guard Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Rajon Rondo also had a 16-point, 13-assist night.
It gave the Celtics the second-place position in the East heading into the playoffs as well, tying the 54-23 Miami Heat’s record with a 3-0 record against Miami that season.
“We want all these games,” said KG via the Associated Press. “Playoffs is like the main course. This will definitely be an appetizer.”
Finally, the Celtics crushed the Indiana Pacers a year ago today, taking the fourth seed after a stellar performance from All-Star forward Gordon Hayward.
The Butler product became the first Boston player since Kevin McHale to score at least 20 points without a missed shot, going for 21 points on 9-of-9 shooting.
Forward Jayson Tatum had 22 points and 7 rebounds, and point guard Kyrie Irving 17 points and 6 assists as the Celtics clinched home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs with the win.
