On This Date: The Celtics Pull Bob Cousy's Name Out of a Hat, and Hate It (Oct. 5, 1950)
On Oct. 5, 1950, three NBA owners drew the names of 3 Chicago Stags out of a hat. The Celtics got the one they didn't want: Bob Cousy. Six titles later, nobody was complaining.
On Oct. 5, 1950, at a special meeting of the NBA's board of governors in New York, commissioner Maurice Podoloff put 3 slips of paper into a hat. Each one had the name of a player from the Chicago Stags, a franchise that had just folded. Three owners wanted the 2 good ones. The Boston Celtics came away with the name nobody was fighting over: a 22-year-old, 6-foot-1 guard from Holy Cross named Bob Cousy.
Celtics owner Walter Brown was not pleased. "I thought I got stung," he said a few years later. "I'd had a bellyful of hometown heroes." His new coach, Red Auerbach, had already passed on Cousy once that year. Within 13 years, Cousy had 6 championship rings, and the Celtics were the Celtics.
The kid Auerbach didn't want
Cousy was the most famous college player in New England. He'd won a national title at Holy Cross as a freshman in 1947, and Boston fans wanted him in green. In the 1950 draft, the Celtics had the first pick and took Chuck Share, a 6-foot-11 center from Bowling Green. Auerbach, hired that spring, explained himself in a line that's usually reported this way: "We need a big man. Little men are a dime a dozen. I'm supposed to win, not go after local yokels."
The Tri-Cities Blackhawks took Cousy 3rd. He never played a game for them. They traded his rights to the Chicago Stags for a guard named Frankie Brian, and the Stags went out of business before the season started.
The hat
That left 3 Stags in limbo and 3 teams claiming them: Boston, the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia Warriors. The prize was Max Zaslofsky, who'd been first-team all-league in each of the league's first 4 seasons and won the 1947-48 scoring title at 21. Next was Andy Phillip, a smart, pass-first guard. Then Cousy, the rookie with a reputation as a flashy college showboat. Auerbach's instructions, according to one history of the league: "Get Maxie or nobody!"
Podoloff settled it with a hat. Knicks owner Ned Irish came away with Zaslofsky. Warriors owner Eddie Gottlieb got Phillip. Walter Brown reached in and pulled out Cousy. Accounts disagree on who drew first and what each team paid, but they all agree on how Brown felt about it. Cousy asked for $10,000 to sign. He got $9,000.
The next day's AP story didn't mention a hat at all. It listed all 8 Stags the league handed out to 5 teams, starting with "Bob Cousy to Boston." It also called the team the Chicago Bruins, which it wasn't.
How it worked out
Zaslofsky helped the Knicks reach the NBA Finals in 1951 and 1952, and they lost both. He was out of the league by 1956. Phillip led the NBA in assists in each of the next 2 seasons, made the Hall of Fame, and in 1957 won his only championship as a backup in Boston, on Bob Cousy's team.
On March 21, 1953, in a playoff game against Syracuse that went 4 overtimes, Cousy scored 50 points, 30 of them on free throws in 32 tries. Boston won 111-105.
Cousy led the NBA in assists 8 straight seasons, made 13 straight All-Star teams, and won the 1957 MVP. Once Auerbach traded for Bill Russell in 1956, the Celtics won 6 titles in Cousy's last 7 years: 1957, then 5 in a row from 1959 to 1963. They called him the Houdini of the Hardwood. On March 17, 1963, the Boston Garden gave him a farewell so tearful the papers called it the Boston Tear Party. The Celtics retired No. 14, and he went into the Hall of Fame in 1971.
Meanwhile, that same afternoon
In Philadelphia, the Yankees beat the Phillies 2-1 in 10 innings in Game 2 of the World Series. Joe DiMaggio won it with a home run in the 10th off Robin Roberts. The Yankees finished off a sweep of the Whiz Kids 2 days later.
76 years later
Bob Cousy turned 98 in August. He still lives in Worcester, a few miles from Holy Cross, and he told the Boston Globe he's "in double overtime." He has called himself the luckiest guy on the planet. The Celtics might argue that title belongs to them, starting with the day they reached into a hat, missed out on the player they wanted, and got the one who changed the game.
What's the luckiest break your team ever got? Tell us in the comments.
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