Mystery of Photos Unveiled - Red Auerbach and Jimmy Walker at RI Auditorium

Sunday, May 05, 2024

Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist

When I first saw these photos of Jimmy Walker, Providence College, ’67 and Coach Red Auerbach, legendary coach of the Boston Celtics, a wave of nostalgia and intrigue hit me.  The photos were given to GoLocal this past week by Ray Tessaglia, Director of Parks and Recreation in Cranston.  Tessaglia has had these photos in the form of slides for decades. Then, he discovered them again during COVID while organizing his late mother’s family slides and photos.

 

Tessaglia grew up in St. Augustine’s parish in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Providence.  In the 1960’s he and his St. Augustine buddies—Tom Connor, Eddie Riley, and Tom Tessitore—would sneak into Alumni Hall after PC basketball practice when there were still PC players doing shootarounds.  Tessaglia and his buddies would rebound and feed the ball to Providence College stars Jimmy Walker and Billy Blair.  It was a kid’s dream come true.

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All Tessaglia could tell me about the photo was that his family went to a Celtics game “a long time ago” at the old Rhode Island Auditorium.  Tessaglia borrowed his mother’s Instamatic, which happened to have slide film in it, noticed Jimmy Walker sitting in the stands, and took two photos of him with Red Auerbach.  Tessaglia discovered these photos a couple of years ago and wondered what brought arguably the greatest Providence College basketball player, Jimmy Walker, and the greatest NBA coach, Red Auerbach, together in the RI Auditorium.

 

Jimmy Walker - #1 Pick in the NBA Draft

Let’s first start with a brief mention of Jimmy Walker.  For veteran PC basketball fans, Walker needs no introduction.  But for more recent fans, let’s toss out some numbers.  Walker, a native of Roxbury, MA, played his last years of high school ball at Laurinberg Institute in North Carolina.  He was recruited by PC coach Joe Mullaney in 1963, played on the PC freshman team in 1963-64, and then on the varsity team from 1964-1967.

 

Walker was a guard and held the PC overall scoring record when he graduated with 2,045 points, even though he only played three seasons and there was no 3-point line when he played.  He led the Friars to two NCAA appearances (1965, 1966) and one NIT appearance (1967).  He averaged 24.5 points in his PC career and averaged 30.4 pts in 1967 in his senior year.  He edged out a player from UCLA, (by the name of Kareem), as the NCAA scoring leader that year. For many years, Walker was tied with Oscar Robertson for the record for most points scored by a college player at Madison Square Garden after he pumped in 50 points in a PC 91-86 win over Boston College in December 1965.

 

To list his scoring prowess and to merely say he played guard, doesn’t begin to describe the genius of Walker’s style of play.  The greatest guard to come out of New England basketball was Bob Cousy of Holy Cross.  Cousy was a 6’1” guard who could dribble and pass like no other guard before him.  Cousy also had unique court vision to set up his elite passing abilities.  He literally could thread the needle with his passing.

 

He was called the “Houdini of the Hardwoods.”  Walker was a close second coming of Houdini, but more physical, and with more escape moves.  His dribbling, through the legs, and his spin moves looked like an NBA player at the college level.

 

Unlike the prototype small quick guards of that time, Walker at 6’ 3” and 195 lbs. was strong enough to consistently take the ball to the basket.  He also didn’t need screens to get open to make his outside shot.  He created his own open shots with his dribbling.  The old saying about quick dribbling guards is “he could fake the other players out of their jock straps.”  Walker left a lot of jockstraps on the floor when he played.

 

Arnold “Red” Auerbach

Red Auerbach needs no introduction in New England.  He leads the NBA in coaching the Celtics to nine championships, including eight in a row from 1959 to 1966.  I often wondered why he didn’t coach one more year and have a ring for each finger.  But he became GM and President of the Celtics and helped to mastermind six more Celtics championships.

 

Auerbach started his coaching in 1940 at the high school level in his hometown of Washington, DC.  After joining the Navy during WW II, he started coaching professionally, first with the Washington Capitals in a new league, the NBA.  Later, he coached a team called the Tri-City Blackhawks (Moline and Rock Island, IL and Davenport, IA) from 1949 to 1950.  He joined the Celtics in 1950 as coach.

 

Why is Red Auerbach sitting with Jimmy Walker?

Walker and Auerbach are watching a basketball game at the old RI Auditorium featuring the Boston Celtics.  Why are they together?  Auerbach is trying to get to know Walker before considering drafting him.  But the Celtics were so good and always drafted last in each round of the NBA draft back then, why did Aurbach think he had any shot at getting Walker, a star player at PC, in the draft?

 

Alas, prior to 1966, the NBA had a unique feature in its draft, something called the “territorial draft.”  NBA teams could exercise a territorial draft pick prior to the regular draft by having first dibs for any college senior playing within a 50-mile radius of their team.  The idea was a marketing concept:  Let the local college hero play for the local NBA team.  It was used often by NBA teams, and it was how the Cincinnati Royals got Oscar Robertson right out of the University of Cincinnati.

 

Just prior to the 1966 NBA draft, however, the NBA owners voted to kill the territorial draft feature. Why? Largely, because of the Boston Celtics. The Celtics were winning every year and the owners saw very good basketball college feeder schools—Holy Cross, PC, and Boston College—providing top-notch players that the Celtics could snag before anyone else.

 

Holy Cross, PC, and Boston College—NBA supply schools?  It was more than a perception. Holy Cross produced Tom Heinsohn and Bob Cousy. Mullaney was turning PC into the best team in New England and already produced NBA players Lenny Wilkins, Johnny Egan, and John Thompson.  Cousy had recently retired from the Celtics and became the Boston College coach.

 

And the tipping point to prevent the Celtics from a territorial supply line of NBA draft choices may have been Jimmy Walker.  His first year as a PC varsity player in 1964-65 was an eye-opener. 

 

He played like an NBA player, was selected as the NCAA Eastern Player of the Year, and led PC to an elite eight appearance in the April 1965 NCAA tournament.

 

The Mystery Photos

In any case, Auerbach wouldn’t have had the territorial draft rights to Walker in 1966.  But in the fall of 1965, Walker was still a potential dream-come-true territorial draft selection for the Celtics.  Hence, Auerbach’s courting of Walker at a Celtics game at the RI Auditorium took place in 1965.

 

 

The Celtics played two games at the Auditorium in November 1965, both games prior to PC’s season start.  On November 9, 1965, the Celtics beat the Baltimore Bullets 130-116 and on November 26, 1965, the Celtics thrashed the Detroit Pistons 134-114.  The pictures of Walker and Red at the Auditorium are likely from one of those games.

 

 

Why are Walker and Auerbach Watching the Celtics Play in Providence?

Starting in the 1950s, many NBA teams looking to spread their brand and increase their fan base began to schedule some of their “home games” in nearby cities.  The Celtics started playing some home games every year at the RI Auditorium in the 1946-47 season.  I remember going to some Celtics games at the Auditorium in the early ’60s while I was in high school.  You could walk up and buy tickets on game day and get to watch Bill Russell, John Havlicek, and Sam Jones.  Most Rhode Islanders weren’t as impressed as I was.  The Celtics rarely drew more than 4,000 fans in the 5,300-seat RI Auditorium.  In fact, for the game in the photo, assuming it was indeed played on November 9, 1965, the Celtics beat the Baltimore Bullets before only 3,463 fans.

 

So, the picture of Walker and Auerbach watching the Celtics in the Auditorium in 1965 was no big deal.  Right?  Well, actually, it was more than just a nice marketing idea by the Celts.  It was legally mandated that they play some games in Providence. To find out why, we need to turn to guy named Lou Pieri.

 

Pieri of Providence owned the RI Auditorium and the RI Reds hockey team for decades.  Providence may have been a two-horse sports town back in the 1950s and 1960s compared to Boston, but Lou Pieri, a 1920 Brown grad, was an astute and savvy sports entrepreneur.  In addition to owning the only major sports venue in town and the popular Reds hockey team, he was one of the founders of the Ice Capades and the annual Holiday on Ice show.

 

 

His one sports business stumble, however, was in 1946 with the Providence Steamrollers in the newly formed NBA.  The Steamrollers featured a sturdy guard by the name of Ernie Calverly who went on to have a very successful coaching career with URI.  The Steamrollers were not successful, however, on the floor or at the gate.  One of the top teams in the early NBA was the Washington Capitals, coached by a young Auerbach.  Lou Pieri sought out Auerbach’s advice during the 1948-49 season.  Auerbach advised Pieri to fold the Steamrollers, which Pieri did in 1949.  Auerbach was fired from Washington and moved on from the Capitals to the Tri-City Blackhawks for the 1949-1950 season.  However, Pieri remained impressed with Auerbach’s coaching skills and player relations.

 

Enter Walter Brown, owner of the Boston Celtics and the Boston Garden, into the story.  During the 1949-1950 Celtics season, Brown was bleeding money owning the Celtics.  Now that Lou Pieri had abandoned the Steamrollers, Brown sought out Pieri for an investment in the Celtics.  Pieri agreed to invest and to become a minority owner of the Celtics.  Pieri provided cash and gave Brown and the Celtics a new life.

 

Pieri’s cash investment, however, in the Celtics came with two conditions that Brown had to agree to:

- The Celtics would be required to play at least 4 games/year in the RI Auditorium;

- They had to fire their existing coach and hire Red Auerbach to coach the Celtics starting in the 1950-51 season. Auerbach was working at a Catskills, NY resort in the summer of 1950 when he got the call from Brown.

 

Brown agreed, so the Celtics were not just casual visitors to the RI Auditorium each year looking to check off something on their annual marketing plan.  The Celtics were legally required to schedule games each year in Providence.  And, of course, the Red Auerbach coaching hire by the Celtics was the smartest ever in all professional sports.  From all of us Celtics fans, Thank You, Lou Pieri.

Thank you also, Ray Tessaglia, for providing such an evocative photo to GoLocal loaded with local storylines!

 

Epilogue and Some Overtime Shots

Jimmy Walker was the first player drafted in the 1967 NBA draft, taken by the Detroit Pistons.  It was an unfortunate draft for Walker, as the Pistons had an outstanding guard, David Bing.  Walker eventually got good playing time with the Pistons and was an NBA All-Star in 1970 and 1972.  He was traded to Houston in 1972, and then in 1973 to the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, where he ended his 9-year NBA career.  He averaged 17 points/game in his NBA career. For most of his college and NBA career, he wore #24 in honor of his mentor, Sam Jones of the Celtics.  Walker was inducted into both the PC and NCAA basketball Hall of Fames.  He died at the age of 63 in Kansas City in 2007. He is the father of NBA great Jalen Rose.

 

Lou Pieri, who founded and folded one of the worst NBA teams ever in the Providence Steamrollers, ended up helping to create one of the best professional sports franchises in the Boston Celtics.  In 1963, he replaced Walter Brown as Celtics President but retired from that role in early 1965 and sold his interest in the Celtics in the same year.  He died at the age of 70 in June 1967.

 

In 1972, the shiny new Providence Civic Center opened in downtown thanks to the efforts of Mayor Joseph Doorley.  The Reds, the Celtics, and the Friars, and all the old events from the Auditorium came to the new Civic Center.  The RI Auditorium was torn down in 1989 and is now a shuttle parking lot for Miriam Hospital employees.

 

The Celtics played their last game at the RI Auditorium in 1967.  They played some games at the Civic Center from 1972 to 1978 but preferred the Hartford Civic Center.  In early 1978, the Hartford Civic Center roof collapsed, and the Celtics played the scheduled Hartford game at the Civic Center on April 8, 1978, in what turned out to be the last Celtics game played in Providence.  The Celtics were suffering a rare losing season, fired Coach Tom Heinsohn, and Satch Sanders was filling in as interim coach.  It was the last game played by John Havlicek, but the Celtics also had former Friars’ Kevin Stacom and Ernie D on the roster then.  Satch gave the 11,000 Civic Center fans what they wanted—lots of playing time for Stacom and DiGregorio.  Kevin ended up with 12 points and Ernie D with 24 points in the 112-103 loss to the Washington Bullets.

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