If some of these 17 Boston Celtics championship banners could talk, oh what tales they could tell.
Russell vs Chamberlain. JFK on election eve. The Beatles. “We Love You Cooz.” “Havlicek stole the ball.”
The Celtics have loaned their iconic green and white championship banners, along with the three retired number banners, to the Boston Public Library from October 18 to January 30 as part of their 75th Anniversary festivities. They are sacred scrolls, celebrating greatness. Many have been unseen by the public since May 5, 1995, when the Celtics played their last game in the Boston Garden.
This is the story of how they went from a nondescript, corrugated metal storage room north of Boston to be displayed in full glory in the BPL, just a full court pass away from Red Auerbach’s old apartment at the Lenox Hotel.
Celtics VP of media services Jeff Twiss waits outside the building. It’s almost exactly the 40th anniversary of his hiring and he is jazzed that fans will be able to see a part of Celtics history for free.
“It’s really a privilege to share them with the general public in a setting that’s unique to Boston, the BPL, and for the first time where everybody can see and fully appreciate them.”
Red Auerbach thought the banners had charisma.
“Every ballplayer you talk to first talks about two things-those banners and our parquet floor,” said Auerbach, in Dan Shaughnessy’s book “Ever Green.”
When the Celtics won their first championship in 1957, Auerbach and owner Walter Brown contacted New England Flag and Banner, which made the World Series flag when — the Americans — beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1903. Auerbach wanted big banners, 8 feet by 12 feet, and 100 percent hand-sewn cotton.
“A traditional look,” according to Ned Flynn, president of New England Flag and Banner.
After that first championship, it was almost an annual order. The Celtics won a record 11 championships in 13 years, arguably the greatest accomplishment in professional sports history.
“[Auerbach] was just smarter than anyone else,” says Hall of Fame point guard Bob Cousy, responsible for directing six of those championships.
Cousy says the banners were part of the many mind games Auerbach played.
“Yeah, the flags were part of having a psychological impact,” Cousy says. “[Auerbach] used to tell us in warmups never look down at the opponent warming up, let him look at you. [He] didn’t want us to shake hands before a game because that made them feel comfortable. Don’t let them feel comfortable, we want them to know we hate them. Then when you’ve got four or five banners up there, oh boy, I don’t care how much experience those teams coming in had, that was part of our home court advantage.”
In the ‘70s, the blueprint was lost and when the Celtics won in 1974, the switch was made from cotton banners to more durable nylon. Back then they cost $475 each.
When the Celtics moved into the FleetCenter in 1995 (now the TD Garden) they had the larger nylon 10-by-15-foot banners installed.
“The decision was made that when they went to the new facility that the old banners were too small,” says Flynn. “They looked like bath towels.”
The Celtics put the old banners in their training facility in Waltham. When they moved to the Auerbach Center in 2018, they moved them into storage.
There have been too many incidents of these sacred scrolls being stolen to risk listing the facility name. It looks like the kind of place where you might stash Grandma’s old furniture after she passed away.
When Twiss’s support team arrives, they unlock the unmarked door. Behind the bubble wrapped frames, a desk, a couch, and some chairs, sit perhaps the most unusual find since they started bringing up the silverware of the Titanic. The original Celtic banners are tucked away in the back, behind stacks of the original Boston Garden parquet floor. Of the 16 cotton banners which hung in the ancient rafters of the Boston Garden, only five have survived, the rest nylon replacements.
Mike Marcucci of Flagraphics, Inc., Celtics director of operations Peter Fayette, and Twiss load the long banners into a new cargo van and Marcucci drives them up Interstate 93 to their next stop, New England Flag and Banner in Woburn. There they will be ironed, repaired, and prepared to go to the BPL.
A Celtics fan, Marcucci admits he was at first shocked when he saw the parquet and banners in the storage area, then scared of being responsible for transporting it.
“I was very nervous,” he says. “I knew they were the originals and that made me a little more aware of what was on the road. We knew what history was in there and we wanted it to make sure the banners were well protected.”
Flynn welcomes the banners like lost family members. When he goes to Celtics games he watches the banners, more than the game, annoying his wife as he points out imperfections caused by gravity and time.
“It’s great to have the old banners here,” he says. “The Celtics donating the use of these banners to the City of Boston so people can enjoy them is fantastic.”
He calls his workers together as they place them across a long table.
The old banners are fragile, he warns.
“Don’t pull too hard — pin them, stretch them, and iron them and leave them for a couple of days.”
“Be very careful,” he tells them.
Some are yellowed from time or Red Auerbach’s cigar, or from marijuana smoke wafting up from a the floor of a Grateful Dead concert.
There’s also stains from God knows what. The 1968 banner has several brown stains of a mysterious nature.
“I think it’s monkey poo,” says Flynn, laughing. When the Garden was demolished in 1998 workers found a petrified monkey in the rafters who apparently abandoned the circus. The Celtics think it’s water damage, or oil or grease.
“We can have the FBI come in and run a DNA analysis,” says Flynn.
One masked veteran seamstress, Terry Wu, takes off her shoes, puts down a cloth covering, and climbs up on the massive table. She starts ironing the 1962 title banner, the oldest original, earned beating the Lakers at home in an overtime Game 7.
Flynn double checks the settings on the iron.
“Not too hot,” he cautions.
Up close, there’s lots to look at. There are thousands of stitches in the two-sided banners. The Celtics’ first, from 1957, is not an original. It is believed to have gone threadbare from wear and tear. Also on exhibit are the three Celtics retired number banners with 23 names and numbers.
In 1998, the newest eight paneled banner, half-filled with the numbers for Bird, McHale, DJ, and Reggie Lewis, disappeared. The Celtics offered a $5,000 reward, and set up a tip line. A call came in and police and the FBI flocked to Melrose.
“There it was in full view,” says Twiss. “A teenager had it. But how he got an 8-by-12-foot banner out of the Garden we have no idea.”
Some of the other originals were believed damaged in a 1970′s fire when the banners were temporarily removed for either the circus or a The Who concert, depending on two different source accounts.
“A bunch of the banners were damaged beyond repair,” says Flynn. Garden staff called in a panic.
“‘Oh my God our heads are on fire, we’ve got to get them replaced because the Celtics are coming back,’” Flynn says.
For the 2008 banner, Flynn had a “lucky penny” inserted into a corner of the banner. He might not want to do that again — the C’s haven’t won since.
Cousy says he’s thrilled that fans can get to see the banners in person.
“One of my prouder moments is the banners are entwined in frankly a moment that won’t be replicated in American sports history,” he says. “Playing a role in that unit from ‘57 to ‘69, in doing something that will never be done again. I wish the City of Boston would appreciate what they had in those years and the legacy that was left behind. That’s what pleases me the most.”
The Cooz, 93, says he “still has his marbles”, but his legs aren’t so good. He hopes the banners don’t get cosmetic facelifts before meeting the public.
“Tell them to leave the blood on the banners, don’t clean them up, it adds authenticity,” he says. “It’s like the “Spirit of ‘76 painting, with the wounded guy flying the old battered flag. You knew they went through the wars and they earned it.
“The same hopefully applies here.”
Stan Grossfeld can be reached at stanley.grossfeld@globe.com.
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Long cooped up in storage, the Celtics’ original championship banners are returning to the light - The Boston Globe
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