Fan Found the Way to Make Him See Red

Red Auerbach made his victory cigar the trademark of every Boston Celtics win during the team’s dynasty of the 1950s and ‘60s. When a Boston victory was assured, the Celtic coach would light up on the bench.

Former Celtic great Bob Cousy tells this story about a game in which Auerbach got a dose of his own medicine: “We were in Cincinnati one night and losing by 20 points. A woman, smoking a cigar, came down out of the stands, blew smoke in his face and said, ‘Look at the scoreboard, Red.’ He took the cigar out of her mouth and put it out on her dress.”

Trivia time: The former Cincinnati NBA franchise is now located in what city? (Answer below.)

Kent Hull of the Buffalo Bills is indebted to his high school coach in Greenwood, Miss. Hull was the team’s starting quarterback as a sophomore, but after the season, his coach told him he was being demoted to second string.

“My feet got big, I think,” Hull said, explaining the demotion. “I slowed down a great deal.”

Hull quit the team to concentrate on basketball, but the football coach talked him into returning and moved him to tight end as a junior. The next season, Hull moved to center and earned a scholarship to Mississippi State.

A Pro Bowl alternate last year, Hull was voted to the team this season, and today he will start at center against the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC title game.

When the Chicago Bears beat the San Francisco 49ers, 10-9, in October, some observers said it was the hardest-hitting game of the season. Soon afterward, Bear Coach Mike Ditka suffered a heart attack. Ditka, who will be on the sidelines for today’s rematch in the NFC title game, said: “This is not for the faint of heart when you’re out there with these guys.”

Elbert (Ickey) Woods of the Cincinnati Bengals was asked if kids gave him a hard time about his nickname in school. Woods said, “Nobody wanted to tease me because I was the biggest kid in class.”

Woods admits that he ran around with a gang when he was a kid, but he doesn’t call it a gang. Says Woods: “It was a group of felons having fun.”

When Maurice Lucas retired as a player last fall to become an assistant coach for the Portland Trail Blazers, a testimonial dinner was held for him in Portland.

Lionel Hollins, a teammate of Lucas’ on the Trail Blazers’ 1976-77 NBA championship team, was one of the speakers.

“To Maurice, basketball was a contact sport,” Hollins said. “It was all con and no tact.”

According to Ken Denlinger of the Washington Post, when George Allen was told that 14 of his former assistants have become head coaches, the former coach of the Rams and Washington Redskins said: “Some people have a knack for picking personnel, whether it’s football or the Bank of America.”

Trivia answer: Sacramento. The Cincinnati Royals became the Kansas City-Omaha Kings in 1972-73, the Kansas City Kings in 1975-76 and the Sacramento Kings in 1985-86.

Quotebook

Norm Stewart, Missouri basketball coach, when one of his starters turned an ankle during a holiday tournament: “It’s somewhere between a sprain and death.”