Longtime Celtic Announcer Most Dies at 69

Legendary announcer Johnny Most, who was to the Celtics and Boston what Chick Hearn is to the Lakers and Los Angeles, died Sunday afternoon of heart failure at a Hyannis, Mass., hospital. He was 69.

Most, an unabashed homer and voice of the Celtics from 1953 until his retirement in October of 1990, had been in poor health for years. He underwent triple-bypass surgery in 1989, had hearing problems, a year ago this week had both legs amputated just above the knee because of circulation problems and often needed an oxygen mask to help him breathe. But he was still known to have a cigarette inside Boston Garden, a building in which smoking is forbidden.

Sunday night, when the Celtics played host to the Clippers, the press table seat at the corner of the baseline and visitor’s bench, Most’s spot for home games since retirement, was kept empty in tribute. A moment of silence was also held for the announcer whose distinctive gravelly voice and pro-Celtic style made him a local favorite for decades as he depicted the opposition as mortal enemies.

“Johnny Most brought basketball into the kitchens, the living rooms and, most of all, young people’s bedrooms,” said Tom Heinsohn, who played for the Celtics from 1956-65 and is in his 12th year as an announcer for the team. “He portrayed basketball as a morality play.

“He took what the Celtics did and the philosophy of the Celtics and broadcast it in such a way that it made heroes out of us all. I dare say there weren’t many, by word of mouth or by pen, who could do it better than he did.”

Said current Celtic Kevin McHale: “Johnny probably exemplified the word loyal. The first time I heard him do a game, I couldn’t believe an announcer could be so biased. Everybody now who’s hiring an announcer wants them to be objective. Red (Auerbach) probably told him, ‘Say we’re getting screwed every night.’ And he did.”