Rest In Peace

John Karalis
@John_Karalis
Boston Celtics statement on the passing of Bill Fitch





Bob
MY NOTE:  May 19th would have been his 90th birthday, so a nice, long successful life.  2X Coach of the Year and an NBA Champion in 1981 leading the Celtics to victory.  This was the team with Tiny Archibald, Bird, Max, ML Carr, McHale, Gerald Henderson, Chris Ford, Eric Fernsten (how odd that I thought of him, and posted about him, today.  Before I knew about Fitch's passing.  A little freaky), Parish and Terry Duerod.  The 1986 team with Walton gets a lot of accolades, as it should, but man oh man.  Tiny Archibald?!  He is still the only player to ever lead the NBA in points and assists all the way back in 1972-1973.  49 years is a long, long time for a sports record to stand.

Sleep well, coach, you earned it.

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He coached our revival 81 team to the title and he was way ahead of his time.  He relied heavily on having his team watch film and as I recall the team was not particularly enamored with that.   Maxwell once spoke about an incident where the film equipment fell on the floor and the team cheered.

We remember that he was a good coach for a young and up and coming team.  Remember those brash young Cavaliers with Jim Chones and Bingo Smith?

Rest In Peace coach Finch.

The '81 team was the one that drew me in. That was back in the ear where the networks were afraid to take a chance on the NBA in prime time and you had to watch the games tape delayed at 11:30pm.

Bill Fitch was that first Boston coach for me. Clearly a great coach to turn things around like he did. It was a joy watching him work the sidelines and manage that team at that time. Celtics fans will always love him. He will be greatly missed.

db

I was visiting a friend in NYC in 81. We made his roommate swear not to tell us who won. When we went back to watch the delayed telecast, Mr. Idiot roommate kept his promise not to reveal the score , but he described every play to us just as it was about to happen. Idiit savant had a photographic memory. Nobody knows where the body is hidden.

Ahhh, the old tape delay! Classic TV!! Now if we can just get rid of the stupid blackouts!! I still can't believe for ANY reason those are still around!! Far more archaic than the delays!

db