Happy 78th Birthday to a lifetime Celtic

If there was a Mount Rushmore of Celtic's that have done it all for the team I'd certainly include this man!

Have a great birthday Tom!!

beat

Wonder if the redhead from Natick picked out his clothes?

Good call, Beat.

It's always very tempting to link Heinsohn with Cousy. Both went to Holy Cross. They palled around together, drove to and from games together. But Cousy had been a Celtic for six seasons before Heinie came around. So it makes sense that The Cooz is the older of the two by six years.

I will always maintain that Russ, Cooz, Sam and John were the heart of the Celtics but Tom was the soul of those teams.

One of the primary characteristics of those teams was audacity, and only The Cooz rivaled Tom for sheer audacity. Both his unconscious shooting (corner hooks even in the clutch) and his tendency to pop an opponent who got out of line were audaciousness personified. Tom shares the Celtics' all-time record for points per 36 minutes with Sam Jones, and he was no slouch as a defensive player, using his bulk to great effectiveness.

I've always said that what differentiated those Celtics teams from any others of any era was that they expected to win. Not hoped....expected. In the miniscule instances when they lost a big game, they looked at it as a mistake—almost like a clerical error. That mixture of personal drive, self-assurance and an iron will was what made Tommy tick...and it still does.

I know some people think he's just a buffoon or a caricature of a color analyst. That's primarily because they find it impossible to believe the stuff of which Tom Heinsohn is really made. They simply don't get it! But those who do get it will always rank Tom Hainsohn extremely high in the pantheon of Celtics greats.

Sam

Sam

My meaning of Mount Rushmore is a credit to more than just being a player. He did/does three things, he played (very well) albeit too short a career, coached (very well) 2 championships and a third would have happened had Hondo not run in to a Debusschere pick, and he's broadcast for this team twice as long as he played and coached combined. And he did this well enough to do several years of National Coverage with various networks too.

Not sure and without checking but is there any Celt with a longer tenure with this team except perhaps Cousy?

For this reason I rank him right near the top on the Celtic All-Time people.

beat

Great to see Tommy staying active and involved. His wife's untimely departure hit him hard a while back, but he's been able to recover and hopefully remember the good memories he shared with her!

MD!