Trivia 1/18/10

Which Celtics player was waived to make room for Bill Russell on the 1956-57 roster?

Hint: He went to the same school as Mr. Basketball.

Cliff Hagan and/or Easy Ed .

I won't give it away, but he had the same UNFLATTERING nickname as a later Portland/Denver/Dallas Nuggest player and wore Sam Jones' eventual number.

Sam

ummmmmmm ... Arnie Risen ? nicknamed "Stilts" ...

nope, wrong college ... i got it now, but i had my guess ...

(wow, Russell avg'd over 19 boards a game in his first NBA season !!! )

Michael, I bet Spike would not want to limit your number of guesses. Give it another shot.

Sam

well, Togo Palazzi went to the Cross, and disappeared off the roster for the 56-57 team, so he's my (new) guess ...

You know, I misread Spike's question and thought he said the guy had gone to the same college as Russell. So I had thought it was Fat Freddie Scolari (who did go to USF but left the Celtics a year earlier), but you're right. Nice going, and the joke's on me.

Sam

thanks ! - it was fun getting into the question and i enjoyed posting with you ... as always.

Michael

Excellent work, bp. Common sense, logical approach to the problem. Or, as Sherlock Holmes would say, elementary.

I ran across that little bit of trivia on a recent trip to Boston Public Library in the Micro Documents room in a copy of the Globe from December 22, 1956. I was trying to find out more information about Bill Russell's first game as a Celtic. That day, the big story wasn't about the fascinating rookie who would revolutionize the sport, but about the waiving of 'local yokel' Togo.

I guess he didn't play much but he was a fan favorite. I don't know if fans chanted back then the way they do now, but you can almost hear it: "TOGO! TOGO!"

cool stuf ! love the research ! i used www.databasebasketball.com ... great site !

and you can just hear the "TOGO" chant, can't you ?