Dean Shalhoup

Longtime reporter, columnist and photographer, is back doing what he does best ñ chronicling the people and history of Nashua. Reaching 40 years with The Telegraph in September, Deanís insights have a large, appreciative following.

Show of hands: Who recognizes the name Weldon Haire?

He occasionally went by M. Weldon Haire, but so rarely that it’s highly unlikely that adding the “M” will help you recognize the name.

Hint: Weldon Haire was best known to people who: A, went to a lot of Boston Celtics games in the 1950s up through the 70s; B, listened frequently to the sports report on Nashua’s first radio station, WOTW; or C, bought their insurance in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

My familiarity with Haire began when Pop introduced me to him, probably sometime in the early 1960s, as “the same guy you sometimes hear on WOTW.” The introduction took place courtside at the old Boston Garden, a hallowed space within a hallowed building I’d give anything to walk through today.

Pop and I were probably on our way to grab a couple of slices of that awesome Garden pizza ahead of the start of a Celtics game when Pop suddenly diverted our path upon spotting Haire, who, if I remember, was getting himself settled in his folding chair at the scorers table and fiddling with a spaghetti-like network of wires.

John Devlin of Watertown, Mass., uses his camcorder to capture the last day of the Boston Garden, Saturday, June 21, 1997. The Boston Garden, opened its doors to the public for one last time on Saturday, to allow people to have the opportunity to visit and purchase remaining authentic artifacts. The Garden first opened on November 17, 1928 serving as New England's historic home of sports and entertainment until its close on September 29, 1995. (AP Photo/Jim Rogash)

As a kid of 8 or 10 or so I fairly struggled with the name “Weldon Haire,” wondering if I heard “air,” and reasoning that “hair” was what the barber cut, not a man’s last name.

In an era when adults were always “Mr.” “Mrs.” or “Miss” to kids until they were at least 21, Pop probably introduced him as “Mr. Haire,” so you can see my struggle.

It was fairly cool to be able to tell friends “hear that guy on the loudspeaker? I know him … .” By “loudspeaker” I meant the Garden’s public address system, over which Weldon introduced the starting players and told Garden fans who scored the basket, who committed the foul, and who was coming into the game and who was going to the bench.

Haire did this for many years, making his debut in the Celtics’ 1949 season and retaining his seat at the public-address microphone for some 30 years.

When the longtime Boston Bruins announcer Frank Fallon died in 1972, Haire succeeded him, doing both Celtics and Bruins games until Andy Jick took over the Celtics games in 1980.

Haire stayed with the Bruins, announcing games for the final two seasons of a career that ended with his passing several months after the 1981-82 Bruins season.

So you may be wondering why I chose to devote much of today’s essay to a long-ago, behind-the-scenes member of the extended Celtics and Bruins families, especially given the (expletives omitted) early, unceremonious end of both the Celtics’ and Bruins’ seasons.

Remember the NBA “fan-misbehavior” incident a couple of weeks ago, the one in which a young Celtics’ “fan” vented his apparent disgust over Kyrie Irving’s decision to leave Boston for Brooklyn by winging a bottle of water at Irving?

Well, that and a couple of other recent episodes of unruly fans doing unruly things reminded me that somewhere among my “keepsakes” was a partial copy of a yellowed, dog-eared but still very readable Boston Herald dated Jan. 19, 1961.

As it turns out, fan-misbehavior is by no means a recent phenomenon. “Surprise, surprise … surprise,” as the decorated U.S. Marine Private Gomer Pyle would say.

While water bottles, half-full beer cups, popcorn, spit and racist taunts appear to be the weapons of choice for today’s misbehaving NBA fans, regular old eggs (aka hen fruit, cackle fruit) seemed to do the trick 60 years ago.

Which brings us to that vintage 1961 Boston Herald clip.

First, though, I must mention the lead story, which some 60 years later told me something I never knew: That Pittsburgh once had an NBA team.

Well, it did for 24 hours anyway, until the new franchise’s owner, John Harris, pulled out as one of the two ’61 NBA expansion teams (the other was Chicago).

The Herald also reported in that edition that Norm Van Brocklin, the “colorful Dutchman” who did great things with the Philadelphia Eagles, was named head coach of the NFL’s newest team, named the Minnesota Vikings.

OK on to the Celtics stories.

It seems that the rivalry between the Celtics and the then-St. Louis Hawks (the team moved to Atlanta a few years later) sometimes manifested itself in questionable fan behavior, and just such a scenario was on display during back-to-back games on which the Herald reported the next day.

“Hoop Fans Toss Eggs at Hawks,” read the headline, with the story describing how well St. Louis played in beating the Celtics then explaining the eggs part.

The game started 15 minutes late after fans pelted the St. Louis bench with eggs. This was in retaliation for the egging the St. Louis fans gave the visiting Celtics when the two teams played a couple of weeks earlier.

In Boston, fans delivered three separate salvos toward the St. Louis bench over the next two periods. It was the fourth one that prompted the scenario I found particularly hilarious.

Colorful Celtics coach Red Auerbach went over and borrowed the public address microphone from Haire.

“Let’s be good sports here … and not like the fans in St. Louis,” Red began, stirring the 10,000 C’s fans into a frenzy of laughter and cheers.

“Incensed at Auerbach’s remark, St. Louis coach Paul Seymour yanked the microphone cord out of the socket and for a while, threatened to keep the speaking device,” according to the Herald.

“Finally, Boston Garden policeman Chris Curtin persuaded Seymour to return the mike to announcer Weldon Haire.

“The Hawk coach then returned to the St. Louis bench amid hoots and cat-calls.”

I only wish I had a tape of Johnny Most describing the uproar for his legions of dedicated fans.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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