Welcome to Cataloged Clutter! We enjoy collecting and spending time with junk wax, common cards, overlooked cards… No card is too common here!
We explore a wide variety of basketball cards here, but we’ve also been returning to this 1993 Action Packed set. Frankly, there just aren’t a lot of cards of some of these early Hall of Famers and this set is an affordable way to get quality cards commemorating important history. This #29 Tom Heinsohn is a wonderful addition to a Celtics collection.
If you’re a Celtics fan and don’t know how deeply Tom Heinsohn is connected with Boston basketball, you need to watch this. And if you’re a fan of basketball history and want to admire what loyalty to a city really means, you’ll also enjoy this chat about Tom Heinsohn. Obviously, the Boston Celtics have a deep legacy, and Tom Heinsohn was a huge part of that. Not only did he play from 1956-65, but he coached from ’69-’78, meaning he was involved in 8 Celtics championships as a player and 2 as a coach. Then, he was a broadcaster for the team for over 30 years. So basically when the Celtics retired his #15 in 1966, he wasn’t even close to leaving the Boston basketball scene.
Speaking of loyalty to a local area, I want to point out something on the reverse of this card. This is the second time we’ve come across a mention of the Territorial Draft. There was a rule in effect until 1965 that allowed teams to forfeit a first-round selection and draft a player within a 50-mile radius of their home arena. The idea was to build local support for pro teams by drafting strong college players that might already have a fan base. You see here, that Heinsohn was chosen as a Territorial selection. So even before playing for the Celtics, he was basically a local playing nearby for the Holy Cross Crusaders. Oh, and before wrapping this up, he was also the ’56-57 Rookie of the Year.
Some really neat history here. And a card that perfectly demonstrates loyalty to a town and team, something in shorter supply today.
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