G Larry Siegfried (official thread)

[Ttown]

RIP Larry. IT was always a joy to watch you play with that team.
A sad day for all Buckeyes.

 

[colobuck79]

Hate to see another great Buckeye move on. Rest in Peace. :(

 

[naptownbuck]

R.I.P Larry :( :osu:

 

[LitlBuck]

Rest in Peace Larry . You were one of the Buckeyes best.

 

[Steve19]

My first real memories of Buckeye basketball are the 1960 national championship team. For those of us lucky enough to see him play, Larry Siegfried ranks among Buckeye all-time favorites. God bless him and his family.

 

[y0yoyoin]

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20101015/UPDATES04/101015011

A 1957 Shelby graduate, Siegfried dominated the Northern Ohio League, scoring over 1,700 points and averaging more than 38 points a game without benefit of a 3-point line. He went on to earn second-team All-America honors as a sophomore at Ohio State, won a national championship as a junior and served as senior captain of the team that made it back to the title game in 1961.
As a pro, Siegfried not only won five title rings with the Celtics, but he twice led the NBA in free throw percentage and still ranks among the all-time leaders at over 85 percent.
After finishing his playing career in 1972, the Siegfrieds returned to this area to raise a family in their home on Pleasant Hill Lake. He spent one year as an assistant at Ohio State under his old coach, Fred Taylor, and three more as an assistant in the NBA with the Houston Rockets.

 

[OSUsushichic]

RIP. I went to school with his kids (my brother dated Erin). Very sad.

 

[Buckskin86]

Larry Siegfried; guard helped Celtics win five titles
By Gary Washburn
Globe Staff / October 16, 2010

Larry Siegfried dove for a loose ball while defending the Lakers? Jerry West in Game Five of the 1968 NBA Finals in Boston. Larry Siegfried dove for a loose ball while defending the Lakers? Jerry West in Game Five of the 1968 NBA Finals in Boston. (Associated Press)

Larry Siegfried, who helped the Celtics win five NBA titles in seven years during the 1960s, died Thursday night at the age of 71. He had been at the Cleveland Clinic since suffering a heart attack Oct. 5.


Mr. Siegfried was a starting guard on most of those title teams, which included Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Sam and K.C. Jones, Tom ?Satch?? Sanders, Don Nelson, and Tom Heinsohn.

While he did not gain the notoriety of those teammates, Mr. Siegfried left quite an impression with his work ethic, chatty style, and knack for challenging authority.

Mr. Siegfried played on the 1960 Ohio State NCAA championship team and was last seen publicly by Havlicek at a 50-year reunion of that team in January in Columbus, Ohio.

?He was the type of player who sacrificed a lot because as a sophomore he led the team in scoring. When Lucas came along with the other freshmen, he had to take a back seat,?? Havlicek said last night. ?He accepted and did it well and there was no one who worked harder or was more tenacious than Larry when he played basketball. A lot of times he was a complainer but we all knew that everything was fine as long as he was complaining. That was the nature of his personality.??

Mr. Siegfried was the number three overall pick of the 1961 NBA draft by the Cincinnati Royals, but turned down the opportunity to join Oscar Robertson to play for the Cleveland Pipers of the American Basketball League, coached by the legendary John McClendon. But the George Steinbrenner-owned Pipers went under before the end of the 1962-63 season.

Havlicek encouraged Celtics coach Red Auerbach to give Mr. Siegfried a tryout and he cracked the roster for the 1963-64 season, the year following Bob Cousy?s retirement.

?Larry was hugely competitive,?? Sanders said.

?And I remember when he first came up and he looked at the roster and picked out a player and basically said, ?I?m coming after your job.? He was very upfront about that. And these two guys must have fought every practice until he just wore the guard down. It was a young man named John McCarthy. He just came up and took his job. We were amazed. Took nothing from anyone on the court, and [was] a very bright player.??

http://www.boston.com/sports/basket...egfried_guard_helped_celtics_win_five_titles/

Friends, family remember life of Larry Siegfried
BY JON SPENCER ? News Journal ? October 16, 2010

Larry Siegfried's photo and jersey hang with the Shelby High School trophy case. Siegfried, who starred at Shelby before playing at Ohio State and with the Boston Celtics, died Thursday night from complications following a heart attack. He was 71. (JASON J. MOLYET/NEWS JOURNAL)

SHELBY -- He's the member of two All-Century teams, the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame and the Ohio High School Athletic Association Circle of Champions. But it was an off-the-cuff remark earlier this year by legendary coach Bob Knight that may stand as the greatest tribute of all to Larry Siegfried.

The Shelby hoops icon died Thursday night from complications after a heart attack. He was 71.

"I never saw a better guard in the Big Ten than Larry Siegfried," Knight said at the 50th reunion of Ohio State's 1960 national championship team. "He was a great player. He was tough as hell. He was physical, he could jump ... if I had my choice of any guard who played in the Big Ten when I coached and everything else, I'd have a hard time picking someone else."

Knight coached Isiah Thomas and coached against Magic Johnson, two of the all-time greats, but playing with Siegfried at Ohio State sold him on the scrappy No. 21.

Siegfried's all-around skills and blue-collar approach followed him to the NBA, where he won five titles with the Celtics.

"He was so good," Knight said. "Damn it, it's not nuclear science. He was strong, he could shoot, he could just play. And he was a tremendous defender."

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20101016/SPORTS/10160332

Toughness was a hallmark of OSU great Siegfried
October 16, 2010 - The Benchwarmer: Bill Robinson

No Ohio State basketball player was tougher or a more fierce competitor than Larry Siegfried who died Thursday in Cleveland Clinic after several heart surgeries.

Doug McDonald, an Ohio State teammate in the 1960-61 season, said Siegfried was one of the toughest basketball players he has ever been around.

"It was never fun to have to go against him in practice," said McDonald, a Fostoria native.

The two have met several times over the years.

"That toughness has never changed," McDonald said of one of the Buckeyes' all-time greats.

http://www.mariettatimes.com/page/c...hallmark-of-OSU-great-Siegfried.html?nav=5026

Larry Siegfried, Guard Who Won 5 Titles With Celtics, Is Dead at 71
By BRUCE WEBER
Published: October 15, 2010

Larry Siegfried, a stalwart guard on the great Boston Celtic teams of the 1960s, died Thursday in Cleveland. He was 71 and lived in Perrysville, Ohio.

The cause was heart failure, his daughter Erin said, adding that he had a heart attack on Oct. 5.

Known for solid shooting, mistake-free ball-handling and sticky defense, Siegfried played for the Celtics and the legendary coach Red Auerbach from 1963 to 1970, a period that encompassed the end of a Celtic dynasty that, beginning in 1957, accounted for 11 National Basketball Association championships in 13 seasons. Siegfried played on five championship teams: 1963-64, 1964-65, 1965-66, 1967-68 and 1968-69.

Often overshadowed by his teammates, who included some of the most illustrious names in basketball history ? Hall of Famers like Bill Russell, K. C. Jones, Sam Jones and John Havlicek, who had also been his teammate at Ohio State ? Siegfried was nonetheless a key element in a relentless and indomitable Celtic machine. Sometimes starting, sometimes coming off the bench, he averaged in double figures for five consecutive seasons and twice led the N.B.A. in free-throw percentage.

Siegfried traveled an up-and-down path to the N.B.A. He was born Lawrence Eugene Siegfried in Shelby, in north central Ohio, on May 22, 1939. His father was a farmer and worked for a printing company. A schoolboy legend at Shelby High, Siegfried led the state in scoring as a senior, averaging 38 points per game, then went to Ohio State. Lee Caryer, the author of ?The Golden Age of Ohio State Basketball: 1960-1971,? said in an e-mail on Friday that Siegfried was ?the best guard in school history.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/sports/basketball/16siegfried.html

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E3ivAGs83I"]YouTube - nba 2010 -11 Larry Siegfried[/ame]

 

[cincibuck]

The drop off from Siegfried and Nowell, to Nowell and Riesbeck didn't show up until the NCAA title game when Cincinnati's guards picked Riesbeck to pieces. Watching him team up again with Havelicek on those great Celtic teams was a joy.

 

[Buckskin86]

hat a friend we had in Larry
BY JON SPENCER ? News Journal ? October 21, 2010

A baseball card from Jon Spencer's collection of Larry Siegfried memorabilia. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)

His Bible, broken in like an old baseball glove and coming apart at the seams, was crammed with papers. Maybe they were personal jottings, his favorite spiritual messages or soul-bearing letters from inmates he counseled in his prison ministry.

It took both hands Wednesday for Rev. Dave Root to hold Larry Siegfried's Bible. His favorite book, like his legacy, had several layers.

"He'd always tell me, 'Great sermon, big fella,' " Root said.

The minister laughed.

Siegfried towered over Root, but in Siggy's eyes everybody else was the big fella.

He certainly had reason to feel that way Wednesday as he looked down on his funeral, excuse me ... celebration. Shelby has probably never seen such a collection of big men in one place.

Seated near the front were most of his teammates from Ohio State's 1960 national championship basketball team, including the other four starters -- Mel Nowell, Joe Roberts and Hall-of-Famers Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek.

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20101021/SPORTS/10210309