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John "Hondo" Havlicek (National Champion, NBA Champion, CBB/NBA HOF, R.I.P.)

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Others deserving

And I'm not trying to start an argument because I think Hondo was a great pro player but deserving of having his jersey retired not so sure about. Robin Freeman for one should have his as well as Dennis Hopson. What happened to the you had to be a national player of the year to have it retired?

What are we going to start in football? Should Orlando Pace have his number retired since he won the outland?

When was the rule changed?
 
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John Havlicek (NBA Hall of Fame)

BN



Havlicek Honored By Number Ceremony
By Steve Helwagen Managing Editor
Date: Feb 27, 2005

Former OSU All-American John Havlicek was back on campus Sunday to have his uniform No. 5 retired at halftime of the game against Wisconsin.

Basketball legend John Havlicek was back on campus at Ohio State Sunday to have his uniform No. 5 retired by the school at halftime of its game against Wisconsin.

Havlicek, 64, now lives in Boston, where he was a star with the NBA’s Boston Celtics. Of course, he was a catalyst behind OSU’s teams between 1960-62 that went 78-6, won three Big Ten championships, appeared in three national championship games and won the 1960 NCAA title for coach Fred Taylor.

"This is a great day for me, being from Ohio," Havlicek said during the halftime ceremony. "The first individual accomplishment of a championship that I received came right here in 1960.

"If you look at that team not only was it a great team athletically but academically. Everyone on our team graduated."

In a poignant moment in tribute to Taylor (who died in 2001), Havlicek had the crowd in excess of 17,000 turn and face the NCAA championship banner, point and say, in unison, "Fred Taylor."

"I'll always treasure those memories from St. John," Havlicek said. "But I'll never forget this day because I've been supported tremendously by the state of Ohio. I know that each of you had something to do with my success."

Considered one of basketball’s most revered names – Havlicek was once tabbed by USA Today as one of the 10 greatest players in NBA history and he is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame – the Bridgeport, Ohio, native was asked how this honor stacks up.

“This is really big,” Havlicek told reporters before the game. “Everything started here. I won my first championship here. The great teams we had were the best teams I had played upon. I am from Ohio and I have roots in Ohio. I have always been a Buckeye and will always be a Buckeye.

“I was a Buckeye first. The Celtics come after this – but I wouldn’t trade either of them.”

Havlicek scored 1,223 points (14.6 average) in his three-year career. He grabbed 720 rebounds (8.6 average). He ranks 25th in career scoring at OSU and is one of 41 players to have scored more than 1,000 points.

As a senior in 1961-62, Havlicek averaged 17 points and almost 10 rebounds a game.

He is the fourth OSU men’s player to have his number retired joining a pair of his teammates, Jerry Lucas (11, retired in 2000) and Gary Bradds (35, 2001), as well as Jim Jackson (22, 2001). Women’s basketball star Katie Smith’s No. 30 also hangs in the rafters at Value City Arena.

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Havlicek was asked about having such an honor occur at VCA instead of St. John Arena, where his teams became famous.

“That’s progress,” Havlicek said. “I have a lot of special memories there. At least it is still there. I played in the Boston Garden and it’s gone. It’s not even there anymore. The thing about St. John is when we came in it was only one or two years old. It was the state-of-the-art building in the Big Ten. There was nothing any better than St. John.”

He was asked about OSU putting its basketball program back on top.

“I would love for them to win a national championship,” he said. “I think Thad Matta is the type of person who will recruit kids from Ohio. He hopefully won’t let too many kids get away. This job is one of the best jobs in college sports. You have everything you could possibly want. I think it’s a matter of being patient. His recruiting will be something that will be monitored and looked at.

“Hopefully, he will be the one that will bring it back.”

Havlicek was asked about today’s kids and how things are different than when he was recruited.

“Today’s kids are catered to when they are 10 years old,” he said. “They have these AAU teams and they travel all over the world. The shoe companies are also part of it.

“I don’t know that it can go back to the way it was. We all played three sports. Today, they play one sport. They are constantly being catered to by AAU coaches.”

Havlicek reflected on what made his OSU teams unique.

“The thing about our team that was unusual was we were student-athletes,” Havlicek said. “Everyone graduated. We had seven guys get master’s degrees, two Ph. D’s and two MDs. At one point, we had a team GPA one quarter of 3.4. I’ll bet that’s an NCAA record.”

Obviously, OSU fans reflect on the 1960 national title win over Cal at San Francisco’s Cow Palace. But the next two years, the Buckeyes suffered agonizing defeats at the hands of instate rival Cincinnati in the title game. Which one does he remember the most?

“You remember both,” Havlicek said. “The first one was the first time I had ever won a championship in basketball. The other two defeats you wish you could play again. That’s the way it always is. My senior year, Jerry got hurt in the semifinal game. That took a lot away from our offense.”

Havlicek toured St. John Arena on Saturday and also spoke briefly to the men’s team.

“I just told them this is a great point in their life,” Havlicek said. “We talked about respect and how when you’re playing against someone, even if you lose, you want that guy to say after the game was over, `That guy was a hell of a competitor. He made a mark on me.’

“When you come off the floor, you want to say you did the best you could. You can’t ask more than that.”

He also reflected on his former coach, Taylor.

“Fred was the architect,” Taylor said. “Fred told me when he was recruiting me that I was here number one for an education, number two was basketball and number three was your social life. And after the first two, we knew there was not going to be much of a social life.”

Havlicek said he spends four months a year in Boston, four months in a home on Cape Cod, Mass., and four months in West Palm Beach, Fla.

“I own three Wendy’s restaurants,” he said. “I also have a company, Lakeview Farms, based here in Delphos, Ohio, that makes puddings and dips and desserts and gelatins. I am also a PR man for a company that makes PVC compound and wiring out of Worcester, Mass.”

Havlicek was joined for the center court ceremony by his wife, Beth; Taylor's wife, Eileen; former sports information director Marv Homan; his children, Chris Havlicek and Jill Buchanan; Chris' fiancee, Kim Boger; and Jill's son, Walker. OSU athletic director Andy Geiger introduced Havlicek.
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One of the All Time greats to play at OSU, a team player first and foremost and a Buckeye first.
 
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Steve19 said:
What an incredible legend and did everyone catch the academic performance of that team? Incredible, I had no idea!
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Yeah really, that's disgusting in a good way.

The section in Bobby Knight's most recent autobiography on this team at Ohio State is a great read. He has nothing but good to say about everyone, similar to Havlicek.
 
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espn announced during the espn news show that OSU is retiring his number and then they threw in a small attack on OSU by saying,

I CAN'T BELIEVE OSU HAS WAITED THAT LONG TO SHOW HIM SOME RESPECT

i LOVE FOX AND THE ONLY THING ESPN IS GOOD FOR NOW IS THE POKER GAMES
 
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Hondo is my favorite basketball player of all time. I am glad he is receiving this honor, and though Russell was probably the best player, Hondo had more to do with building the Celtic mystique than anyone..."Havlicek stole the ball!"
 
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Leave it to Havlicek to take a ceremony that was created to honor and recognize him and give all the credit to someone else. He had the whole crowd point up to the 1960 championship banner and say "Fred Taylor." He said without Fred he would have never accomplished any of the things he did after leaving tOSU. You could tell he meant it too. What a classy guy.

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HAVLICEK

5
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I sat in the 3rd row for every game John played at St John's. Maybe the best time of my life. Lived in the same dorm unit in Baker Hall his freshman and sophomore years. Because I had a car, a friend and I got to pick John, Larry Seigfried and Bob Knight up at old Port Columbus after each road game.
John did have a social life but he didn't drink.

Because John and I were both Physical Education majors we both had Ernie Bigg's taping class. John and I were partners in that class he had skinny ankles and it was a bitch to tape his ankles properly. If you ever saw him play with Boston, he never stopped running.

A couple years ago I got a copy of the silent, black and white tape of the 1960 championship game against San Francisco. I took me back 45 years in an instant. I was like being back in St John's again watching that wonderful team work their magic.

Unfortunatly, those years and that team distroyed my interest in OSU basketball. I saw the best and nothing since could compare.
 
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Now that I'm back home, this is one of my favorite excerpt's from Bob Knight's My Story:

Our teams at Ohio State were always pretty close and we players did a lot of things together. Havlicek and I were movie fans, and conscious of our money. If one of us owed the other a quarter from the time we had gone to the movies last week, we'd sure as hell bring it up--"Hey, I bought the popcorn last time. You owe me." We weren't operating with a huge budget. We knew the football players--not the basketball players, but the football players; this was Columbus--could go to the movies free. From our freshman year on, Havlicek and I would give the names of a couple of football players when we came through and it worked every time, right up through our senior year. I never worried about me, but I was afraid sooner or later someone was going to recognize Havlicek and call us on it. But it never happened.
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Bucklion: "Hondo had more to do with building the Celtic mystique than anyone"

Whoa! Slow down there, 'Lion. This sentence is uncategorically FALSE! And by a mile: the two men who had the most to do with Celtic Mystique and Pride are Red Auerbach and Bill Russell.

Don't get me wrong, I love Hondo, but Russell won them 11 of their 16 Championships. He's the only guy in the team picture on their first Championship in '57 AND on their last dynasty championship in '69. He started them winning, the entire team was turned over (except for him), and they kept winning.

Without, Russell, the Celtics are an above average NBA team, historically. BECAUSE of Russell, they're the greatest franchise in the history of the sport.
 
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bucknuts44820 said:
...point up to the 61 national championship and say Fred Taylor, it gave you a sense of what Coach Taylor meant to him and the university.
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And apparently, to them all. A great coach draws great players. Real class begets class.

Tressel and Matta will bring back the credibility of that era, in my opinion.
 
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