Hometown History #112: When Bill Russell and the Celtics Played in Franklin

When he passed away last year at 88 years old, Bill Russell (William Felton Russell) was widely considered to be one of the greatest basketball players of all time, having led the San Francisco Dons to two NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, leading the gold-medal winning U.S. national basketball team at the 1956 Summer Olympics, and playing as a center for the Boston Celtics from 1956 to 1969. It was a period when the team won numerous NBA championships.

And, what was he doing in Franklin? That was all thanks for Dean graduate Louis Pieri.

Pieri had his own string of accomplishments, notably in hockey, as general manager of the Providence Reds starting in 1929. They later won eight AHL division titles and four Calder Cup championships (1938, 1940, 1949, 1956). Pieri was inducted into the American Hockey League Hall of Fame in 2009.

But that was just one of his careers. In 1918–19, Pieri was the head coach of the Brown Bears men's basketball team and later owned the Providence Steamrollers, a Basketball Association of America team that operated from 1946 to 1949. From 1950 to 1964 he was part owner of the Boston Celtics (credited by some with getting famous Red Auerbach hired). When the principal owner passed away, Pieri shared ownership with the principal owner's widow until selling the team. And it was in that period that Pieri  inspired the Celtics road trip to Franklin.

According to an Oct. 22, 1965 Boston Globe article, by Jack Barry, the team had just won two home games against Cincinnati and LA, but with no rest, they were heading ‘to Franklin tonight to honor their former co-owner.'

“The team will feature in the dedication of the Louis A.R. Pieri Gym, with a scrimmage following a parade and a buffet dinner,” held along with the school’s centennial homecoming. And Russell was most definitely on court in the auditorium...

Incidentally, Pieri, also established and ran for many years the Rhode Island Auditorium in Providence and was the founder of the Ice Capades. For younger readers, the Ice Capades and Shipstads & Johnson Ice Follies constituted a kind of entertainment duopoly until the latter morphed into the Disney on Ice juggernaut at the expense of the former.