Tommy Heinsohn: star player, star painter
November 24, 2010
Many people know Tommy Heinsohn as the scoring machine who helped the Celtics to eight NBA titles in the 1950s and ‘60s. They know him as the former coach who won two titles in the ‘70s, and the current Celtics analyst on Comcast SportsNet. But not many know him as an amazing painter.
“I was the only German in an Italian-Irish neighborhood during World War II,” Heinsohn said. “My mother worked a lot, and painting became not just a past time, but my best friend.”
Several of Heinsohn’s paintings were on display (and for sale) recently at Watertown’s Arsenal Center for the Arts. On Sept. 28, Heinsohn and former Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated reporter Leigh Montville came to the Arsenal Center and discussed art and writing, and their differences.
Montville has written many books, including best-sellers “The Big Bam,” a biography of the Yankees legendary slugger Babe Ruth, and “Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero.” He is married and has two children, and is a big supporter of the Boston Red Sox.
Before the talk, they were in a room with Heinsohn’s paintings where people could meet and take pictures with the basketball Hall-of-Famer. After meeting them, everyone filed into an auditorium.
Heinsohn had a lot of funny stories about his playing days and his nine years as the Celtics’ fiery head coach. After the hourlong discussion, moderator Ray Ciccolo began to call on people in the audience to ask questions, and most of the questions sparked a five-minute discussion.
The first person who was called on said that the day of the event, Sept. 28, 2010, was the 50th anniversary of Ted Williams’s last career at-bat, when he hit his 521st and final home run of a spectacular career with the Red Sox.
Montville’s reaction to that comment: “All I can say is, well, yes.”
(To see more examples of Heinsohn’s paintings, go to the Arsenal Center for the Arts website at http://arsenalarts.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=643&Itemid=1.)
–Nov. 24, 2010–
