Zippy Chippy
07-08-2010, 10:10 PM
This article is a couple years old. I remember reading it in the Herald and looked it up. The athletes now are obviously overpaid brats for the most part, and you have a legendary man like Bob Cousy needed to sell his prized possessions to help his kids and grandkids. The guys nowadays are set for life off of 1 season. I wish these older stars got some type of compensation.
The plan was to leave it all, eventually, to the children and the grandchildren.
But guess what? At the age of 75, Celtics legend Bob Cousy feels great, remains in excellent health, and hasn't looked at the stacks of memorabilia in his Worcester basement in years.
"I was never one to go down there and say, `Gee, isn't this wonderful?' " Cousy said yesterday. "I'm not a yesterday person."
In keeping with his vow to live for today, Cousy has signed an agreement with SportsCards Plus, authorizing it to sell some of his most cherished items, with the proceeds going directly to his two daughters and their families.
"That's how it was going to go anyway," said Cousy, "but what the hell? I'm hoping to live quite a few more years, and they could use the money now.
"My daughter Marie and her husband Bruce are both high school guidance counselors [in Seattle]. They have been very productive members of society. But now their daughter Carol is headed off to Santa Clara at $40,000 a year, and they'd have to go in hock just to send her there. And her brother Zachary is only two years behind her.
"Our other daughter, Ticia, teaches kindergarten. She does a wonderful job, but she's not getting rich, either. It made sense to do this now, rather than wait."
So, NBA buffs, and Cousy fans in particular, pull out your checkbooks. Among the items that will be up for auction are the lithograph commissioned by the NBA for the top 50 players of all time (minimum bid $15,000), Cousy's Hall of Fame ring (minimum bid $5,000), and the 1957 MVP trophy (minimum bid $10,000).
"That one is a little hard to part with," Cousy conceded. "What it meant was, for one year, I was the best basketballer on the planet."
Cousy said he learned about SportsCards Plus from fellow Hall of Famer Bill Sharman, who sold some of his memorabilia through the company. Representatives of SportsCards Plus came to Cousy's home for four days last February to take inventory.
"As they did that, my friend [wife Marie] kept sneaking down and grabbing a few things," Cousy said. "She wanted a lithograph an artist from Kansas City did for us a few years back. She kept the framed piece of the parquet with my career stats that [former Celtics executive] Rich Pond gave us."
And what of Cousy's championship rings?
"I only have the one -- from 1957," he said. "We didn't get them the other years. Back then, [Red Auerbach's] brother was in the jewelry business, and one year he made up necklaces for the wives, and another year he did something else. I don't know what that was about. Just Arnold playing games, I guess."
Cousy already lost a number of his most cherished items -- including an engraved sterling silver tray given to him by former Celtics owner Walter Brown -- when thieves broke into his home in the 1980s.
The goal of the sale, said Cousy, is to be able to hand over "a couple hundred thousand dollars" to each of his daughters.
"We'd never do this just for ourselves," he said. "We've shed a few tears, and we'll shed a few more before it's over.
"But we all have priorities. Right now, at the age of 75, our priority is to help our kids and our grandchildren."
The plan was to leave it all, eventually, to the children and the grandchildren.
But guess what? At the age of 75, Celtics legend Bob Cousy feels great, remains in excellent health, and hasn't looked at the stacks of memorabilia in his Worcester basement in years.
"I was never one to go down there and say, `Gee, isn't this wonderful?' " Cousy said yesterday. "I'm not a yesterday person."
In keeping with his vow to live for today, Cousy has signed an agreement with SportsCards Plus, authorizing it to sell some of his most cherished items, with the proceeds going directly to his two daughters and their families.
"That's how it was going to go anyway," said Cousy, "but what the hell? I'm hoping to live quite a few more years, and they could use the money now.
"My daughter Marie and her husband Bruce are both high school guidance counselors [in Seattle]. They have been very productive members of society. But now their daughter Carol is headed off to Santa Clara at $40,000 a year, and they'd have to go in hock just to send her there. And her brother Zachary is only two years behind her.
"Our other daughter, Ticia, teaches kindergarten. She does a wonderful job, but she's not getting rich, either. It made sense to do this now, rather than wait."
So, NBA buffs, and Cousy fans in particular, pull out your checkbooks. Among the items that will be up for auction are the lithograph commissioned by the NBA for the top 50 players of all time (minimum bid $15,000), Cousy's Hall of Fame ring (minimum bid $5,000), and the 1957 MVP trophy (minimum bid $10,000).
"That one is a little hard to part with," Cousy conceded. "What it meant was, for one year, I was the best basketballer on the planet."
Cousy said he learned about SportsCards Plus from fellow Hall of Famer Bill Sharman, who sold some of his memorabilia through the company. Representatives of SportsCards Plus came to Cousy's home for four days last February to take inventory.
"As they did that, my friend [wife Marie] kept sneaking down and grabbing a few things," Cousy said. "She wanted a lithograph an artist from Kansas City did for us a few years back. She kept the framed piece of the parquet with my career stats that [former Celtics executive] Rich Pond gave us."
And what of Cousy's championship rings?
"I only have the one -- from 1957," he said. "We didn't get them the other years. Back then, [Red Auerbach's] brother was in the jewelry business, and one year he made up necklaces for the wives, and another year he did something else. I don't know what that was about. Just Arnold playing games, I guess."
Cousy already lost a number of his most cherished items -- including an engraved sterling silver tray given to him by former Celtics owner Walter Brown -- when thieves broke into his home in the 1980s.
The goal of the sale, said Cousy, is to be able to hand over "a couple hundred thousand dollars" to each of his daughters.
"We'd never do this just for ourselves," he said. "We've shed a few tears, and we'll shed a few more before it's over.
"But we all have priorities. Right now, at the age of 75, our priority is to help our kids and our grandchildren."