Arnold "Red" Auerbach

(1917 - 2006)

Arnold "Red" Auerbach was a Jewish American basketball coach who places second on the all time list with nine NBA championships.

Auerbach (born September 20, 1917; died October 28, 2006) was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian immigrant parents. Auerback was quickly nicknamed "Red" due to his flaming auburn hair and fiery temper. Amid the Great Depression, Auerbach played basketball in high school and was awarded a scholarship to attend George Washington University. He later graduated from GWU with a M.A. degree in 1941.

In 1941, Auerback began his coaching career at the St. Albans School and Roosevelt High School in Washington, D.C. Two years later, he joined the Navy for three years and coached the Navy basketball team in Norfolk. There, he caught the eye of Washington millionaire Mike Uline, who hired him to coach the Washington Capitols in the newly founded Basketball Association of America (BAA), a predecessor of the NBA. Auerbach coached the Capitols from 1946 to 1949, winning divisional titles in his first and last seasons with the team.

After the BAA and NBA merged in 1949, Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown approached Auerbach in 1950 about coaching his team to help turn around the struggling franchise. With management capabilities, Auerbach took the job and in his first draft selected Bob Cousy and Chuck Cooper - the first black player ever to be drafted into the NBA. After a few moderately successful seasons, Auerbach drafted center Bill Russell in the 1956 NBA draft, a move that would help cement the Celtics as perennial powerhouse for more than a decade.

From 1955 through 1965, Auerbach's Celtics teams won nine NBA championships - eight in succession. His recrod of 1,037 wins versus 548 losses stands as one of the more remarkable accomplishments in professional coaching. His nine championships rank second, only behind Phil Jackson. Red was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1968.

Following his coaching career, Auerbach served as General Manager of the Celtics from 1966 to 1984, during which time he helped build team that won five more NBA titles (1968, 1969, 1974, 1980 and 1981). Auerbach was named "NBA Executive of the Year" in 1981.

In 1971, during the NBA's 25th Anniversary commemoration, Red was named the "Silver Anniversary Coach", signifying the League's honor as best coach of its first quarter century.

Auerbach died of a heart attack on October 28, 2006, he was 89 years old.

Sources: International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame; Wikipedia