Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 1958 • Basketball Clip • Ed Macauley Interview - Radio

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1958 • Basketball Clip • Ed Macauley Interview - Radio · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

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  This is RetroSports Radio. Visit RetroSeasons.com for more sports history.
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  This is Ed McCauley, coach of the St. Louis Hawks, and in a few moments I'll tell you about my greatest sports thrill.
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  This is Harry Wismarke, but you're about to hear as a transcribed story of one of Pro Basketball's outstanding players,
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  and an event our special guest, Ed McCauley, considers his greatest sports thrill, and Ed himself is here to tell us all about it.
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  But first, here is Bill Reddick with a message of interest from your United States Air Force.
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  Any great baseball star has years of practice and training behind him. Specialized training can pay off for you too.
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  Perhaps you're wondering where you can get the finest training, leading to a bright career in the age of space.
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  The answer is in the United States Air Force. It's true, the Air Force has the broadest and most complete range of space age training available.
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  That's because the Air Force is in charge of thousands of jets, rockets, and missiles.
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  In the years to come, Air Force participation in space projects will grow, and so will a number of career fields.
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  So be wise, join the Air Force for valuable training and bright career opportunities. In addition, you will have a chance for foreign travel,
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  receive 30-day annual paid vacations, and other extras. Get the full story on the Air Force career tailored to your abilities.
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  See your local Air Force recruiter soon. Now, back to Harry Wismarke.
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  Easy Ed McCauley's niche in basketball history is unmistakably secure. His accomplishments as a collegian at St. Louis University,
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  and in 10 seasons of professional play for the St. Louis bombers, Boston Celics, and St. Louis Hawks are deeply etched in the game's records.
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  Now comes a new contribution by Ed McCauley to the game's lore.
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  In February of 1959, Easy Ed wrote one more chapter in the St. Louis basketball biography when he signed a sixth-figure contract as vice president and coach of the Hawks for three years.
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  Most of the brilliant chapters in St. Louis basketball history have been authored by the self-same Easy Ed McCauley.
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  Like the night in 1948, when Easy Ed led the St. Louis Billikens to a 68-51 victory over Notre Dame, snapping an Irish home floor winning streak at 38 games.
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  By the time he led the Billikens to the national invitational tournament and sugar bowl championships.
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  Unfortunately for St. Louis fans, Easy Ed spent his heyday far away from his native city.
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  When the St. Louis bombers folded following the 1949-1950 season, he was tossed into the NBA grab bag and was acquired by the Boston Celics where he starred for six seasons.
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  During his period with the Celics, McCauley's average range from 17.5 to 20 points per game, and in one four-year stretch in the pros, he was disqualified only once on personal fouls.
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  That is one of the select few who have scored 10,000 or more points in the NBA.
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  On March 2, 1951 in the East-West All-Star Game, the first ever played in the NBA, Ed McCauley was chosen as the outstanding player.
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  On March 6, 1953, he had his greatest night as an NBA scorer when he racked up 46 points against the then-defending champion Minneapolis Lakers.
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  In the next of his first six years in the pro ranks, he was voted a place on the East All-Star Team.
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  It was in his junior year at St. Louis University that practically every All-American team listed Ed McCauley unanimously as a ranking member for the first time.
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  He was the only junior selected.
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  In the first place, basketball writers regarded him as the outstanding player on the National Invitation Tournament that year and the number one star of the Madison Square Garden season.
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  In the Helms Foundation's estimation, he was the player of the year.
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  Ed McCauley realized his desire to make basketball a career when he was signed by the St. Louis Bombers after his graduation in June of 1949.
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  Here in the NBA, EZ-Ed finished fifth in scoring with 1,081 points in 67 games, an average of 16.1 a game.
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  With Boston in 1950-51, EZ-Ed averaged 20.4 points per game to finish behind only George Miken and Alex Groza among the Loops top scorers.
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  In his first ten years of Pro Ball, he never finished lower than tenth in scoring and in seven of these years, he never finished lower than fifth.
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  As a member of the Boston Celics, he teamed up with Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman to form one of the most prolific scoring trios in all basketball history.
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  For six years, each of the trios scored 1,000 or more points.
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  Because of his lender frame, Ed couldn't hold his own in the battle of rebounds with the 230 and 240 pound mammoths of the NBA.
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  But there was hardly any big man who could come close to him in ball handling or match his record of assists.
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  At the end of the 1955-56 season, after McCauley, Sharman and Cousy had led the Celics to a then-record shattering average of 106 points per game,
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  Crouch Red Arbach faded McCauley to St. Louis for the Hawks' draft rights to San Francisco's six-foot-ten-inch Bill Russell.
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  When Ed McCauley, after being named coach of the St. Louis Hawks in 1958-59, decided to devote nearly all his time to master-minding from the bench,
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  he had accumulated more than 11,500 points.
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  When owner Ben Kerner of the St. Louis Hawks made the decision on November 20, 1958 to replace Andy Phillip,
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  he offered the job to Ed McCauley, who had first shot at it the spring before but refused.
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  Previously, he had rejected an offer from St. Louis University to be coach and athletic director.
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  Kerner virtually forced Ed to take the job.
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  He gave him three choices, take the job, go to Philadelphia in a deal with the Warriors, or retire.
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  So Ed McCauley became the new coach.
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  Ed didn't do badly either.
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  Under his direction, the Hawks won 23 of their first 30 games and easily swept to a divisional championship.
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  A stooped basketball man who have watched Ed McCauley operate from the bench are firm in the belief that with experience,
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  the ongoing bean pole from St. Louis, Missouri will become a top coach in the pro ranks,
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  just as he was a top performer as an active player.
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  Now before you meet our special guest, easy Ed McCauley in person,
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  and hear about his greatest sports thrill,
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  here is a message of interest to all young men with an eye on the future.
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  High school graduates, have you ever met your local Air Force recruiter?
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  If not, you'll be favorably impressed when you do.
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  First of all, your local recruiter has all the facts and figures about the new age of space
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  and the many interesting job openings in the Air Force.
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  Your recruiter will point out the fine technical training available in over 40 career fields,
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  and he'll give you the full story on the many space age advances being developed by the Air Force.
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  For example, the radical new jet bombers and fighters, the X-15 space plane, the Titan intercontinental missile.
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  The Air Force space age picture is an exciting one, and it can also be especially rewarding for you.
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  If after seeing your local recruiter you decide to join, you will serve with a fine group of men.
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  So see your local recruiter today, and find out about your place in the expanding space age of tomorrow
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  in the U.S. Air Force.
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  And now, back to Harry Wismer.
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  Ed McCauley, what was your greatest sports thrill?
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  Well, actually, Harry, I can think of quite a few in my sports background,
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  but I think the two thrills that stand out most in my mind were number one in the 1958 season.
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  The wind-up of the 1958 season, my greatest thrill probably came when I was a member of the St. Louis Hawks team,
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  which won the national championship.
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  I've been in basketball, pro basketball, it is for nine years,
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  but this was the first time that I'd ever played on a championship ball club,
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  and Harry, I think you can understand what a great thrill that was.
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  And actually, there was another one in January of 1959.
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  As coach of the Western All-Stars in the NBA East-West All-Star game,
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  I was fortunate enough to lead the Western Club, which was victorious that night,
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  and that too gave me a tremendous thrill.
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  Ed, do you recall the first game you ever played as a professional?
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  Well, I'd like to forget it, but I'm afraid I do recall it.
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  When I came with the St. Louis Bombers, this was in the year 1949, in October of 1949,
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  we played against the Minneapolis Lakers,
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  and the first man that I guarded in my pro debut was Mr. George Miken of the Minneapolis Lakers,
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  who at that time was the greatest basketball player that ever played the game.
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  I came out of college about six foot eight inches tall, weighed about 185 pounds,
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  and played against Mr. Miken, who was at that time six foot ten and two fifty.
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  So, Harry, you can imagine what an impression.
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  He really made an impression on me that night.
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  As a matter of fact, he almost broke me in half.
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  But that was the first game I played.
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  As I say, I didn't do too well in the first ball game,
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  but after that, we had our Sheriff's success against the Minneapolis Lakers,
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  and George Miken, who in my impression, by the way, is one of the greatest basketball players that ever lived.
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  Ed, what is the most difficult thing you've had to overcome in making the change from the player to the coaching ranks?
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  I think you'll find, Harry, that any time you make a change from the player to the coaching ranks,
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  the most difficult thing you have to overcome is the attitude of your own ball players.
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  You know, it's a funny thing. When you're a player, you're just one of the boys.
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  You have a job to do. You have to keep yourself in top shape.
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  You have to go out and play the best ball you're capable of every night.
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  But there's actually only one person you have to worry about, and that's yourself.
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  And when you transfer and you go into the coaching profession, however, you have everything to worry about.
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  You have each one of your ball players individually and collectively that you have to think about.
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  You have to think about things that affect them.
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  You have to think about planning strategy and how to use your ball players.
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  And then also, you have the problem to a certain point of how the ball players are going to react to the teaching
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  and to the guidance and to the control that you try to have over them.
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  Because it's very difficult to one day be one of the gang and the next day to be the leader of the gang more or less
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  and be responsible for all the decisions and in making the decisions and carrying out the orders,
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  it's kind of tough to get this across when you've been so close with the ball players.
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  Ed, you played with Bob Cousy of the Boston Celtics and against him. What makes him so great?
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  Well, Harry, I don't think there's any one thing that you can put your finger on that makes any ball player great.
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  But I think there's a combination of things. With Cousy, first of all, any great ball player has to have great dedication.
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  He has to have the ability to concentrate. He has to have the willingness to work so very, very hard, which Cousy does.
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  Then he has to have certain God-given natural talents.
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  Cousy, for example, has tremendous hands for a basketball player, tremendously long arms, and his vision is just fantastic.
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  It's unbelievable. He does things that other ball players can't do, can't possibly do,
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  because they don't have the physical attributes that Cous possesses.
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  He's got that wonderful vision, got the great hands, the great speed, and these combinations put together,
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  I think, easily make him the greatest backcourt man that's ever played the game.
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  Ed does Bob Pettiter the Hawks rate as highly as George Miken among the outstanding big men in the history of pro basketball.
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  Well, Harry, I think you've touched on a subject that is kind of a controversial one, and it's one that's very difficult to resolve.
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  People say to me, who was better, George Miken or Bob Pettiter?
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  I say this when people ask me about the greatest ball players who ever lived.
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  I think that George Miken was the greatest pivot man. I think that Bob Pettiter is the greatest corner man,
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  and I think that Bob Cousy is the greatest backcourt man.
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  What was the most exciting basketball game you were ever involved in as a player?
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  Harry, there have been, oh boy, that's a real tough question because there have been any number of tremendously exciting games that I've been involved in.
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  Just recently, I guess they get more exciting as your coach, but oh, there were ones this year in the 1958-59 season,
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  one that I particularly remember up in New York City where Jack McMahon tied the ball game with one second to go on the clock.
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  We had the ball out of bounds, there was one second on the clock, and Jack took a shot almost from midcourt,
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  made the basket to tie up the game, put it into overtime, we eventually won the ball game.
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  Then, two, as I mentioned before earlier, the East-West All-Star game was a tremendously exciting basketball game.
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  And the finals last year, in the 1957-58 season, the finals of the NBA playoffs when the St. Louis Hawks won it,
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  and Bob Pettiter scored 50 points, this was the championship game, the one we had to have, and this was a tremendously exciting ball game.
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  So I guess you can enumerate, oh, at least a dozen, but those are just a few of the ones that I've had.
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  Thank you very much, EZ Ed McCauley, coach of the St. Louis Hawks.