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Bob Brannum, 78, a bruising center for Celtics of '50sBy Tom Long, Globe Staff B |B February 8, 2005
Bob Brannum, a 6-foot-5-inch, 235-pound center, was known for hard-nosed play during his four years with the Boston Celtics in the 1950s.
''He was a giant," Deborah A. Brannum of Lake Worth, Fla., said yesterday of her father, 78, who died of pancreatic cancer Saturday in his home in Marshfield. ''He could be scary and gruff, but also gentle and very loving."
Mr. Brannum was said to be as willing to trade punches with an opponent as he was to trade jump shots. But he was also a student of the game, as well as a teacher. After his pro career ended, he coached at three colleges, including Brandeis University for 15 years.
His aggressive style of play -- banging heads and elbows with Dolph Schayes, Nat ''Sweetwater" Clifton, and other stars -- earned praise from Celtics fans, boos and hisses from opponents' fans, and more than 70 stitches in his head.
''His real job was to protect Bob Cousy," said his daughter.
During the Celtics' classic four-overtime playoff victory over the Syracuse Nationals in 1953, Mr. Brannum and Syracuse player Schayes were ejected for fighting.
''We were all bumping and banging each other around," Mr. Brannum recalled in a story published in the Globe in 1986. ''Schayes started to drive on me. I nudged him. He turned around and belted me. I thought, 'I've got to save my reputation.' So I went after him."
Syracuse lost a future Hall of Famer for the rest of the game. The Celtics lost a journeyman center.
The next time the Celtics played in Syracuse, Nationals fans threw 5,000 cardboard hatchets on the floor with Mr. Brannum's name on them.
''I'm really a sweet guy, but on the court it was different," Mr. Brannum explained in a Boston Herald story in 1978.
Mr. Brannum was not even 30 when he retired from pro ball after the 1954-55 season.
''I wasn't making a great deal of money," he said in 1978. ''I had bone spurs on both heels and I had three children."
Walter Brown helped Mr. Brannum get a coaching job at Norwich University in Vermont. Mr. Brannum coached at Norwich for several years and at Kenyon College in Ohio, before moving to Brandeis, where he won 204 games and was the winningest coach in the school's history.
He also coached the Brandeis golf team and was named to the school's Athletic Hall of Fame for coaches. He managed Camp Millbrook in Marshfield during the summer.
Robert W. Brannum was born in Winfield, Kan. He married his high school sweetheart, Harriet Johnson, when both were 17 years old and students at Winfield High.
An All-American at the University of Kentucky, he served in the Army before transferring to Michigan State University, where he also was an All-American.
He played for a few years with the Sheboygan Redskins before the Celtics signed him in 1951.
Mr. Brannum's professional career ended more than 50 years ago, but his old coach never forgot him. In 1999, when legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach was asked what he thought about the current Celtics team, he reponded, ''We're actually two players away from being a highly competitive team. We need a tough guy, a big banger," he said, according to a story published in the Globe.
''Someone like Jim Loscutoff?" he was asked.
''Nah," said Auerbach, ''someone like [Bob] Brannum. He was tougher than Loscutoff."
In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Brannum leaves three sons, James R. and Daniel I., both of Marshfield, and William H. of Tequesta, Fla.; two daughters, Dorcas Hanna of Boonton, N.J., and Katherine H. of Jupiter, Fla.; a brother, Paul of Texas; six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Marshfield United Methodist Church.
Associated Press
submitted by David Nathan