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Celtics championship trophy up for auction?

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Former Celtics owner Walter Brown was known for many things, generosity among them. Shortly before he died in 1964, he summoned Phil Elderkin, a longtime Celtics writer for the Christian Science Monitor, to a small storage room in Boston Garden. Once there, Brown, who was grateful for Elderkin's coverage of the team as well as his friendship, presented him with the championship trophy from the 1958-59 season, according to the BOSTON GLOBE.

"It looks like a track trophy except that there's a basketball at the top," Elderkin said by phone from his retirement home in California. "There's a figure holding a banner, a long piece of wood, and, at the base, a plaque that says, `Boston Celtics, World Champions, 1958-59.' "

The Celtics won the championship with the first-ever 4-0 sweep in the Finals, a broom job of the Minneapolis Lakers.

It was a different era. Brown would pick Elderkin up in his Cadillac and drive to practice at the Cambridge YMCA. They'd also dine weekly at the Algonquin Club, and Brown would insist on covering all travel expenses when Elderkin covered the team on the road.

Now, 46 years after the fact, Elderkin is putting the trophy up for bid. Sotheby's and Sports Card Plus will auction it off June 10, along with a lot of other sports memorabilia. The trophy is estimated to be worth as much as $40,000.