Secretary of State John Kerry JD’76, is to give the main address at tomorrow’s 138th Commencement at BC. He addresses his undergraduate alma mater, Yale, today.
You can watch streaming video of BC’s ceremonies at bc.edu/commencement, beginning at 6:30 am PT.
Coach Bob Cousy (Sub Turri)
Among those receiving honorary degrees from BC tomorrow will be Bob Cousy P’73, BC basketball coach 1963-69 (I was a student at BC the middle four of those years). All-America at Holy Cross in the Forties (BC’s biggest rival at the time and for decades after) and a Hall-of-Fame player for the Boston Celtics, Cousy (affectionately known to many as “Cooz”) led the Eagles to a record of 117-38 in six seasons, some of the glory years of BC basketball. The Eagles went to the National Invitational Tournament three times (a big deal then as only two dozen teams went to the NCAA, and most of them conference champions), finishing second in the NIT in 1969, and to the NCAA tournament in 1967. In that NCAA, the Eagles (23-3 that season) made it to the regional finals, now known as the Elite Eight, where they lost to North Carolina.
In a time without a shot clock or the three-point shot, Cousy’s teams were fast-moving and high-scoring. The 1965-66 Eagles scored an average of 91.1 points per game, highest of any BC team. The second-highest-scoring team? The 1967-68 Eagles, at 88.8 points per game. Since 1986, when both the three-point shot and shot clock were introduced, which would seem to aid in scoring, no BC team has averaged as high as even 80 points per game over a season.
As co-sports editor of the Heights at the time, I had the privilege of interviewing Coach Cousy in January 1968, a couple of weeks before BC met UCLA in Madison Square Garden, one of the most highly anticipated games in that era. (UCLA, in the midst of a record run of national championships, beat BC 84-77.) In that interview, Cousy was quite candid in talking about the performance of some players and of challenges facing BC in recruitment.
After BC, Cousy went on to coach the Cincinnati Royals in the NBA and was a color commentator on both network and local NBA broadcasts. In recent years, the 85-year-old has been out of the public eye, though a recent newspaper interview spurred by the announcement of his honorary degree has drawn new attention.