CELTICS GREEN BLOG by and for boston celtics fans: Of Omens and Superstitions

by Loyalist 12:16 AM

by FLCeltsFan
June 15, 2006

Something Justin from Celtics17 said got me thinking today. He said "John Havlicek was picked #7 and wore #17, the number of the Celtics next championship." We can take this to be an omen that our stretch of bad luck is over and we are heading to better things. Basketball players and fans are very superstitious, after all.

Then I got to thinking about superstitions. I loved the movie Celtics' Pride because it proves that there are fans out there more fanatical about this team than I am. I remember one time we got a message board thread going about our pre game superstitions and it was pretty interesting to read all the things that people do.

One fan sits on the same spot on the couch to watch every game. Another wears a lucky bracelet. Still another wears the same socks every game day. Another said that every game night he does 2 laps around his house during the pregame and then always takes his shoes off and sits in the same place. One guy said he always made sure to drink 2 beers before the game.

I was a little skeptical as to whether that was a superstition or a way to drink more beer. As for me, I always wear a Celtics shirt on game days. I guess it is pretty clear that these things don't work or our team would win every game, but you can't blame us for trying.

As for me, I always wear a Celtics shirt on game days. I guess it is pretty clear that these things don't work or our team would win every game, but you can't blame us for trying.

Then I started thinking about the players. What kinds of superstitions do they have? The Celtics wore the black shoes for many years for luck but went with white ones in Danny's first year as GM. Danny felt they needed a fresh start after all the bad luck the Celtics had been having.

Larry Bird wiped his hands on the soles of his shoes for good luck. Eventually it became a habit that he did without even thinking about it. [more...]

Comments:

I would always wear my Jersey and wear my C's hat! I also had this thing where I couldn't change the channel on commercial breaks. It seemed like they always lost when I did, so I made it a rule not to.

# posted by

Loyalist : 4:09 AM

I got this from Fabio on the CelticsStuff list. I found the bits about Larry and the Celtics black sneakers on the web but Fabio was kind enough to send this in to correct those facts.

- the early days Celtics wore black sneakers because Red Auerbach
thought that black sneakers did not look dirty and needed less care
than white sneakers.....
- Larry Bird wiped his soles because the court where he started to play
ball had players slipping as long as they didn't clean the soles....

Now, Bird didn't drink beer from green bottles because one day he took
a sip from a bottle and almost swallowed some cigarette stubs that had
been stuffed inside.

# posted by

FLCeltsFan : 1:54 PM

And John from CelticStuff was kind enough to send in one of his superstitions:

When the Celts are in the playoffs or during a big game in the reg season.
I put my Celtics cap on top of the TV .

I've been doing it for over 20 years now. It dates back from a playoff game in the
80's . We were losing and I threw my cap on top of the TV in disgust and we pulled the
game out and for whatever reason I took it as a lucky omen.

# posted by

FLCeltsFan : 1:56 PM

Like many fans I wear my 33 jersey during each game. But I also play Boston by Augustana after every game because of the lyric, "I think I'll go to Boston, I think I'll start a new life" so after a win or loss we won't dwell on the game but what we need to beat the next opponent.

# posted by

Jacob Koll : 4:25 PM