Bob Cousy - Post-player Career

Post-player Career

After retiring as a player, Cousy published his autobiography Basketball Is My Life in 1963, and in the same year became coach at Boston College. In his six seasons there, he had a record of 117 wins and 38 losses and was named New England Coach of the Year for 1968 and 1969. Cousy led the Eagles to three NIT appearances, including a berth in the 1969 NIT Championship and two National Collegiate Athletic Association tournaments, including the 1967 Eastern Regional Finals. But he grew bored with college basketball and returned to the NBA as coach of the Cincinnati Royals, team of fellow Hall-of-Fame point guard Oscar Robertson. He later said about this engagement, "I did it for the money. I was made an offer I couldn't refuse." In 1970, the 41-year-old Cousy even made a late-season comeback as a player to boost ticket sales. Despite his meager output of 5 points in 34 minutes of playing time in seven games, ticket sales jumped by 77 percent. He stepped down as Royals' coach early in the 1973–74 NBA season with a mediocre 141–209 record. In later life, he was Commissioner of the American Soccer League from 1974 to 1979, and has been a color analyst on Celtics telecasts since the 1980s." In addition, he had a cameo role in the basketball film Blue Chips in 1993. A memorable scene from the film, in which Cousy played a college athletic director, featured a conversation between Cousy and the team's head coach, played by Nick Nolte. In one long, unbroken take, Cousy talked with Nolte while sinking foul shot after foul shot, prompting Nolte to ad-lib, "Don't you ever miss?" Today he is a marketing consultant for the Celtics, and occasionally makes broadcast appearances with Mike Gorman and ex-Celtic teammate Tom Heinsohn.