Expert: Fabio Anderle - 12/19/2002

Question
Were the Celtic's shoes of the mid 60s black or dark green?  A response ASAP would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Dear Tim,

back in the Sixties, the sneakers were black. Red Auerbach said he chose black sneakers for his teams because white ones were always dirty looking: consider that back in the early years the arenas were far from the almost aseptyc laboratory-like ones of nowadays. So Red figured that if his team wore black sneakers, the dirt would not show and they'd last longer. Only in the Eighties the Celtics shifted to dark green, almost black, even if the white players like Larry Bird looked even slower because of those cloddish-looking dark sneakers: "the shoes have definitely contributed to the image of the Celtics as a team of slow white guys" said Dan Shaughnessy in his Auerbach biography "Seeing Red". I hope this helps, Tim. Have a merry Christmas.

Fabio