On this day in Boston Celtics history, the Celtics’ first coach, Alvin «Doggie» Julian, was born in 1901 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Before landing the job as head coach of the nascent Celtics franchise, Julian would play football, baseball, and basketball at Bucknell, having a four-year pro career playing baseball for various teams between 1922 and 1926. At various points in his life, he’d coach all three sports at the collegiate and high school levels but began coaching basketball at Muhlenberg College in 1936.
It is also the birthday of ex-Boston guard Shammond Williams, who was born on this day in 1975 in the Bronx. He happens to be the cousin of Hall of Fame forward Kevin Garnett, and played his collegiate basketball for the UNC Tarheels. After being drafted 34th overall by the Chicago Bulls in the 1998 NBA draft and traded the same night to the Atlanta Hawks, Williams would play for the Seattle Supersonics.
He would come to Boston as part of the trade sending Vin Baker to Boston in exchange for Kenny Anderson, Joseph Forte, and Vitaly Potapenko in the summer of 2002.
Williams would play less than a full season before being traded again, this time to the Denver Nuggets for Mark Blount and Mark Bryant, and averaged 7.3 points, 2.2 boards, and 2.5 assists in his sole season as a Celtic.
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