The "vast and vaunted Celtic family gathered Thursday afternoon at Trinity Church" in Boston for a 90-minute tribute to the late JOHN HAVLICEK, who died last month. Among the former Celtics players in attendance were BILL RUSSELL, BOB COUSY, TOMMY HEINSOHN, SATCH SANDERS and DAVE COWENS. Also in attendance was NANCY AUERBACH, the daughter of RED AUERBACH, Celtics coach BRAD STEVENS and President of Basketball Operations DANNY AINGE, making his first public appearance since suffering a heart attack. Havlicek was honored in a celebration of life in front of "more than 200 guests," including former U.S. Sen. BILL BRADLEY, Hockey HOFer BOBBY ORR, and a "raft of Boston celebrities and family friends from the last half-century" (BOSTONGLOBE.com, 5/23). Celtics Managing Partner & CEO WYC GROUSBECK and Managing Partners STEVE PAGLIUCA and ROBERT EPSTEIN also attended the service (BOSTONHERALD.com, 5/23).
GETTING THE VIP TREATMENT: NBC's MIKE TIRICO is serving as host of the net's coverage around the Indianapolis 500 and on Wednesday, he was "picked up at the airport" by MARIO ANDRETTI in a "street-legal Indy car." Tirico said, "That was the coolest freakin' thing I’ve ever done in sports. ... That was awesome. I land at the airport and got into an Indy car, street-legal, with Mario Andretti, 50 years after he won the 500, and we drove on the highway" (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 5/24).
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Former skier ALEXANDRE BILODEAU, Hockey HOFer MARTIN BRODEUR, former Canadian women's national team player JAYNA HEFFORD and former CFL Commissioner DOUG MITCHELL have been selected for induction into Canada's Sports HOF (CP, 5/23)....The Memphis Sports Hall of Fame's inaugural class will include former MLBer TIM MCCARVER, former Royals investor AVRON FOGELMAN, and former Memphis Press-Scimitar columnist GEORGE LAPIDES (BIZJOURNALS.com, 5/22)....Former MLBer WILLIE HORTON was "celebrated by the city of Detroit" on Wednesday with the unveiling of Willie Horton Drive (DETROITNEWS.com, 5/22).
NAMES: The Univ. of Texas BOR approved a two-year contraction extension for football coach TOM HERMAN that will see him earn $6.5M in '22 and $6.75M in '23 (HOOKEM.com, 5/23)....Falcons coach DAN QUINN "donated $75,000 to help start the Atlanta Chapter of Merging Vets and Players and hosted 74 members from the organization" at the Falcons' OTA on Thursday (AJC.com, 5/23)....Chiefs QB PATRICK MAHOMES in partnership with Foot Locker, Adidas and the Asterisk Collective “surprised a group of patients at Children’s Mercy Hospital” in K.C. on Thursday and “presented donations to help with rehab and well-being” (KANSASCITY.com, 5/23)....Comedy music group The Lonely Island members ANDY SAMBERG, AKIVA SCHAFFER and JORMA TACCONE “dropped their first concept album and ‘visual poem’ as a half-hour Netflix special, titled ‘The Lonely Island Presents The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience.’” The special treats the audience to “short snippets of songs and videos” performed by Samberg and Schaffer dressed as former A’s players JOSE CANSECO and MARK MCGWIRE (DECIDER.com, 5/23).
