Walter A. Brown (February 10, 1905 – September 7, 1964) was the original owner of the Boston Celtics as well as an important figure in the development of ice hockey in the United States.
He was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and attended Boston Latin from 1922 to 1923 and Philips Exeter Academy from 1923 to 1926. After succeeding his father, George V. Brown, as manager of the Boston Garden, he helped to found the Basketball Association of America in 1946, and was instrumental in merging the BAA and the National Basketball League into the National Basketball Association in 1949. He founded the Celtics in 1945, and helped to transform the team into a dynasty, as the Celtics won six championships in the seven years before his death. He is buried in St. John the Evangelist Cemetery in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
[edit] Hockey
Brown also played an important role in the development of hockey; he coached the amateur Boston Olympics to five Eastern Hockey League championships and guided the USA to its first gold medal in the Ice Hockey World Championships in 1933. In 1951, he bought the financially strapped Boston Bruins; he had been the Bruins' landlord since becoming the Garden's manager. He served as the president of the International Ice Hockey Federation from 1954 to 1957.
[edit] Honors
Brown was honored by having the NBA championship trophy named after him after he died in 1964.
He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962, the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1965, and IIHF Hall of Fame in 1997, its inaugural year.[1][2]
The Boston Celtics retired uniform number "1" in Brown's honor in 1964.
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