Terrorizing Togo
Recently tb727 made a reference to Tony Lavelli the accordion player but also brought up
the fact that Togo Palazzi was the lone casualty of the 1957 Celtics. Who is
Togo Palazzi? Good question.
Togo was a
6’4 forward/guard on the mid 50’s Celtics that played at Holy Cross with Tom
Heinsohn. That’s where Togo began a career of being the butt of jokes. In 1955
Holy Cross led by Togo and Tom, were on the verge of the NCAA tournament. They
needed to beat Notre Dame to get in. The game came down to the final shot with
Holy Cross trailing. Togo had the ball on the baseline, he turned and
shot…swish ….but wait! The referees waved off the shot and pointed to the fact
HE WAS OUT OF BOUNDS WHEN HE SHOT IT! Notre Dame had won and Holy Cross didn’t
make it. There was a consolation, Holy Cross made the NIT and won it all with
Palazzi winning the MVP, but let that set the stage for his pro career. Tom
Heinsohn certainly never let him hear the end of it for going out of bounds.
One of the
biggest pranksters of the 1950’s Celtics was Frank Ramsey. He not only targeted
Togo but Red himself, once switching the coaches short sizes before practice
from either elephant sized to runway model on a daily basis. “Knock it off
guys!” was Red’s only retort but he didn’t know exactly who it was. Togo also
used to wear a Holy Cross T-shirt to Celtics practice. Ramsey didn’t like that and one day burned it
after the session.
As for Togo,
he also had the misfortune of once having to wear a road jersey backwards and
someone elses' shorts when his uniform didn't arrive on time. Imagine that
today, everyone’s in uniform from Jeff Green on down but there’s Marcus Smart
with a backwards jersey and big floppy shorts.
 |
| Togo's jersey looked like this |
Togo had
many rituals one of which was being the last one out of the locker-room during
practices and games. The prankster Ramsey struck again as one time before a
game, he waited until everyone else had left and then locked the door on Togo.
He spent 15 minutes banging on the door hoping someone would hear him,
meanwhile on the court Red was looking around asking where the heck was Togo.
Finally just before tipoff a janitor happened to stroll by and hear the
banging, so he opened the door and was nearly trampled by Togo who made a gold
medal sprint onto the court. Red seeing Togo’s hands all red and how out of
breath he was could only laugh instead of get angry.
The coup di
gras was when Ramsey struck again this time with the help of future Celtic
Clyde Lovellette. Before an exhibition
game against the Minneapolis Lakers, Ramsey had Clyde (the Lakers center at the
time) call the airport and ask for Ramsey. Once Ramsey answered, Clyde pretended
to be the county sheriff of Hibbing, Minnesota (hometown of Kevin McHale) to
notify Palazzi he was under arrest for harassing a female at the hotel bar the
night before. Ramsey then had the airport front desk page Palazzi and say a law
officer was there to see him. Togo then beat a hasty retreat for the plane and
breathed a momentary sigh of relief. Then Ramsey got the pilot in on it and
while the plane was in the air, the pilot went on the intercom to proclaim the
police would be waiting for Togo when the plane landed. By then Palazzi had
freaked completely out and Red (who was in on it) finally showed mercy by
letting Togo know it was all a joke.
He was only
on the team a few years but between getting locked in the locker-room, wearing
a uniform backwards and nearly having a heart attack on an airplane, at least
he deserved a share of the 1957 NBA Finals purse. Poor Togo…..
