Today in Celtics history: Ellison, Farbman, Hamilton born

Today, April 3rd, is the 50th anniversary of the birth of former Boston Celtics big man Pervis Ellison.


Ellison, originally nicknamed "never nervous Pervis" due to his outstanding performance at the college level - he was awarded the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player as a freshman in 1986, only the second in history to be awarded the honor at that time - but had transformed into "out of service" Pervis by the time he signed with the Celts as a free agent. Ellison's professional career was plagued by injury, beginning with him missing 48 of 82 games of his rookie year after being drafted by the Sacramento Kings (picking up the nickname "out of service" as a result, from none other than teammate Danny Ainge).


Even with the Celts, those injury issues would continue, including a broken toe that kept him out of the majority of games between 1996 and 1998 - much of his time in Boston - after an accident while moving. Ellison's promising career petered out in Beantown - he put up gawdy numbers early on, as much as 20 points and 11.2 boards per game with the Washington Bullets - but never logged better than 6.8 points and 5.6 rebounds with the club, and that before the broken toe. He would play nine more games with the Seattle Supersonics before retiring in 2000.



Today is also the birthday (1924) of former Celtics forward Phil Farbman, who played just 21 games for the club in its third season (1948-1949) after an equally short stint with the Philadelphia Warriors. It was his only season in the league, and we don't much else about him, apart from the fact he attended Brooklyn College for a short time before serving in the Second World War. After, he attended City College of New York before joining the Warriors, where he led their team to a semifinal tilt in 1947 against a Bob Cousy-led Holy Cross squad that would oust City College en route to an NCAA National Championship.


It also happens to be the birthday of former Celtic center Thomas Thaddeus Hamilton, who turns 42 today. Hamilton, a 7'2" , 330 llb. behemoth of a man, never played professionally or even organized basketball in any capacity before being signed by the Celtics at the start of the 1995-1996 season, having been ruled academically ineligible at the college level. He joined a depleted Boston frontcourt, only to have to work his way into playing shape on the fly, spending time on the injured and suspended list while getting his body into something resembling game form. He appeared in just eleven games, averaging 2.3 points and 2 boards per game before signing with the Chicago Bulls as a free agent.



For more stories about Celtics history on Celticslife, click here. For more by Justin, click here.
For more on Hamilton, check out tbt727's article here, and for more on Ellison, he has another here.





Image via JCeltics, drinkingpastthe7th, and tbt727
Data via basketball-reference.com
Follow Justin at @justinquinnn
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