Who was James Crowley?



The name James Crowley might be memorable to people in Boston for the incident he had with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr back in 2009.  That was the time when Gates arrived home to his Cambridge, MA house from a trip abroad to find his front door stuck shut. As he and the driver who brought him from the airport tried to push it open, a passerby called police with a report of a possible break-in. Crowley, a Cambridge police officer, arrived and eventually arrested Gates who he claimed behaved belligerently when he questioned him.  Gates denied that.  Gates, who is black, also accused Crowley of racial profiling.

The entire thing lead to harsh comments from President Obama and an eventual reconciliation where Gates and Crowley shared a beer with Obama (pictured above).

But while people from Boston may recall Crowley, it may not specifically resonate with Celtics' fans.  However it probably should.  See Crowley was the guy that tried to revive Reggie Lewis when he collapsed at Brandeis University shooting baskets in July of 1993.  At the time, Crowley was a Brandeis police officer

Crowley was a certified emergency medical technician when he performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Lewis, to no avail, after the player’s heart stopped on July 27, 1993. In a Globe interview later that day, Crowley said he rushed to the university’s Shapiro Gymnasium, confirmed that Lewis had no pulse, and frantically tried to revive him. 
“I just kept on going,’’ he said. “I just kept thinking, ‘Don’t let him die - just don’t die.’’’
It seemed to impact James many years after.  His mother spoke about how he would cry about the incident later on and that day's events would continue to haunt him.  Crowley sometimes, possibly paranoid, even took it personal thinking that people would look at him and say "that's the guy that killed Reggie Lewis."

No matter your stance on the incident with Gates one thing is undeniable: James Crowley is linked to Celtics' history.  And now you know that too.