Jan. 21, 1964 - What did St. Louis Hawks’ fans remember as they piled out of Kiel Auditorium tonight? The game-winning shot by Zelmo Beaty, of course — a 15-footer into the net by a struggling player who had missed painfully easy shots earlier. Bob Pettit’s hard foul as he prevented a sure basket by the Boston Celtics’ K.C. Jones with two minutes left in the game. Jones got three foul shots, but sank just one. The mid-court challenge of the Celtics’ muscle man, Jim Loscutoff, by a bigger and still-trim coach, Harry Gallatin. And the ejection of Boston’s coach, Red Auerbach, by referee Richie Powers in the fourth quarter. (Auerbach’s last words as he skulked off into the sunset: “What’d I say? What’d I say?”)
What the people who watched the Hawks’ 116-114 victory over Boston didn’t recall was the sight of the Celts’ best scorer, guard John Havlicek, doing much of anything. Havlicek came into the game with a 21.4 scoring average and the Hawks held him to seven. “Give [Mike] Farmer most of the credit for that,” said Gallatin after his Hawks’ third straight victory. “Havlicek had averaged 19 points a game against us when Boston beat us four straight, but Mike was his old self as he guarded him in this one. Many of Havlicek’s baskets in the past came when he took a smaller guard into the pivot — John is 6-5 — but he couldn’t do that against Mike.”
The Gallatin-Loscutoff encounter game in the second quarter. Just prior to it, the Hawk coach had drawn a technical foul for protesting to vigorously that Loscutoff was climbing over Pettit without penalty. A moment later, Chico Vaughn, who had shot the Hawks into the lead, suddenly began holding his forehead. Play was interrupted while Gallatin went on the court to check his player’s condition, and Chico told him Loscutoff had hit him over the eye. “I know Loscutoff well enough to be certain that was no accident, not when Vaughn happened to be our hottest shooter,” Gallatin said. “I warned Jim that I wanted the rough stuff stopped or I’d do something about it.” Players and officials kept Loscutoff and Gallatin from getting within swinging range.
