It’s time for Red’s Army “Fan Friday,” the weekly feature that introduces you to Celtics fans from all around the globe. If you’d like to nominate someone to be featured – including yourself – please email us at [email protected]. Provide the person’s contact info and some brief details about the fan’s background as a member of Celtics Nation.
This week we feature a father-son duo from South Dakota. The dad is Rich Jensen, age 73, of Brookings, S.D., who’s followed the Celtics for about six decades. The elder Jensen earned a master’s degree in math from the University of North Dakota in the mid-1960s, and they had a pretty good basketball team when he was there. The head coach was Bill Fitch, and his top assistant was Jimmy Rodgers, both of whom went on to become head coach in Boston. Their star player? A forward named Phil Jackson.
The son is also named Rich Jensen, 41, from Sioux Falls, S.D. You may know the younger Rich as one of the writers here at Red’s Army. Check out his Red’s Army posts and follow him on Twitter at @RichAJensen.
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How Rich (the dad) became a Celtics fan:
I started following the Celtics in the late ’50s, when I was a teenager. I think Cousy may have had something to do with it. And they won — all the time. I got interested in basketball growing up in Forestburg, S.D. In small towns, there was always a basketball hoop somewhere and everybody got to play.
His favorite player:
John Havlicek. I just always liked him. Even though I grew up in a small town, there was enough national sports news that I followed West, Havlicek and Oscar during their college careers. I also remember Dolph Schayes and his two-handed set shot.
Best Celtics moments and games:
It’s hard to say, there’s been so many over the years. Havlicek stealing the ball, Bird stealing the inbounds pass in the Detroit game, and Game 7 of the ’69 Finals.
Why the Celtics are important to him:
I don’t follow the Celtics as closely as I used to, but that’s true of the rest of the NBA too. I check the scores and standings on a regular basis, but that’s about all until the playoffs. I enjoyed watching the games with my kids when they were growing up in the ’80s, although the youngest boy ended up a Bulls fan. I’m not a fan of all this three point shooting — last time the Rockets and the Kings played, the Rockets put up 45 threes and missed 31 of them and the Kings put up 29 and missed 21. Gee, watching a game where 74 threes are taken and 52 are missed is real exciting.
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How Rich (the son) became a Celtics fan:
Pretty obvious I inherited my interest in the Celtics. When I was younger, I was much more of a football fan. I was terrible at basketball — seriously, my drives would make Kelly Olynyk look like the lead dancer at the Bolshoi, and I couldn’t shoot because I was trying to shoot right-handed for some odd reason. (I write right-handed, but I bat/golf/play hockey left-handed. I didn’t try to shoot left-handed until maybe five or six years ago and was like, “Holy crap. No wonder I was so bad at this.”) I followed the Celtics at a distance through the ugly ’90s — I remember thinking that the Pitino hire was a really good thing when I first heard about it. I also thought it would’ve been perfect for a guy named O’Brien to coach them to a title in the ’00s, but well, that didn’t happen.
His favorite player:
Paul Pierce. Sure, it would be easy to say Larry Bird, but I didn’t see that many of his games when I was a kid — I mean, I could watch all 16 Vikings games every year, but I’d only see Bird a handful of times each season when he was in his prime. Yeah, my dad says that he enjoyed watching games with us when we were kids, but he never let us stay up past our bedtime to watch the ends of games.
I liked Pierce because he was tough, underrated and crafty. Also, he was consistently good year in, year out, back when the Celtics were practically having open tryouts for every other roster spot.
Best Celtics moments and games:
Game 6, ’08 Finals, no question. I might’ve seen Bird steal the inbounds pass on TV when it happened, but I can’t remember for sure.
Why the Celtics are important to him:
Honestly, what got me back into basketball was the South Dakota State women’s team. They were really good and really fun to watch when the Celtics weren’t. At all. I picked up an appreciation for the nuances of the game watching them, and when the Celtics landed KG and Allen, I was already interested in basketball again. Since then, they’ve been fun to follow and occasionally write about.
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