RedsArmy presents Celebrity Fan Friday #2: “Busty Heart”

Folks, we have a true legend in our midst in this installment of “Celebrity Fan Friday”. Her name is Susan Sykes, but most know her as “Busty Heart”. Susan busted-out onto the scene during an appearance on CBS during the 1986 NBA Playoffs. This video is pure gold. You get to watch Danny Ainge tackle Tree Rollins, a young Doc Rivers shoot free-throws and listen as Brent Musburger and Billy Cunningham totally lose it after seeing..well…just watch:

As you can imagine, things took off for Busty after that. She became the “unofficial celebrity mascot” of the Boston Celtics. From her official website:

Suddenly Celtic fans had what they needed for years. They had no cheerleaders, no celebrity fan, like Lakers celebrity fan Jack Nicholson. They knew they had one up on the Lakers, who all NBA fans knew would eventually be the Celtics opponent in the 1986 NBA Championship. Boston had their first and only unofficial celebrity mascot. There was one problem. Who was she???
Boston media knew this was their story line for the entire playoffs.The search was on to discover the name of the lady who captured the imagination of basketball fans everywhere. Boston area radio stations offered rewards for the information leading to the name and location of the gal they wanted to interview.

Every play off game she attended caused fan pandemonium. She was mobbed by Celtics fans looking for photo opportunities with her. Autograph seekers wanted her signature on anything including T-shirts, ball caps, tickets, even $100.00 bills. She autographed bald heads and stomachs, anything and everything.

She traveled to Houston, TX to lend support to the Celtics in their confrontation with the Houston Rockets. Houston Post sports writer, Paul Harasim, on May 28th, 1986 wrote an article entitled “For the newest Celtics mascot, it’s NBA Championship or Bust”. Houston had discovered the Celtics newest weapon.

Busty Heart was the Celtics lucky charm. With her support fans felt they could beat anybody and they did. They beat Houston in a bitterly fought series.The Boston fans wanted the big war with the Lakers but they would have to wait until 1987.In Busty’s honor fans hung banners in Boston Garden. One banner read “World Championship or Bust-y Heart”.

As a youngster, Susan spent quite a bit of time in Southie with her grandparents. There she says, she was first exposed to the Celtics-among other things. Her favorite all-time Celtics are Larry Bird and Bill Walton:

Larry Bird lived in the same neighborhood in Newton Ma where I was raised. I really liked Bill Walton because he supported me in LA when I placed a basketball bra, given to me by Celtics fans, on Jack Nicholson’s head during the 1987 NBA playoffs. I did this at the request of Celtic fans for Jack “mooning” fans in Boston Garden.

I asked Busty what her fondest memories of her “15 seconds of fame” are:

I have two fond memories. During the ’86 Eastern Conference playoffs with the Atlanta Hawks, CBS TV announcer Brent Musburger commented that John Salley of Georgia Tech, a possible draft choice, was attending the game. The CBS camera panned in to his seat and I was sitting next to him. John said to me “you stand up instead”. Well when I stood up my breast were “bouncing”. Brent Musburger laughed “I don’t know which one was a number one draft pick”. The media wanted to know who “that lady” was. It was my 15 seconds of fame. The fans after finding out I was a stripper, Busty Heart, designated me as their “unofficial mascot”. My next fondest memory was the night the Celtics won their 16th NBA World Championship. It took me 2 hours just to get to the Boston Garden front door. Thousands of fans surrounded me for pictures and  autographs. Amazingly fans never did anything that was inappropriate towards me. Celtic fans are all class- not like the treatment Laker fans gave me in LA. Thank you Celtic fans for the honor you bestowed on me. I love you.

These days, she runs Busty Heart’s place, a strip club in Northwest Pennsylvania. Recently, a guest from Vermont approached her with an old Polaroid featuring her younger self. “People remember,” she said. “Boston fans are loyal.”

And so is she: When Kareem Abdul-Jabbar called it quits in 1989, Stanton claims Magic Johnson personally phoned Sykes to ask if Busty Heart would perform at the Hall of Fame center’s retirement party. Her answer was no.

Huge thanks to Susan for participating in Celebrity Fan Friday. Be sure to follow her on Twitter and check out her site. As always, thank you all for reading! UBUNTU.