Former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn Recalls Playing on PC’s 1963 NIT Championship Team, 60 Years Later
Saturday, March 04, 2023
In a wide-ranging interview with GoLocalProv, former Providence College men’s basketball great and Boston Mayor Ray Flynn shared his recollections of winning the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) 60 years after capturing the title in 1963.
Flynn went on to serve as Mayor of Boston from 1984 to 1993, before President Bill Clinton named him as the United States Ambassador to the Holy See [Vatican].
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHis recollections of his days at PC come as the Friars play their final regular season game on Saturday against Seton Hall at home, ahead of the Big East Tournament.
When he played at PC six decades ago, Flynn told GoLocal it was more than just basketball.
“It was about winning for the team, for the school, for the students,” said Flynn. “That’s what brought me the most pride. It didn’t matter if you scored one point or thirty points, it was about the team and the students. “
Flynn — a star three-sport athlete growing up in Boston — had wanted to play football in college instead, but it was a reporter who helped steer him to Providence.
Path to PC
Flynn said that after noted success at South Boston High School, he was recruited by the big football powerhouses down south — and PC, and playing college basketball, was not originally on his radar screen.
“I thought I was going into pro football, and I was going go to play at Florida State, or Miami,” Flynn told GoLocal.
“But there was a reporter for the [Boston] Globe, Jack Barry. He was a quiet, professional, unassuming, and wonderful Catholic man, and he would cover high school sports,” said Flynn. “He was a person of enormous integrity. He reported on the state championship games, and he used to ask me about where I might go [to college], after that season we were unscored upon in football.”
“Out of the clear blue, he said, you have so many offers, let me give you my two cents,” said Flynn. “He said there’s a coach at PC, who used to play for the Celtics. He said you couldn’t do any better having him as your coach."
Barry was referring to PC Coach Joe Mullaney — the legendary Holy Cross star, who along with Bob Cousy won the 1947 NCAA Championship, and then played for the Celtics.
“[Barry] said would you like to go down to Providence someday and meet the coach? So I said sure, and he drove me down,” sat Flynn.
“And I sat down with [Mullaney]. Providence was making its move at that time and he said you’re the kind of guy we’d like, a team player,” said Flynn. “He said, I saw your films. You pass the ball around, and you’re a real team leader. He introduced me to the priests — a number were from the Boston area.”
According to Flynn, it was several priests in his South Boston neighborhood who would come by his house to see his parents and encourage Flynn to matriculate to PC, that helped seal the deal.
“No one in my family went to college,” said Flynn, of his Irish-Catholic upbringing. “[The priests] would talk about the education I would get at PC, and my parents loved that. They saw this as the greatest thing that could ever happen to me.”
Remembering the Championship - And Its Aftermath
Flynn said that while the 1963 NIT championship during his time at PC was a highlight, it was much more than the game itself.
“People didn’t expect [PC to win],” said Flynn of the Friars winning the national title against Canisius. “Because the game was on national TV at Madison Square Garden, I think they didn’t expect the team to be so well coached…and the enthusiasm of the students and spectators.”
Providence won 81-66, and it was Flynn's outside shooting that boosted the Friars to the championship.
Flynn, the NIT championship MVP, says it was the aftermath of the game itself that stuck with him most.
“There was just so much enthusiasm,” said Flynn. “When we came back to Providence, the fans on the sidewalks were lined up six, eight deep.”
It was celebrating with the kids that Flynn came to know at a local orphanage that he says was the best part of the victory.
“I was introduced to the orphanage while at Providence,” said Flynn. “I’d asked [some of my teammates] to come...Johnny Thompson, [Vinnie] Ernst. We brought a basketball and ice cream and cake, it was a big Friars cake after we won the championship. And the kids just loved it.”
“People often ask about the game. But what I always remember is the fans and the kids. Everything else seems secondary,” said Flynn. “Providence is just a great city with so much enthusiasm.”
A Big Lesson From Larger-Than-Life Legend Red Auerbach
Flynn said during PC — and after — he weighed his athletic options, but as he soon learned, some things were beyond his control.
“I really love sports. I did well and buckled down and got the award for the outstanding student-athlete for the NCAA,” said Flynn. “I had opportunities for grad school."
“But I signed up for the army and was drafted for 76ers and ultimately played in Wilmington,” said Flynn, of playing for the “Blue Bombers” in the Eastern Professional Basketball League. “When I was in the army, it was hard to play basketball.”
In 1964, Flynn was traded to the Celtics, coming full circle to the Boston Garden, where he had been a ball boy for the team growing up.
But it was not meant to be, and legendary Celtics' Coach Red Auerbach told him why.
“Red said to me, the day that he cut me, he said I’ve known you since you were a little boy. There’s no one I’d like to keep on the team more,” said Flynn, recalling that fateful conversation with Auerbach. “He said you’ve worked hard enough, but you’re just not good enough to play for the Celtics.
“You’d think that would have been devastating, to seem like it was all coming to a screeching halt,” said Flynn. “But I would never forget that lesson.”
Flynn went on to a hugely successful political career, serving in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, then on the Boston City Council, before getting elected as Mayor of Boston and then serving as Ambassador to the Vatican.
“Everything I did after that [conversation with Auerbach], whether it was in Boston…Washington…the Vatican, it was about doing what was fair, not just what would have been popular,” said Flynn of what the storied Celtics coach had taught him.
And for his time at PC, it was the lessons of Mullaney’s tutelage of that championship team that stayed with him.
“It was never about personal ambition,” said Flynn. “It was about helping out your teammates and helping out the team.”
