,

The Arnie Risen Interview

Written By:  Michael D. McClellan | He battles George Mikan during the early days of his professional career and teams with Bill Russell in its twilight, his contributions to the game obscured by basketball’s most dominant big men of the twentieth century. Arnie Risen is understandably cool with this. The shadows cast by Mikan and Russell swallow their eras whole, and Risen is not alone among the forgotten. The wooden barn otherwise known as Edgerton Park Sports Arena is long gone, the games but fading memories to a vanishing breed of NBA fan. Risen plays professional basketball at a time when the game is more curiosity than sporting staple, more sideshow than main attraction. The average sports fan is more concerned with the exploits of men like Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, and Warren Spahn. Guys like Arnie Risen exist only to fill a void.

Risen, of course, is much more than that. A 6-foot-9 center known affectionately as “Stilts,” Risen is as skilled as any big man in the league, twice leading the Rochester Royals in scoring. In 1949, Risen leads the NBA in field goal percentage while finishing as its fourth leading scorer. He plays in three professional circuits over a thirteen year career—the National Basketball League, the Basketball Association of America, and, after these two leagues merge, the National Basketball Association. In 1949 he is selected to the All-NBA Second Team, behind only Mikan at his position. In 1952, he begins a string of four consecutive All-Star seasons, becoming Rochester’s franchise player in the process.

Then there are the championships, the first coming in 1951 as the Royals’ starting center, the second coming six seasons later as a backup to the great Bill Russell. A key component in one, a complimentary player in another. Friendships and memories to last a lifetime.

Born in 1924, Risen grows up in Williamstown, Kentucky, a postage stamp of a town located halfway between Lexington and Cincinnati. He doesn’t own a real basketball; instead he fashions makeshift balls out of whatever he can find, and shoots them at a bottomless can which is nailed to the side of the family house.

“I was raised in a very rural setting,” Risen says. “I didn’t know there was such a thing as pro basketball until I was approached to play for the Indianapolis Kautskys. I didn’t have athletic goals, especially when compared to the guys playing basketball today. From an early age they start dreaming of their children becoming the next LeBron James, or the next Michael Jordan, or what have you. I didn’t have those aspirations. The goal back then was purely day-to-day.”

Risen gets his start at Williamstown High School.

“The coaches took an interest in me, and they really worked with me to develop my game. I played for three seasons, but back then basketball was just something to do—the really good players might think of it as a way to get a college education, but you really didn’t think about it as a career. World War II was going on then, and that was on everybody’s mind at the time. A lot of good college and professional athletes ended up serving in the military, and a lot of them saw combat duty. By the time I was drafted, I was 6-foot-9 and deemed too tall to serve in the Army.”

Risen contemplates taking his talents to Lexington, where Adolph Rupp is beginning to build a powerhouse at the University of Kentucky. He visits UK following his senior season, but Rupp doesn’t offer a full scholarship. Risen enrolls in Eastern Kentucky State instead.

“EKU was close to home, so it made sense for me to go there,” Risen says. “I played one season before the school dropped the basketball program. Someone talked me into visiting the Ohio State campus, and after that trip I decided to enroll. I am proud to be a part of the Ohio State basketball program.  The school reached three consecutive Final Fours, two while I was there and one after I left.”

It’s the spring of 1944 when Risen makes his first Final Four appearance, leading the Buckeyes to a 10-point win over Temple in the East Regional Semifinals. Ohio State falls short against Dartmouth, 60–53, in the East Regional Finals at Madison Square Garden.

A year later, in 1945, Risen leads Ohio State to an 8-point victory over Kentucky in the East Regional Semifinals, before falling to NYU in overtime.

“Schayes had been a schoolboy star at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. He was a hard worker, and a real perfectionist. He went on to a great career in the pros, and was voted to the Hall of Fame.”

Things look promising for the Buckeyes heading into Risen’s senior season. He’s been named the All-Big Ten center in 1944, and a Helms Foundation second-team All-American in 1945, but he’s hit with an elbow just after the season starts, losing a few teeth in the process. Then he catches a cold that turns into pneumonia, causing him to miss classes for a period of time. He’s declared academically ineligible at Ohio State, ending his college career.

“Ohio State reached three consecutive Final Fours from 1944 through 1946,” Risen says. “Even though we didn’t win the championship, I’m very proud to have been part of that.”

Following graduation, Risen plays nearly three seasons for the NBL’s Indianapolis Kautskys. The games are played at Hinkle Fieldhouse on the Butler University campus, where he makes $25 dollars per game.

Risen joins the BAA’s Rochester Royals for the 1948–49 season, and plays for the team’s legendary owner/coach, Les Harrison.

“Les wasn’t the greatest coach from an X and O standpoint, but he was very passionate about the game of basketball. He was a lot like Red Auerbach in that he knew how to surround himself with the right people. I think that had a lot to do with his success.”

As Risen is quick to learn, the game back then belongs to Mikan.

“George Mikan was the league’s first true superstar,” Risen says. “He was a seven-footer, and while there were four of five others close to his size back then, none of those players came close to his skill level. He played for DePaul in college, and he blocked so many shots that the NCAA introduced the goaltending rule. The NBA doubled the width of the free throw lane because of him. It later came up with the 24-second shot clock because teams were slowing down the games to try and beat Mikan’s Lakers. Before Mikan, such rules never existed.”

Fans today watch NBA games in state-of-the-art stadiums. The Royals later move West, first to Cincinnati, then Kansas City-Omaha, and eventually Sacramento. In transit they become the Kings. With each stop, they play in more modern facilities. During Risen’s time, the Royals play in the Edgerton Park Sports Arena, a wood-framed building that holds 4,200 spectators. The city owns the arena and lets its firemen use it to house equipment and carry out exercises.

“It was typical of the facilities in the old National Basketball League, which was where the Royals played before switching leagues and playing in the BAA. Most of the gyms were small, cramped, and outdated—even by the standards of the day. The fans were right on top of the action, which could be a big advantage for the home team.”

The Royals’ roster is stocked with future Hall of Famers Red Holzman, Bobby Wanzer, Risen and Davies, but the team can’t get past Mikan in the playoffs. All of that changes during the 1951 Western Division Finals.

“We were always competitive against the Lakers, but we weren’t as big and as strong. I was the tallest player at 6–9. Mikan was slowed by a broken ankle in that series. We were able to beat them 3–1 and reach the Finals.”

The Royals win the 1951 NBA championship, but the New York Knicks refuse to go down without a fight. Risen scores 19 points in Game 2, and finishes with a game-high 27 in Game 3. Rochester races out to a commanding 3–0 series lead, only to see the Knicks storm back to force a dramatic Game 7.

“We nearly gave the series away. To his credit, New York coach Joe Lapchick made a few roster changes, but it was really more about what we failed to do. We became a team of individuals—I think we started to believe our press clippings, and everyone was out there trying to be the hero. Some of our guys began playing for individual glory, instead of playing for a team goal.”

Harrison’s crew recovers with a thrilling 79–75 victory at the Edgerton Park Sports Arena. Risen leads all scorers with 24 points.

“The game was very tight in the second half. We stayed aggressive, and the Knicks ended up in foul trouble. I scored late, drew a foul, and completed the three-point play to put us up 75–74. Jack Coleman made a basket to put the final nail in the coffin, and that was it. We were finally champions.”

Risen plays another four years in a Rochester uniform. Mikan and the Lakers pound the Royals en route to the championship during three of those seasons, their run ending with a three-peat in 1954. Over in the Eastern Division, Auerbach’s undersized Celtics are also struggling to get over the hump. By the time Risen joins the Celtics, Cousy has supplanted Mikan as the face of the league.

“When I played for Rochester, we actually got the best of Cousy and the Celtics,” Risen says. “Cousy was a terrific ball handler, but in the early days he really struggled with his perimeter shooting. My first year with the Celtics was during the 1955–56 season, and a player named Ernie Barrett was also on the roster at that time. Ernie had a quick release, and great touch. He spent some time working with Cousy. You could really tell the difference after that. Cousy shot the ball much better that season.”

The Royals have the first pick in the ’56 NBA Draft, and the St. Louis Hawks have the second. While there are differing stories about who Les Harrison wants to select, it’s clear that Auerbach, drafting third, has no doubt about the player he covets.

“Red knew how good Russell was going to be, because he got that recommendation directly from Bill Reinhart—and Reinhart was the one person that Auerbach trusted completely. Reinhart advised Red to get Russell no matter what it took.

“Les insisted that he only saw Russell once, in a college All-Star game, and that Russell played poorly on purpose because he didn’t want to play in a small city like Rochester. The Harlem Globetrotters were also in the picture at the time, and I think that pushed up Russell’s asking price.”

Adding to the intrigue, Auerbach has a secret weapon in Walter Brown, who is also the president of the Ice Capades. Brown calls Harrison and offers to send the Ice Capades to Rochester for one week if the Royals pass on Russell.

“Rochester drafted Sihugo Green instead,” Risen says with a laugh. “Auerbach negotiated directly with Hawks owner Ben Kerner, and traded Macauley and Cliff Hagan to St. Louis. That allowed Red to land Russell. The rest is history.”

With Russell in Australia competing in the 1956 Olympics, Risen finds himself starting at center for the Celtics. Everything clicks when Russell rejoins the team in December.

“Russell put us over the top, but we also had Heinsohn. That gave us two all-league rookies on the team. And then we had the veterans like Cousy and Sharman to go with the role players like Jim Loscutoff and Frank Ramsey. As the season went on, we felt that we were the best team in the league. Nobody really talked about it, because we were trying to win that next game, but we were a very confident team.”

The Celtics and Hawks square off in the 1957 NBA Finals, a series punctuated by a 125–123 double-overtime thriller in Game 7.

“Heinsohn played a great game that afternoon. He scored 37 points and grabbed 23 rebounds. Cousy and Sharman really struggled scoring from the field. I think Cousy missed a free throw with just a few seconds left that may have won the game. Sharman’s jumpers weren’t going in, either. Russell blocked a shot by my former Royals teammate, Jack Coleman, late in the fourth quarter, preventing the Hawks from taking a three point lead. Russell then ran the length of the floor and scored. That was a big moment for us.”

The win sparks a wild celebration in the Boston Garden. Risen scores 16 points and grabs 10 boards in that Game 7 victory. Still, the spectacle of winning a championship pales in comparison by modern standards.

“Today, when teams win championships they are given championship rings,” Risen says. “Back then, rings weren’t such a big deal. We played, we won the title, and then we all went on to other jobs in the offseason. Basketball wasn’t as big. We didn’t get rings when we won the championship in Rochester in ’51, and nobody really thought much of it when we beat the Hawks in ‘57. Championship rings became a big deal until the Super Bowl came along.”

The teams meet again a year later, but an ankle injury to Russell in Game 3 forever changes the course of the ’58 Finals.

“We would have repeated if that ankle injury hadn’t occurred,” Risen insists. “Bill Russell was that much better than any other player at the time.  But injuries are part of it. He wasn’t the same the rest of the way, and that was the difference in the series.”

Risen’s NBA playing days end with that Finals loss to the Hawks. He has no regrets—a 10-year career, two NBA championships, and memories and relationships to last a lifetime.

“I enjoyed my time with the Celtics,” he says. “Walter Brown was a great man. His word was his bond, and when he told you something he meant it. In all the time Auerbach worked for Brown, the two of them never had a written contract in place. It was a year-to-year verbal agreement between them, which tells you something about the trust and respect that they had for each other.”

After starting his professional career playing in the barn that was Edgerton Park Sports Arena, Risen has nothing but fond memories of playing in the fabled Boston Garden.

“The parquet floor—nobody else had a floor made like that,” he says. “As an opponent, you were concerned about the so-called dead spots. Legend had it that the Celtics knew where the dead spots were, and that they would try to force you into those areas to create turnovers. As a member of the Celtics, having the dead spots was in our favor was part of our psychological advantage. They may not have helped win a game, but just having the thought in the opponent’s mind was enough to make the Garden a more difficult place to play.”

On October 2nd, 1998, Risen is inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

As time goes on and you find yourself farther from the spotlight, and I think it starts to mean more,” Risen says. “Back then you weren’t playing for enshrinement into the Hall of Fame since there wasn’t a Hall of Fame. I think it meant more coming to me late in life, rather than if it came to me on my first trip to the ballot box five years after retirement. It was the crowning point in my career. And joining all of those great players that I suited up with makes me feel like I’m on the team again.”

Michael McClellan
Latest posts by Michael McClellan (see all)