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During the years that Red Auerbach ran the Celtics, the organization was a paragon of stability and tradition. First Red coached the Celtics, and then, often, the players he coached coached the Celtics. The uniforms didn’t change, and banner after banner of the same plain type accumulated in the rafters of the old Boston Garden. One by one, player numbers were retired and raised to the same lofty position above the most storied court in the National Basketball Association. From a basketball perspective, the Celtics were about as solid and stable as the rock of Gibraltar.
But that stability was not reflected in team ownership.
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After Walter Brown died unexpectedly in the fall of 1964, the Celtics went through a twenty-year period when ten different ownership groups controlled the team.
In 1983, the Celtics were purchased from Harry Mangurian by a consortium led by Don Gaston. Gaston had been an executive with Gulf+Western when they owned the Knicks, having purchased Madison Square Garden and its tenants in 1977.
Gaston’s consortium included Boston native Paul Dupee, and Alan Cohen, who was an executive with the New Jersey Nets at the time—both were also Gulf+Western alumni. The sale price was reported to be $15 million.
Gaston, a Texas native, had left Gulf+Western in 1982 after assembling a group of investors that purchased Providence Capitol International Insurance Ltd., and Famous Players Realty, Ltd. from Gulf+Western for $350 million.
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About three years after purchasing the Celtics, Gaston and his partners decided to share the wealth while creating some wealth for themselves.
They sold 40% of the Boston Celtics on the New York Stock Exchange on December 3, 1986.
This was the first—and so far only—time that a sports franchise has been publicly traded.
It provided an opportunity for any number of Celtics fans, including my dad, to claim an ownership stake in what could in a very real sense now be called ‘their’ team.
It was also an excellent move for the wallets of Boston’s ownership group. Having paid around $15 million for the team in the fall of 1983, they recouped about three times…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/history-month-anyone-could-own-110000925.html
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Publish date : 2026-08-29 11:00:00
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