Today in Boston Celtics history, the team made a pair of selections that made the roster in the 1958 NBA Draft, which took place in New York City. Boston picked up center Bennie Swain from Texas Southern University with the seventh overall pick of the draft, and forward Jimmy Smith from Franciscan College with the 15th overall selection. Swain later contributed as a reserve alongside the legendary center Bill Russell on the 1959 championship team.
He recorded 4.6 points and 4.5 rebounds in his sole season with Boston, his career cut short by a knee injury after his rookie season. Before it, Swain was a potential force in the paint that would have won more than his sole title with the Celtics, and perhaps in a bigger role. “He was a forerunner of a (Kendrick) Perkins type of player,” said Boston Hall of Famer Tommy Heinsohn via Boston.com’s John M. Guilfoyle. “He was a big, strong rebounding type of guy, an inside player, and you’re always looking for rebounders, so he was going to get a really good look.”
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“Red (Auerbach, legendary Celtics coach and GM) would break players in. They’d play a little bit, and then they would carve out a niche for themselves. Swain could have been a really good player, I think,” added Heinsohn. Smith was a promising prospect as well, but was drafted into the U.S. military. Knee problems forced his discharge from the armed forces, and would also unfortunately end his basketball career as well, in an unfortunately canny coincidence.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – JUNE 17: Confetti covers the Boston Celtics logo after Boston’s 106-88 win against the Dallas Mavericks in Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 17, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)
Instead of a career in the NBA, Smith would go on to become a civil rights activist advocating racial integration, a point reflected on by his former University of Steubenville head coach Hank Kuzma.
“During those days, I was like his bail bondsman,” said Kuzma in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Paul Zeise. “He was constantly getting arrested because he was picketing at the headquarters of unions and at various construction jobs. And the fact that he was leading protests wasn’t popular. We received countless death threats, bomb threats, and burning house threats. Jim was a hero of sorts to the people in the community.”
Smith passed away in 2002 after a struggle with leukemia.
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Birthdays
It is also the birthday of former Celtic point guard Vernell Eufaye “Bimbo” Coles, born in 1968 in Covington, Virginia, and who played for Boston as a late-season addition in 2003.
Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers drives to the basket against Bimbo Coles of the Boston Celtics 10 April 2003 at the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts. AFP PHOTO/John MOTTERN (Photo by JOHN MOTTERN / AFP) (Photo by JOHN MOTTERN/AFP via Getty Images)
Coles had a very brief tenure with the Celtics, playing just 14 games with the club that season, over which he averaged 3.7 points and 1.1 rebounds.
This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Celtics history: Swain, Smith drafted; Coles born