“The notion of being able to create a business and make money off of it with all the fixed costs in just 45 days was nuts,” Chisholm said.
Chisholm said the venture generated a small profit.
• When the Grousbeck family announced its intentions to sell the team, it said Wyc Grousbeck would remain lead governor until the final 49 percent of the deal closed in 2028. But multiple league sources said the family’s patriarch, Irv Grousbeck, made it clear to bidders that keeping Wyc in that role was not a requirement.
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Chisholm was prepared to go along with the arrangement when he agreed to buy the team anyway. But extra fundraising eventually pushed Grousbeck’s stake below the 15 percent required to be lead governor, so Chisholm assumed that role immediately.
“There’s a clear ‘the buck stops here,’ with me,” Chisholm said, “but we’ve got a great partnership.”
• On Dec. 3, 1986, the Celtics became a public company when 40 percent of the team was sold as a limited partnership to raise funds for the ownership group led by Don Gaston.
Lincoln native Bruce Beal Jr. was a student at Concord Academy then, and he later used money he earned while landscaping to purchase shares of his favorite team.
“You didn’t have the internet, so I’d look up [the price] in the paper every day, and the stock never really moved,” Beal said.
Beal, a part-owner of the Miami Dolphins, said he once had a chance to invest in an NBA team but declined because he would then have to root against the Celtics. The real estate mogul attended Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals, and less than a month later he learned that the Celtics were for sale. When Chisholm reached out about joining his investment group, Beal could not pass up the chance.
• Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said Chisholm expressed in initial meetings that he did not plan to disturb the successful front office if he became lead governor, and Stevens has been pleased to see him stick to his word.
“One of the things that stood out to me when I met him was he can get to simple really fast,” Stevens said. “He can take complex things and get to a simple, ‘OK, what do we need to do to get to a solution quickly?’ He’s very thoughtful.”
• For the past three springs, Chisholm has spent several weeks hiking sections of the Appalachian Trail alone. So, how does he pick up where he left off? He said he tries to stop somewhere at least within range of an airport. Then he flies back the following spring and takes an Uber to his spot from the previous year. One confused driver told him he was going to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere.
“I said, ‘I know, that’s the point,’” Chisholm said, smiling.
• Several of those close to Chisholm mentioned his quiet competitiveness on a basketball court. At Brooks School, he would stay at practice late into the night working on free throws. At Dartmouth, he led one-on-one games at the hoop outside the university president’s home.
The night before Bill and Kimberly’s wedding rehearsal dinner in 1996, the couple held a basketball game on the tennis court at the Atherton, Calif., home of Kimberly’s parents. Guests were given East and West jerseys based on their hometowns, and everyone feasted on Kentucky Fried Chicken at the postgame meal.
As Chisholm got older and his joints began to creak, he played pickup basketball as long as he could.
“That would be just a disaster,” Kimberly Chisholm said, chuckling. “… One time he sprained his ankle so badly he said he had to crawl to the car. He did not have to crawl.”
• Chisholm’s niece, Caroline, is a freshman at Boston College, where she plays for the field hockey and lacrosse teams. Her sister, Margo, is expected to join her on the Eagles lacrosse team next year.
• Celtics president Rich Gotham said most prospective bidders brought teams of bankers and advisors to their initial meetings with Boston’s front office. It stood out to him that Chisholm mostly acted alone.
“I felt like he was taking a thoughtful approach to it, not outsourcing it to someone else saying, ‘You go do the due diligence and come back and tell me if the team is worth $6 billion,’” Gotham said. “I think that differentiated him. He was the person we were talking to and dealing with directly on all this stuff, so that was a good sign. He wasn’t just buying another asset.”
• Count longtime Celtics minority owner Robert Hale among those who was unfamiliar with Chisholm when his name surfaced as a likely buyer last spring.
“I grew up in Northampton, so as a kid in Northampton you’d think the owner of the Boston Celtics is going to be a household name,” Hale said. “And the idea that it wasn’t, it was a little bit like, ‘Who is this?’ But the more I got to know him, the more I thought he’d become a great steward.”
Hale upped his investment considerably after spending time with Chisholm and is now the third-largest individual stakeholder.
• Chisholm’s former Dartmouth soccer teammate, Richie Graham, is co-owner of Major League Soccer’s Philadelphia Union. He is confident that his friend’s passion will serve the Celtics well.
“I think it’s really important in a place like Boston or Philadelphia, that authentic connection to the city,” Graham said. “There’s more and more private equity coming into pro sports that’s disconnected, and they’re looking at it purely as an investment, and that won’t be him. He actually cares. He’s been wearing Celtics shirts forever.”
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.