On this day in Boston Celtics history, former Boston Celtics big man Artis Gilmore was born in the small southern town of Chipley, Florida in 1949.
Gilmore led Jacksonville University to the NCAA title game against the University of California Los Angeles in 1970. He began his professional career in the American Basketball Association with the Kentucky Colonels. He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls with the first pick of the ABA dispersal draft in 1976, which was held after the ABA’s merger with the NBA spelled the end of multiple teams. The Colonels were one of them.
