Bob Cousy Pass officially dedicated near Holy Cross

As a Holy Cross and Celtics point guard, Bob Cousy could pass through traffic. Now, traffic will pass through the Bob Cousy Pass.

Gov. Maura Healey honored Cousy Friday by naming a section of the I-290 bridge over Southbridge Street adjacent to the Holy Cross campus the “Bob Cousy Pass.”

“I always wanted something connected to Holy Cross, a bridge or in this case it’s a pass,” Cousy told the Worcester Guardian this week. “My friend Maura Healey thought a pass would be better. I’ll take whatever they give me.”

Healey and Jonathan Gulliver, undersecretary of transportation and state highway administrator, joined Cousy at the Bob Cousy ’50 Court at the Hart Center for the dedication ceremony of the Bob Cousy Pass. Gulliver, a WPI graduate who lives in Lancaster, arranged for the posting of Bob Cousy Pass signs on both sides of I-290 and both sides of the underpass in front of the HC campus. A Bob Cousy Pass monument was also unveiled at the bottom of College Street, listing many of Cousy’s accomplishments.

Cousy, who will turn 98 on Aug. 8, said the honor and the name were both Healey’s ideas.

“She came up with that and I applauded her,” Cousy said. “It’s obviously appropriate.”

“He’s a point guard, right?” Healey said after the ceremony. “That’s what it’s all about when you’re a point guard, right? It’s the assists, it’s the passing. We had an overpass which was appropriately here in Worcester on the way to Holy Cross. So it just seemed to fit.”

Healey starred at point guard for Harvard and played professional basketball for two years in Austria before entering politics. So she knows how to pass as well.

“In my view, he’s the greatest point guard that ever lived or played the game,” Healey said. “He changed the game and even more than that he’s a greater human being.”

In honor of Cousy, Healey always wore No. 14, Cousy’s number with the Celtics. She started wearing it for her fourth-grade youth basketball team, which coincidentally was called, “Holy Cross,” and wore it through her time at Harvard.

Cousy is touched that Healey has visited him in his Worcester home several times ever since she sought his support during her first campaign for Attorney General in 2014.

Cousy said the Bob Cousy Pass would serve as a bridge for him to his alma mater. Cousy moved from Queens, N.Y., to Worcester 80 years ago to begin his freshman year at Holy Cross and he’s lived in the city ever since. He preferred the quieter life in Worcester to the commotion of Boston.

“The city itself I’ve always felt a closeness to,” he said.

Cousy helped HC win the NCAA championship in 1947 as a freshman and made All-America as a senior.

“I’m just very pleased,” he said of Friday’s honor, “that something eternally will be left behind connecting Bob Cousy and his family to Holy Cross. That’s certainly where it all began. My relationship with the Jesuits was a key part of my development.”

Cousy has always appreciated the education he received at HC on and off the court.

“It took me four years to make the Dean’s List so it must have been fairly tough,” he said.

Cousy later helped the Celtics win the first six of their 18 NBA championships and was named NBA Most Valuable Player after they won their first title in 1957. He led the league in assists for eight consecutive years.

He went on to coach Boston College for six years and the NBA’s Cincinnati Royals and Kansas City-Omaha Kings for four-plus seasons. Then he analyzed Celtics games on television for 34 years. 

The bridge is the latest of many honors Cousy has received. Last February, Holy Cross name the basketball court at the Hart Center after him. The logo “Bob Cousy ’50 Court” with Cousy’s signature was unveiled along each sideline. Cousy graduated from HC in 1950. 

Statues of him have been erected in front of the Hart Center and the DCU Center.

In 2019, President Donald Trump presented Cousy with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments on and off the court. The following year, the Holy Cross Magazine selected him as the top athlete in school history. 

The Bob Cousy Award is presented annually to the top point guard in men’s basketball and the Bob Cousy Trophy is awarded to the NBA’s Eastern Conference champion.

Asked what he thought of receiving all these honors, Cousy joked, “I think I’m pretty greedy. I think I should have called it off at some point.”

Turning serious, Cousy repeated a phrase he has uttered countless times, “I’m the luckiest SOB on the planet.”

Cousy has tried to remain humble despite all of his accolades.

“I’ve never made any demands,” he said. “I’ve never been a self promoter, I don’t think.”

Healey wheeled Cousy onto the Bob Cousy ’50 Court for the dedication ceremony and conducted a question and answer session with him. 

Cousy’s daughter Ticia Cousy and her husband Randy Brooks, who live with him, attended the ceremony along with his daughter Marie Cousy and her husband Bruce Brand, who flew in from Seattle. His wife of 63 years, Missie, passed away in 2013. Cousy thanked all of them for their love and support over the years.

Cousy credited his basketball success in part to playing the game when it started to become well liked in New York City and joining the NBA when it became popular. Of course, he had a lot to do with that rise in popularity. Cousy also credited his success to having large hands, long arms and superior peripheral vision. But he was also a great leader.

Cousy has been inducted to many halls of fame, including the HC Varsity Club Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. HC has retired his jersey No. 17 and the Celtics retired his No. 14.

Cousy also started the NBA players union in 1954.

Mayor Joseph Petty, City Manager Eric Batista and Tim Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, were among those on hand for the ceremony.

Healey announced during her third State of the Commonwealth address in January that she was working with the City of Worcester to name the 1-290 bridge over Southbridge Street adjacent to the HC campus the Bob Cousy Pass. That became a reality on Friday.

Last year, Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu renamed the North Washington Street Bridge as the William Felton ‘Bill’ Russell Bridge in honor of the Celtics legend and Cousy’s former teammate who passed away in 2022. The Russell bridge is located next to the TD Garden, home of the Celtics.

Cousy is fine with Healey honoring him in Worcester, a place he has called home for eight decades.

“People will be driving over the Bob Cousy Pass for years to come,” Healey said, “and whether they ever saw him play or not, whether they knew him or not, hopefully it inspires people to look up who Bob Cousy is and learn a little bit about a man who brought so much not just to the court, but off the court.”