(Updated Aug. 2, 2022)
In a feat that ranks as the St. Louis basketball equivalent of the World Series heroics performed by Cardinals such as Grover Cleveland Alexander, Enos Slaughter, Bob Gibson and David Freese, Bob Pettit lifted the Hawks onto his broad shoulders and carried them to a NBA championship.
On April 12, 1958, Pettit scored 50 points and grabbed 19 rebounds, leading the St. Louis Hawks to a 110-109 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. The triumph was the fourth for the Hawks in the best-of-seven series and gave the franchise its first and only NBA championship.
Pettit, a 6-foot-9 power forward in his fourth NBA season, scored 19 of the Hawks’ last 21 points in the championship clincher. His final basket made the difference in the outcome.
Hot ticket
Until the Hawks relocated from Milwaukee to St. Louis in 1955, the Cardinals were the only major-league professional sports franchise in town. There was no NHL team and no NFL team in St. Louis then, and the American League Browns had moved to Baltimore in 1954.
The Hawks reached the NBA Finals against the Celtics in 1957, but Boston won four of seven games. The same teams came back for a rematch in 1958.
The Hawks’ first three victories in the 1958 NBA Finals were by margins of two points (104-102 in Game 1), three points (111-108 in Game 3) and two points (102-100 in Game 5).
Game 6 was played at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis and drew 10,216. Police arrested scalpers who offered a $2.50 ticket for $5, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
The Hawks, coached by Alex Hannum, started a lineup of guards Slater Martin and Jack McMahon, forwards Pettit and Cliff Hagan, and center Ed Macauley, a St. Louis native who’d been a standout at St. Louis University.
The Celtics, coached by Red Auerbach, had guards Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman, forwards Frank Ramsey and Tom Heinsohn and second-year center Bill Russell.
Down to the wire
In what Harold Flachsbart of the Post-Dispatch described as a “tension-packed playoff battle,” the Hawks relied heavily on Pettit and Hagan (15 points, six rebounds), while the Celtics were led by Sharman (26 points), Heinsohn (23 points) and Cousy (15 points, nine assists).
Pettit, a former Louisiana State University standout, was “uncanny with jump shots, under-the-basket twisters and sometimes drove in for layups with his long legs covering lots of space in spurts of speed,” the Post-Dispatch reported.
Russell, who got into early foul trouble, was limited to 20 minutes of playing time, but he was in the game during the fourth quarter and assigned to guard Pettit.
According to the Post-Dispatch, Pettit “out-jumped, on numerous occasions, Boston’s great defensive star, Bill Russell, who played despite an ankle injury that hobbled him.”
The Hawks never trailed in the final five minutes of the game, but the Celtics got within a point three times in the last two minutes.
With 16 seconds remaining and the Hawks ahead by a point, Pettit tapped in a missed shot by Martin, giving St. Louis a 110-107 lead. Looking to avoid a foul, the Hawks let Sharman score an uncontested layup, narrowing the lead to one with nine seconds left, and Martin ran out the clock with a deft display of dribbling. Boxscore and video
One and done
When the buzzer sounded, ending the game, “the St. Louis players jumped into each other’s arms, received kisses from women spectators and back-pounding from male rooters,” the Post-Dispatch reported. Pettit was carried by teammates into the locker room, according to the Associated Press.
Pettit, who averaged 29.3 points and 17 rebounds a game in the series, said of the triumph, “It wasn’t me _ it was the team. I’m so happy to be with this group.”
(In 1998, on the 40th anniversary of the title, Macauley told Tom Wheatley of the Post-Dispatch, “Bob Pettit may have put on the greatest individual performance in the history of sports.” Pettit said, “It was a talented group, but it was a very, very closely knit group. It was a very unselfish ballclub.”)
The total playoff payout to the champion Hawks was $23,000, according to the Post-Dispatch. The players voted to divide the amount into 11 shares, or $2,289 per share. Hannum and nine players received full shares, and the other share was split between the trainer and two players who didn’t spend the entire season with the club.
The championship by the Hawks was the first in a major-league sport for a St. Louis team since 1946 when the Cardinals beat the Red Sox in the World Series.
St. Louis remained a NBA town until 1968, when the Hawks moved to Atlanta, but the franchise never won another NBA championship.
RetroSimba 
Is my recall correct that Ed McCauley and Cliff Hagen both came to the Hawks in the same trade, perhaps with the Celtics?
Macauley and Hagan for a rookjie center: Bill Russell.
Hah…thanks….did not remember the Russell piece.
Yes, the trade of Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan from the Celtics to the Hawks for Bill Russell occurred on April 30, 1956.
Short term, good for Hawks; long term, advantage Boston. I remember listening to that series on the radio, Was a big Pettit fan.
Thanks for the insights. Those radio broadcasts of Hawks games must have been fun to listen to and spark the imagination. I remember hearing the squeaking of the players’ sneakers on the hardwood during NBA radio broadcasts in the 1960s.
I can’t wait to read this Pettit article. I have not commented here for a couple of years and had to search around. All I could remember was “Simba”. Very glad to be back.
Nice read. The only thing new to me was that the Hawks came from Milwaukee. Pettit was a monster…unstoppable, and along with 76’ers Andrew Toney are the greatest forgotten B-Ball players of all time.
Thanks for reading and for providing your insights. Glad to have you return.
Glad to be back but I’m pretty bummed that we have another postponement at Wrigley. On Bill Russell and the Hawks: They drafted him and when asked to comment on why he didn’t want to play in St. Louis he cited racism. I have NEVER bought that excuse.
All Northern cities were racist back then, and Boston may have been the WORST. I think the ultra liberal Auerbach got to him with a snow job of epic proportions!
Imagine he and Petitt on the same team…it boggles the mind. There would still be a Hawks team in St. Louis today.
Thank you for reminding us of this. More people should know about them. When the left St. Louis, you could argue that only the Boston Celtics had a better team. I have always considered their departure to Atlanta, a black eye for St. Louis.
Thanks for commenting. Amazing to me that the Hawks haven’t won a NBA championship since 1958.