Brown wanted advice on whom he should hire to replace Julian. He also wanted a photographer present to record the event and provide a publicity boost in the wake of the dispiriting announcement of Julian’s departure. McHugh called ten men: the Patriot-Ledger’s Roger Barry; Sam Brogna of the Record; Jack Conway, Jr., of the Boston-American; Joe Kelley of the Associated Press; Joe Looney of the Herald; and the radio reporters Leo Egan, Jack Malloy, Red Marston, Les Smith, and Dinny Whitmarsh.

It was, even by the standards of the time, a surprising invitation. Joe Looney, the Herald’s dapper basketball reporter, considered it practically unprecedented. But no one regarded it as a conflict of interest. Sportswriters had a much more openly collaborative attitude toward owners then. Both the reporters and the owners understood that they were in the business of manufacturing excitement for fans. Owners, eager for coverage of teams, often paid for the travel expenses of reporters and provided other favors that in a later day would be regarded as outrageously unethical. The reporters, for their part, naturally favored the hometown franchises and some actually moonlighted for the teams they covered. At the time, it was seen as simple reciprocity.

Brown told the reporters the session needed to be off the record since they would be discussing coaches still under contract to other teams. He then explained that he could not afford another losing season. The Celtics had now gone through two coaches in four years. Julian’s predecessor, John “Honey” Russell, had also been a college coach, at Seton Hall. Both Julian and Russell had been unable to duplicate their college success on the professional level, and Brown had no intention of making that mistake yet again. College coaches were ruled out. Nor could he afford to hire an untested coach who, like Julian, might prove not to have the stomach for the job. He needed to hire a coach with an established track record in the pros.

Some of the reporters suggested Art Spector, a Celtics player who’d been with the team since its formation four years earlier. But the problem with Spector was that, while he was a respected player, he had no coaching experience. Other reporters proposed Buddy Jeannette, a former coach of the Baltimore Bullets known for his colorful character. Roger Barry of the Patriot-Ledger suggested Red Auerbach. From his seat at the press table of the Garden, Barry was right next to the visitors’ bench, and he’d had a good opportunity to watch Auerbach in action when the Washington Capitols had come to Boston. During one game Barry had covered, the Capitols had come back from a twenty-point deficit to win. The other reporters recalled similar experiences watching Auerbach’s teams. The one thing about them, the reporters agreed, was that they never gave up.

The photograph of the meeting, captioned “Walter Brown and his Ten-Man Advisory Committee,” appeared in the Herald the following day. But before Brown could determine whether or not he should try to pursue Auerbach or look for another coach, an even more critical problem cropped up, one that threatened the very survival of the Celtics. The team was owned by the Garden-Arena Corporation, which Brown managed but did not control. The corporation’s directors had supported the decision to start the team four years ago, but in 1948, after two years of losses totaling $250,000, they had threatened to fold the team unless Brown could produce a “gimmick.” The gimmick Brown had produced had been Doggie Julian, whose Holy Cross teams had sold out the Garden several times. Now, with Julian gone and the Garden’s four-year losses reaching $460,000, the directors felt they could not keep throwing good money after bad. They had voted to fold the Celtics. Although the Celtics had not had a single winning season in their four-year existence, Brown was convinced the team would ultimately prove a financial success if it could only begin to win, and he decided to buy it himself from the Garden.