The 1958 NBA World Championship Series pitted the Western Champion St. Louis Hawks against the Eastern Champion Boston Celtics. The Hawks won the series in six games to become NBA champions for the first and only time. After suffering a heartbreaking loss to the Celtics in Game 7 of the 1957 NBA Finals, St. Louis survived rough times in the 1957-58 NBA season and battled back to the NBA Finals to face the Celtics once more. The teams split the first two games and were tied 49-49 in Game 3 when the series' decisive play occurred. Boston center Bill Russell soared high to block a shot by Bob Pettit, landed heavily on his right ankle and collapsed in a heap on the floor with a severe sprain. He missed the next two games. Boston won just once more (Game 4) as the Hawks gained revenge with a six-game series victory that gave them their first and only NBA championship to date.
With a little more than 20 seconds to play, Pettit drove on Russell, stopped and arched a shot over the clawing grasp of the Celtic captain for the basket that gave the Hawks a 108-105 lead. But Tom Heinsohn made two foul shots with 16 second left to cut it to 108-107. With the Boston defense converging on Pettit, Slater Martin tried a set shot that missed, but Pettit somehow fought his way through the mob of Celtics around him to tap the ball in and make a final Celtic field goal meaningless. Pettit scored 50 points that day, including 18 of the Hawks' final 21 points, and gained sweet revenge from the Hawks' 1957 NBA Finals loss.
We are proud to offer the only game program we’ve ever seen from this NBA Finals championship battle, which was played on April 12, 1958. Appropriately enough, it features series hero Bob Pettit on the cover. We’d grade the program, which measures eight inches wide by 11” high, overall an EX-NRMT. It has some hand-written notes and scoring on page 3 which was an advertisement, there are no missing pages, the binding is tight, and a period April 12, 1958 stamp exists on the cover. The Hawks were known for date stamping their programs, regular season or otherwise. This program is incredibly rare.