By Garrin Marchetti in Andover/The Eagle-Tribune (TNS)


For nine seasons with the Boston Celtics, he was known as 'Jungle Jim', a hard-nosed player known to knock a few players around on the hardwood and whose toughness helped define the Celtics dynasty of the 1950s and 60s.
But for those who knew Jim Loscutoff well, the former Celtics enforcer was a genial and generous man off the court who would do anything to help a family member or friend.
"He was really a great guy who had a heart of gold," Joe Casey, a longtime friend of Loscutoff's, said yesterday. "He did a lot of good for a lot of people, including me."
Loscutoff, who won seven championships during his Celtics career, died on Tuesday at the age of 85 from complications of pneumonia and Parkinson's disease.
He was a longtime resident of Andover, and he still spent his summers in the town after retiring to Naples, Fla., for the winters with wife, Lynn, an artist and author whose work has been featured prominently in Gloucester.
He arrived in Boston as the third overall pick in the 1955 NBA draft from the University of Oregon.
Celtics head coach Red Auerbach was looking to add a "bruiser" to his team—a player who would add toughness on defense. The 6-foot-5 inch, 220-pound Loscutoff was just the man Auerbach was looking for.
Over the next nine seasons, Loscutoff averaged just 6.2 points per game and 5.9 rebounds, but instilled fear in opposing players with his aggressive style of play. He endeared himself to Celtics fans and served as an important player on seven championship teams from 1957 to 1964.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1985, Loscutoff defined his role on those early Celtics teams bluntly, saying if "somebody stood in my way, I'd knock them down".
"That's not the way I played in college, but in the pros it was different," Loscutoff said then. "I quickly got the reputation as a guy not to mess with."
When the Celtics approached him about retiring his number 18, Loscutoff declined the offer because he wanted future players to wear the number.
Instead, the Celtics put another one of Loscutoff's nicknames, "Loscy", on a banner and hoisted it into the rafters with the other retired numbers in the old Boston Garden in 1973.
The banner remains in the TD Garden today, as does the number 18, which was later worn by Hall-of-Fame center Dave Cowens.