WOBURN – New England is still buzzing over the Celtics 18th NBA title win. There are currently 17 green and white banners flying high in the TD Garden with plans to raise the 18th in the fall.
A Woburn company will be tasked with making it as New England Flag and Banner has been creating custom banners for more than 130 years. It has never been more exciting for company owner Ned Flynn. “It was fantastic after the game was over, I couldn’t go to bed I was wired,” said Flynn. “For us to be able to immortalize for them and for the fans their accomplishment is a great thing for us.”
Banner will be ready for opening night
They are one of the few companies in the country still making hand sewn banners and flags with 25 highly skilled employees who will soon be at work making number 18 for the Celtics to hang on opening night next season.
They do it for the pros and for colleges which are the championship banners they are working on right now. Flynn says it’s very labor intensive. “It’s really two banners sewn back-to-back, and each one of those banners takes roughly 22 hours to make,” he said.
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Celtics championship banners at TD Garden in Boston.
CBS Boston
Any fans watching the duck boat parade may see the team holding smaller replicas of the banner which Flynn drove to Boston himself on Tuesday right after the win. “We got to the Garden and the person working the gate said to me, ‘what are you doing here?’ and I said ‘look in the backseat.’ He goes, ‘yes sir we’ll let you right in,’” Flynn said.
The tradition with the Celtics started in 1957 with a call from Red Auerbach for a championship banner.
Lucky penny in every banner
Flynn doesn’t want to jinx it but hopes the wait won’t be too long for banner 19. That’s why they sew a lucky penny beneath the company name on every product, for good luck going forward.
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Celtics fans, like Lakisha Hicks, can’t wait to see it unfurled from the rafters. “I’m going to be in attendance. For me and my family we love to see the history we’re making right now,” she said after buying Celtics gear at the TD Garden pro shop.
“As fans you go through the journey with the team, everything is connected, and when they hang it, the fans get the satisfaction as well,” said fan Michael Gonda.
No more satisfaction than Ned Flynn and his employees who know every cut, every stitch that will make the banner hang proud.
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Beth Germano
Emmy award-winning Beth Germano is a general assignment reporter for WBZ-TV News. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Germano has been a New England-based reporter for more than 15 years. She joined WBZ-TV as a freelance reporter in 1996 after reporting for several local television stations including WCVB-TV, New England Cable News, Monitor Cable Channel, WLVI-TV, and WGBH-TV.
ALLSTON, MASS. (WHDH) – Boston police are searching for a gunman who opened fire in Allston Thursday and left one person hurt.
Police responded to a radio call for a person shot in the area of Brighton Avenue at approximately 6:46 p.m. When officers arrived, they said they found a male “juvenile” suffering from a gunshot wound. The victim’s age has not been released.
Boston police said the shooter fled the scene and remains at large. No arrests have been made.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Boston police.
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A State Police trooper who was allegedly found “slumped over” in his car at around 5 a.m. in the South End with an open container of High Noon vodka has been “relieved of duty.”
Mass State Police confirmed to the Herald Wednesday night that Trooper Donovan Preston, 31, arrested for alleged drunken driving in Boston this past weekend, “has been relieved of duty.” Preston’s base pay is listed as $80,213.
A Boston Police report states that police arrived at Herald Street on Saturday to see Preston “stopped in lane 2 of the road” with his brake lights on. The suspect was slumped over “with his eyes closed,” the report adds.
“The officer observed that the car was on and in drive. The officer observed an open container of alcohol (High Noon) in the cupholder,” according to the report. The BPD officer then knocked on the window “for approximately 10 seconds before the suspect lifted his head up.”
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Once he picked his head up, police said he appeared “confused and he looked around. The suspect’s vehicle began to roll to which the officer announced, ‘Boston Police. Open the Door.’ ”
Preston stopped on the three-lane, outbound road with his black BMW in the middle of two lanes.
A State Police spokesman said in an email: “Trooper Donovan Preston was relieved of duty and will be subject to a department discipline process.” All other comments were directed toward the police report.
That report, provided to the Herald Wednesday night, added that State Police were notified after Preston’s arrest.
The can of High Noon was logged into the evidence book.
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This latest OUI case comes as State Police Sgt. Scott Quigley is being investigated in an alleged drunken driving fatal crash in Woburn in 2023 that killed a disabled passenger in a van.
In the Quigley case, his blood alcohol level reportedly tested at a .114 at the hospital following the crash (the legal limit is .08). That detail came out in a wrongful death suit filed by the victim Angelo Schettino’s family.
‘Unless he’s s###-faced, I’m not worried’: Mass State Police dash cam catches aftermath of deadly cruiser crash [+video]
The smashed van at the Woburn crash scene. (MSP body camera video screengrab)
