The Boston Celtics have had players suiting up in a total of 68 different jersey numbers (and have three others not part of any numerical series) since their founding at the dawn of the Basketball Association of America (BAA -- the league that would become today's NBA), worn by well over 500 players in the course of Celtics history. To commemorate the players who wore those numbers, Celtics Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team.

With 25 of those jerseys now retired to honor some of the greatest Celtics to wear those jerseys, there is a lot of history to cover. And for today's article, we will start with the seventh player of 31 to wear jersey No. 4. That player would be Boston big man alum Clyde Lovellette.

Lovellette played collegiately for the University of Kansas, and was picked up by Boston's rival Minneapolis (now, Los Angeles) Lakers with the 10th overall selection of the 1952 NBA draft. The Petersburg, Indiana, native would play for that team, the (then) Cincinnati Royals (now, Sacramento Kings), and the (then) St. Louis (now, Atlanta) Hawks before the latter club dealt him to Boston for cash and draft assets.

The former Jayhawk would play the final two seasons of his NBA career with the Celtics, wearing No. 4 for his first season in green and white (he would switch to 34 in the 1963-64 season).

Lovellette would win two of his three titles in a reserve role with Boston, and averaged 6.6 points, and 2.9 rebounds per game with the Celtics.