
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993                   TAG: 9307160181
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ORGANIST FOR CELTICS, RED SOX AND BRUINS DIES

John Kiley, the organist who was the answer to the trivia question "Who's the only man to play for the Boston Celtics, Bruins, and Red Sox in one year?" died Thursday in Dover, N.H. He was 81.

"He is as traditional as lobster, the Boston Garden and Fenway Park in this city and this community," Bruins general manager Harry Sinden said.

Kiley was born in the Roxbury section of Boston, began taking piano lessons at age 6 and later attended the Boston Conservatory of Music. When he was 14, he left a silent movie theater and befriended an organist who played during the films. The organist eventually let Kiley join him.

"Which was a big thrill," Kiley recalled in an interview published six years ago in Gallery, a Red Sox publication. "I ended up going to the theater and watching the organist more than I watched the film."

He was organist for Boston radio station WMEX in 1934 and stayed there until 1956. He later became the Boston Garden organist and joined the Red Sox in 1958.

"I think rock is out of place at the games because if you listen to all the words, they're usually about someone who is very unhappy or somebody who is going to commit suicide," he once said. "So I stick to the old standards."

by CNB