Dick Raphael, 68; captured iconic sports images

Perched courtside behind the net on his ever-present stool, Dick Raphael had the best seat in Boston Garden to shoot photos of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, the towering centers whose rivalry in the 1960s became legendary in NBA history.

"Being down on the court gave me a true feel for how big these players were, especially Wilt, who was 7-foot-1 and close to 300 pounds," Mr. Raphael said in a 2005 interview with the Celtic Nation website. "So it quickly struck me that these men were giants in a very literal sense."

Mr. Raphael, whose iconic photo of Boston Celtic great Russell deflecting a shot by Chamberlain was his personal favorite and an enduring image of professional basketball, died Saturday in the Marblehead house where he lived his entire life. He was 68 and had become ill Friday before collapsing at home the next evening.

"You can't exaggerate his status as a world-class photographer," said Bob Ryan, a Globe sports columnist who collaborated with Mr. Raphael on a book about the Celtics. The photographer's collection of prints and negatives, Ryan said, "has got to be the most valuable treasure trove of Boston sports photos ever taken."

Opening an exhibit in 2001 made up entirely of Mr. Raphael's photos, the Basketball Hall of Fame called him "the dean of Boston sports photographers and one of the premier photographers in the United States."

Mr. Raphael was among only a handful of professional photographers to capture images of every Super Bowl and was in Miami earlier this month for the 41st -- the first played in pouring rain.

"He joked on the way back -- we left at halftime because it was so wet -- that he's now been to 40 and a half Super Bowls," said his longtime friend, Alan Belinfante of Marblehead, Mr. Raphael's assistant for 11 of the title games.

Publishing his photos widely, including in the Globe and on covers for Sports Illustrated magazine, Mr. Raphael captured the professional lives of many Boston sports legends from the moment they stepped onto a basketball court, a football field, a baseball diamond, or a hockey rink, until their numbers were retired.

His lens was hardly confined to marquee sports, however. As he told the Globe in 1997, he had photographed "every sport you can think of, including lacrosse, field hockey, rugby, crew, soccer, Ping-Pong, squash, indoor and outdoor track and cross-country, sailing, golf, and others."

To get great photographs, he often said, a photographer must be a student of sports to develop a sense of where to stand at the key moment to get "the money shot." Also, he said, photographers should be straight-shooters in the literal and figurative sense.

"Be honest with people," Mr. Raphael said in the Celtic Nation interview with Michael D. McClellan. "Always tell the truth."

Richard Raphael grew up in Marblehead and was introduced to photography by his father, who had built a darkroom in their basement.

"He was more than a father, he was a mentor and a friend," Mr. Raphael told the Globe. "I'm doing what I'm doing -- and loving it -- because of him. He got me started, and I've been at it since."

His first professional publication came while he was in eighth grade. Shot with a Brownie Hawkeye, the photo from Marblehead Race Week ran in the Marblehead Messenger.

He graduated from Marblehead High School and Boston University, where he studied chemistry and began a long association with college sports, becoming photo editor at Boston University News. While working there, he went to the Celtics' public relations director and talked his way into shooting photos on a freelance basis, beginning a long association with the team, from the Russell era to the Larry Bird era.

For years he photographed every home game of the Boston Patriots, before the team became the New England Patriots. Weekends often were a blur.

"He would shoot Harvard football on Saturday afternoon," said Meralee Whitman, Mr. Raphael's companion of 31 years. "He would go back to his office and make proof sheets, drive over to Harvard and drop them off, then he would drive to my apartment in the North End, and I would make him dinner and make him watch 'The Love Boat.' Then on Sunday morning, he would get up, shower, shave, and leave to go shoot the Patriots."

"The Love Boat" aside, Mr. Raphael's TV hours were principally devoted to sports. For him, it was work and pleasure as he studied players to see how their movements telegraphed plays in advance so he would know where to position himself at games.

"He always seemed to be in the right place at the right time," Belinfante said. "You wouldn't even see him move. I'd turn around, and he'd be gone -- down at the other end zone and there for the best shot."

"He was a very lucky guy, because he did amazing things," Whitman said. "Photography was a hobby that became a vocation."

In addition to Whitman, Mr. Raphael leaves his brother, Michael of Windsor, Conn.

A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. today in Stanetsky-Hymanson Memorial Chapels in Salem. Burial will be in Shirat Hayam Cemetery in Peabody.