Bill Russell: The Shot Blocker Who Forced New Rules and Won 11 Titles

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Bill Russell grew up in West Monroe, Louisiana, in the 1930s and 1940s, where a gas station attendant threatened his father with a shotgun for trying to leave without being served, and a police officer ordered his mother home to remove a dress he deemed fit only for white women. When Bill was eight the family moved to Oakland, California, in the Second Great Migration. His mother died when he was 12, and his father quit trucking for steel mill work so he could be home every day. Cut from his junior high team, Russell was nearly cut again in high school until coach George Powles paid for his community center membership. He practiced defensive footwork in front of a mirror and studied opponents' tendencies. His only scholarship offer came through scout Hal DeJulio for the University of San Francisco, where coach Phil Woolpert started three Black players at once. USF won 55 straight games and the 1955 and 1956 NCAA titles, and the NCAA widened the lane and added goaltending rules in response to his shot blocking.

After a regional player of the year award went to a white center, Russell decided the final score was the only fair measure. He captained the U.S. to gold at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and turned down the Harlem Globetrotters. Red Auerbach's Boston Celtics landed him after owner Walter Brown reportedly offered the Rochester Royals bookings of the Ice Capades. Russell won 11 championships in 13 seasons and five MVP awards, then became the first Black head coach in major North American pro sports, winning two titles as player-coach. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, and after his death in 2022 the NBA retired number six league-wide.

• He threw up before big games so reliably that teammates were relieved to hear it.
• The USF team slept in a vacant dorm together in Oklahoma City after hotels refused the Black players.
• Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein addressed his pitch only to Russell's college coach.
• In 1961 Russell and his Black teammates boycotted an exhibition game in Kentucky after a restaurant refused them service.
• He kept his championship rings in a drawer rather than wearing them.