Source Image: Robert Lyle Bolton, 'Monument to Bill Russell', 2016, Via www.flickr.com/photos/robertlylebolton/27569425634
William Felton Russell, most commonly known as Bill Russell, was the first African American coach in NBA history. He was born in Monroe, Louisiana, USA in 1934. Initially, when he tried out for his basketball team in junior high, he was cut because he didn’t understand the game. As a freshman in high school, he was almost cut, but not quite. His coach at the time, George Powles encouraged him to work on his fundamentals. He ended up getting cut from the junior varsity basketball team as a junior in high school. But Powles gave him a spot on the varsity team and bought him a yearlong community centre membership. When he started getting recruited to go to college, he ended up ignoring a bunch of the recruiters until he talked to the recruiter from the University of San Francisco. This is, ultimately, where he ended up going to university.
When he started at the University of San Francisco in 1952, he averaged 20 points per game and made his varsity debut in December of 1953. His coach, Phil Woolpert, became the first coach of a major college basketball program to start three African American players in 1954. Russell played on the USF’s varsity team from 1953 to 1956. During his time at USF, and slightly after, the NCAA made two new rules. First, the lane was widened for his junior year and second, basket interference was now prohibited. Russell became one of several big men who have brought about an NCAA rule change.
Prior to starting his rookie season in the NBA, Bill ended up as the captain of the 1956 US Men’s Olympic basketball team, competing in the 1956 Summer Olympics. The US even earned a gold medal.
Now, his professional career in basketball for the NBA started in 1956 and only went until 1969, all with the Boston Celtics. However, during that time, he ended up acting as a coach, which is known as a player-coach. Bill started this role in 1966 and he did that until he left the Celtics in 1969. But he ended up winning quite a few NBA championships in that time. 11 to be exact and two of them were while he was a player-coach for the Celtics.
He also went on to coach the Seattle SuperSonics and the Sacramento Kings. Seattle from 1973 through 1977 and the Kings from 1987 to 1988.
Because of the time that he was playing, there was a lot of prejudice and racism involved and he had to endure it quite a lot. But he made history. He died in 2022, but he’s immortalized in Boston on the City Hall Plaza as a statue. Also, the Bill Russell Legacy Foundation was established by the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation. And I proceed to say again, he made history.