01Bear said:

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When I first heard Bill Russell passed away, I expected there to be more discussion about his life on this board. Specifically, I thought SFCityBear would add some of his thoughts and recollections about Bill Russell (I was looking forward to reading them as I always enjoy his posts about pre-1980s basketball* as I learn so much from them).

*I came of age in the 1980-90s and learned basketball from watching the Showtime Lakers and listening to Chick Hearn analyze the game.

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SFCityBear said:

---

01Bear said:

---

When I first heard Bill Russell passed away, I expected there to be more discussion about his life on this board. Specifically, I thought SFCityBear would add some of his thoughts and recollections about Bill Russell (I was looking forward to reading them as I always enjoy his posts about pre-1980s basketball* as I learn so much from them).

*I came of age in the 1980-90s and learned basketball from watching the Showtime Lakers and listening to Chick Hearn analyze the game.

---

Thanks for your kind words. There is a great deal on the internet about Bill Russell, and he's written two autobiographies. I can only add what would be personal experiences of mine, growing up and learning to love and learn basketball myself in the same part of the country. Russell arrived in Oakland at the age of 8, so I assume he learned to play the game here. We must remember that in those days, the big stars for us were the college players. The NBA was still in its infancy, and far away, mostly on the Eastern seaboard, with a few teams in the Midwest. There were no NBA teams on the West Coast. There was no TV of NBA games, and very few college games were televised. So there were few great players around in the Bay Area to emulate. The NBA was really struggling financially, and very few Bay Area college players traveled East to play in the NBA, as the salaries were very low. Many of them went to play in the AAU, or entered military service, and played for one of the service teams. There was a local league for good players, with teams sponsored by Stewart Chevrolet and Rossi Florists, and others. Cal's great Andy Wolfe played for Stewart Chevrolet.

Bill Russell attended McClymonds high in Oakland, and played for coach George Powles. As a junior, Russell was a member of the JV team, and was cut from that team. As a senior, he was picked up as the 16th player on the 15-man varsity. He started a few games, but he graduated at mid-season. Without him, McClymonds went on to win the Tournament of Champions, and three of his teammates made the 5-man All-TOC team. Another teammate, Frank Robinson, who went on to become a Hall of Fame baseball player. So while Russell did not accomplish much in high school, he was at least able to start some games on a team with some of the best high school players in the Bay Area.

No colleges were interested in Russell, but USF did invite him to their campus for a visit. Russell wrote in one of his books that he came over to San Francisco by bus, and got lost, so he never found the school that day, and had to return home. When he did arrive at USF, he played on the freshman team, averaging 20 points per game.

USF did not have a gym. Home games were played in an old run-down gym on Page st. By the time Russell arrived, the city had built a new gym, Kezar Pavilion, with glass backboards and a floor that was mounted on springs, which allowed all players to jump a few inches higher than the usual gym floor. I played most of my high school games at Kezar. It was the only place where I could dunk a ball, and I did it in the very last game I played there as a senior.

Kezar was 3 blocks from our apartment. I never saw any games there, probably due to the cost of a ticket. My dad was no USF fan. He had played on the Cal Frosh team, so whatever money we had for tickets, he spent it on Cal games.

Phil Woolpert was Russell's coach at USF. Woolpert was Pete Newell's backcourt teammate at Loyola in LA. Russell and the black players on USF threatened to boycott the games unless Woolpert would give the black players more playing time, which he did. After graduating, Russell would have nothing to do with USF.

The first time I saw Russell play was on TV, a rare TV game, which was the "stall" game. A low point in Newell's career. But Cal had only one long range shooter, Larry Friend, so there was probably nothing else to do against the great USF team, which would go on to win its 2nd straight NCAA title.

In high school, I played one summer for the St Agnes Youth Center. It was an undersized gym, with no seating other than a built-in bench on both sidelines, so when you sat on it, your feet would be inside the boundary of the court. In the summers, there were great pickup games, where the best players from all over the Bay Area would come to play, Meschery, LaCour, Shelby Dirks, Gene Womack, LaRoy Doss, Abe Woodson and Gary Lewis of the 49ers, and KC Jones and Hal Perry of USF. One day, the director announced that the center would be closed for a week (or two, I don't remember), because Bill Russell, and KC Jones, both now big NBA stars playing for the Celtics, had reserved it for their basketball skills camp. The kids would pay $100 each. All of us kids were upset. This was a lower class to lower middle class neighborhood, and most of us kids didn't have two quarters to rub together. Where were we going to get $100, and where were we going to go to find a gym with good competition? These two big stars, with all their money - didn't they remember where they grew up, the poor kids they once were? So the white kids with the wealthy parents from all over town and beyond began showing up at our little gym, and we resented it. But we were kids, and soon forgot the offense. They were idols, these players. After I graduated high school, I got into a pickup game at St Agnes with that very same KC Jones. He had just been named starting point guard for the Celtics, and he realized he could do anything he wanted with me on the court, but he chose mostly to take it easy, and not embarrass me. A real gentleman.

Before the Philadelphia Warriors moved the franchise to the West Coast, they agreed to play an NBA league game at the Cow Palace in SF. It was the first time I saw Russell in a game in person. Russell had said in the newspaper before the game that Wilt was averaging 45 points and what he needed to do was hold Wilt to 41 or 42 points to give the Celtics a chance to win. He held him to 38, and even though Heinsohn scored 44 points, the Warriors won by 2 or 3 points. We sat in the 2nd row behind one basket, so we were about 12 feet away from the basket when the ball was at our end of the floor, so watching Russell guard a man much bigger, taller, stronger, and faster, was fascinating. Russell once said in an interview that he never played Wilt the same way twice. He had to try and play him differently every game, to try and keep him guessing or frustrated. Wilt once told Russell, "You were a better player than I was, because you made all your teammates better. My teammates all made me a better player."

Russell said that he studied all his opponents' shooting, especially where they usually missed (short, long, left, right) When he faced an opponent, he already knew that if he missed his shot, he would know exactly where the most likely missed shot would go, so he would be in the best position to rebound the miss. Maybe the smartest player who ever played.

I was visiting Boston a couple of years after I graduated, and doing some sightseeing. I was looking for the Boston Garden, when I saw Russell and KC Jones walking on the other side of the street. Russell was only 6-9 or 6-10, but he towered over the crowd.

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SFCityBear said:

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01Bear said:

---

SFCityBear said:

---

01Bear said:

---

When I first heard Bill Russell passed away, I expected there to be more discussion about his life on this board. Specifically, I thought SFCityBear would add some of his thoughts and recollections about Bill Russell (I was looking forward to reading them as I always enjoy his posts about pre-1980s basketball* as I learn so much from them).

*I came of age in the 1980-90s and learned basketball from watching the Showtime Lakers and listening to Chick Hearn analyze the game.

---

Thanks for your kind words. There is a great deal on the internet about Bill Russell, and he's written two autobiographies. I can only add what would be personal experiences of mine, growing up and learning to love and learn basketball myself in the same part of the country. Russell arrived in Oakland at the age of 8, so I assume he learned to play the game here. We must remember that in those days, the big stars for us were the college players. The NBA was still in its infancy, and far away, mostly on the Eastern seaboard, with a few teams in the Midwest. There were no NBA teams on the West Coast. There was no TV of NBA games, and very few college games were televised. So there were few great players around in the Bay Area to emulate. The NBA was really struggling financially, and very few Bay Area college players traveled East to play in the NBA, as the salaries were very low. Many of them went to play in the AAU, or entered military service, and played for one of the service teams. There was a local league for good players, with teams sponsored by Stewart Chevrolet and Rossi Florists, and others. Cal's great Andy Wolfe played for Stewart Chevrolet.

Bill Russell attended McClymonds high in Oakland, and played for coach George Powles. As a junior, Russell was a member of the JV team, and was cut from that team. As a senior, he was picked up as the 16th player on the 15-man varsity. He started a few games, but he graduated at mid-season. Without him, McClymonds went on to win the Tournament of Champions, and three of his teammates made the 5-man All-TOC team. Another teammate, Frank Robinson, who went on to become a Hall of Fame baseball player. So while Russell did not accomplish much in high school, he was at least able to start some games on a team with some of the best high school players in the Bay Area.

No colleges were interested in Russell, but USF did invite him to their campus for a visit. Russell wrote in one of his books that he came over to San Francisco by bus, and got lost, so he never found the school that day, and had to return home. When he did arrive at USF, he played on the freshman team, averaging 20 points per game.

USF did not have a gym. Home games were played in an old run-down gym on Page st. By the time Russell arrived, the city had built a new gym, Kezar Pavilion, with glass backboards and a floor that was mounted on springs, which allowed all players to jump a few inches higher than the usual gym floor. I played most of my high school games at Kezar. It was the only place where I could dunk a ball, and I did it in the very last game I played there as a senior.

Kezar was 3 blocks from our apartment. I never saw any games there, probably due to the cost of a ticket. My dad was no USF fan. He had played on the Cal Frosh team, so whatever money we had for tickets, he spent it on Cal games.

Phil Woolpert was Russell's coach at USF. Woolpert was Pete Newell's backcourt teammate at Loyola in LA. Russell and the black players on USF threatened to boycott the games unless Woolpert would give the black players more playing time, which he did. After graduating, Russell would have nothing to do with USF.

The first time I saw Russell play was on TV, a rare TV game, which was the "stall" game. A low point in Newell's career. But Cal had only one long range shooter, Larry Friend, so there was probably nothing else to do against the great USF team, which would go on to win its 2nd straight NCAA title.

In high school, I played one summer for the St Agnes Youth Center. It was an undersized gym, with no seating other than a built-in bench on both sidelines, so when you sat on it, your feet would be inside the boundary of the court. In the summers, there were great pickup games, where the best players from all over the Bay Area would come to play, Meschery, LaCour, Shelby Dirks, Gene Womack, LaRoy Doss, Abe Woodson and Gary Lewis of the 49ers, and KC Jones and Hal Perry of USF. One day, the director announced that the center would be closed for a week (or two, I don't remember), because Bill Russell, and KC Jones, both now big NBA stars playing for the Celtics, had reserved it for their basketball skills camp. The kids would pay $100 each. All of us kids were upset. This was a lower class to lower middle class neighborhood, and most of us kids didn't have two quarters to rub together. Where were we going to get $100, and where were we going to go to find a gym with good competition? These two big stars, with all their money - didn't they remember where they grew up, the poor kids they once were? So the white kids with the wealthy parents from all over town and beyond began showing up at our little gym, and we resented it. But we were kids, and soon forgot the offense. They were idols, these players. After I graduated high school, I got into a pickup game at St Agnes with that very same KC Jones. He had just been named starting point guard for the Celtics, and he realized he could do anything he wanted with me on the court, but he chose mostly to take it easy, and not embarrass me. A real gentleman.

Before the Philadelphia Warriors moved the franchise to the West Coast, they agreed to play an NBA league game at the Cow Palace in SF. It was the first time I saw Russell in a game in person. Russell had said in the newspaper before the game that Wilt was averaging 45 points and what he needed to do was hold Wilt to 41 or 42 points to give the Celtics a chance to win. He held him to 38, and even though Heinsohn scored 44 points, the Warriors won by 2 or 3 points. We sat in the 2nd row behind one basket, so we were about 12 feet away from the basket when the ball was at our end of the floor, so watching Russell guard a man much bigger, taller, stronger, and faster, was fascinating. Russell once said in an interview that he never played Wilt the same way twice. He had to try and play him differently every game, to try and keep him guessing or frustrated. Wilt once told Russell, "You were a better player than I was, because you made all your teammates better. My teammates all made me a better player."

Russell said that he studied all his opponents' shooting, especially where they usually missed (short, long, left, right) When he faced an opponent, he already knew that if he missed his shot, he would know exactly where the most likely missed shot would go, so he would be in the best position to rebound the miss. Maybe the smartest player who ever played.

I was visiting Boston a couple of years after I graduated, and doing some sightseeing. I was looking for the Boston Garden, when I saw Russell and KC Jones walking on the other side of the street. Russell was only 6-9 or 6-10, but he towered over the crowd.

---

Thanks for this, SFCB! It was pretty much exactly what I was hoping to read. It provides so much more context not just to basketball in that era, but also a very human touch with how you were personally affected. I very much enjoy reading your posts about Bay Area sports (especially basketball) from an era I never got to know.

---

You're welcome. A big thing to remember about Bill Russell is that he was the first player to play above the rim at both ends of the court. It completely changed the game of basketball.

---

SFCityBear said:

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01Bear said:

---

SFCityBear said:

---

01Bear said:

---

When I first heard Bill Russell passed away, I expected there to be more discussion about his life on this board. Specifically, I thought SFCityBear would add some of his thoughts and recollections about Bill Russell (I was looking forward to reading them as I always enjoy his posts about pre-1980s basketball* as I learn so much from them).

*I came of age in the 1980-90s and learned basketball from watching the Showtime Lakers and listening to Chick Hearn analyze the game.

---

Thanks for your kind words. There is a great deal on the internet about Bill Russell, and he's written two autobiographies. I can only add what would be personal experiences of mine, growing up and learning to love and learn basketball myself in the same part of the country. Russell arrived in Oakland at the age of 8, so I assume he learned to play the game here. We must remember that in those days, the big stars for us were the college players. The NBA was still in its infancy, and far away, mostly on the Eastern seaboard, with a few teams in the Midwest. There were no NBA teams on the West Coast. There was no TV of NBA games, and very few college games were televised. So there were few great players around in the Bay Area to emulate. The NBA was really struggling financially, and very few Bay Area college players traveled East to play in the NBA, as the salaries were very low. Many of them went to play in the AAU, or entered military service, and played for one of the service teams. There was a local league for good players, with teams sponsored by Stewart Chevrolet and Rossi Florists, and others. Cal's great Andy Wolfe played for Stewart Chevrolet.

Bill Russell attended McClymonds high in Oakland, and played for coach George Powles. As a junior, Russell was a member of the JV team, and was cut from that team. As a senior, he was picked up as the 16th player on the 15-man varsity. He started a few games, but he graduated at mid-season. Without him, McClymonds went on to win the Tournament of Champions, and three of his teammates made the 5-man All-TOC team. Another teammate, Frank Robinson, who went on to become a Hall of Fame baseball player. So while Russell did not accomplish much in high school, he was at least able to start some games on a team with some of the best high school players in the Bay Area.

No colleges were interested in Russell, but USF did invite him to their campus for a visit. Russell wrote in one of his books that he came over to San Francisco by bus, and got lost, so he never found the school that day, and had to return home. When he did arrive at USF, he played on the freshman team, averaging 20 points per game.

USF did not have a gym. Home games were played in an old run-down gym on Page st. By the time Russell arrived, the city had built a new gym, Kezar Pavilion, with glass backboards and a floor that was mounted on springs, which allowed all players to jump a few inches higher than the usual gym floor. I played most of my high school games at Kezar. It was the only place where I could dunk a ball, and I did it in the very last game I played there as a senior.

Kezar was 3 blocks from our apartment. I never saw any games there, probably due to the cost of a ticket. My dad was no USF fan. He had played on the Cal Frosh team, so whatever money we had for tickets, he spent it on Cal games.

Phil Woolpert was Russell's coach at USF. Woolpert was Pete Newell's backcourt teammate at Loyola in LA. Russell and the black players on USF threatened to boycott the games unless Woolpert would give the black players more playing time, which he did. After graduating, Russell would have nothing to do with USF.

The first time I saw Russell play was on TV, a rare TV game, which was the "stall" game. A low point in Newell's career. But Cal had only one long range shooter, Larry Friend, so there was probably nothing else to do against the great USF team, which would go on to win its 2nd straight NCAA title.

In high school, I played one summer for the St Agnes Youth Center. It was an undersized gym, with no seating other than a built-in bench on both sidelines, so when you sat on it, your feet would be inside the boundary of the court. In the summers, there were great pickup games, where the best players from all over the Bay Area would come to play, Meschery, LaCour, Shelby Dirks, Gene Womack, LaRoy Doss, Abe Woodson and Gary Lewis of the 49ers, and KC Jones and Hal Perry of USF. One day, the director announced that the center would be closed for a week (or two, I don't remember), because Bill Russell, and KC Jones, both now big NBA stars playing for the Celtics, had reserved it for their basketball skills camp. The kids would pay $100 each. All of us kids were upset. This was a lower class to lower middle class neighborhood, and most of us kids didn't have two quarters to rub together. Where were we going to get $100, and where were we going to go to find a gym with good competition? These two big stars, with all their money - didn't they remember where they grew up, the poor kids they once were? So the white kids with the wealthy parents from all over town and beyond began showing up at our little gym, and we resented it. But we were kids, and soon forgot the offense. They were idols, these players. After I graduated high school, I got into a pickup game at St Agnes with that very same KC Jones. He had just been named starting point guard for the Celtics, and he realized he could do anything he wanted with me on the court, but he chose mostly to take it easy, and not embarrass me. A real gentleman.

Before the Philadelphia Warriors moved the franchise to the West Coast, they agreed to play an NBA league game at the Cow Palace in SF. It was the first time I saw Russell in a game in person. Russell had said in the newspaper before the game that Wilt was averaging 45 points and what he needed to do was hold Wilt to 41 or 42 points to give the Celtics a chance to win. He held him to 38, and even though Heinsohn scored 44 points, the Warriors won by 2 or 3 points. We sat in the 2nd row behind one basket, so we were about 12 feet away from the basket when the ball was at our end of the floor, so watching Russell guard a man much bigger, taller, stronger, and faster, was fascinating. Russell once said in an interview that he never played Wilt the same way twice. He had to try and play him differently every game, to try and keep him guessing or frustrated. Wilt once told Russell, "You were a better player than I was, because you made all your teammates better. My teammates all made me a better player."

Russell said that he studied all his opponents' shooting, especially where they usually missed (short, long, left, right) When he faced an opponent, he already knew that if he missed his shot, he would know exactly where the most likely missed shot would go, so he would be in the best position to rebound the miss. Maybe the smartest player who ever played.

I was visiting Boston a couple of years after I graduated, and doing some sightseeing. I was looking for the Boston Garden, when I saw Russell and KC Jones walking on the other side of the street. Russell was only 6-9 or 6-10, but he towered over the crowd.

---

Thanks for this, SFCB! It was pretty much exactly what I was hoping to read. It provides so much more context not just to basketball in that era, but also a very human touch with how you were personally affected. I very much enjoy reading your posts about Bay Area sports (especially basketball) from an era I never got to know.

---

You're welcome. A big thing to remember about Bill Russell is that he was the first player to play above the rim at both ends of the court. It completely changed the game of basketball.

---

59bear said:

---

SFCityBear said:

---

01Bear said:

---

SFCityBear said:

---

01Bear said:

---

When I first heard Bill Russell passed away, I expected there to be more discussion about his life on this board. Specifically, I thought SFCityBear would add some of his thoughts and recollections about Bill Russell (I was looking forward to reading them as I always enjoy his posts about pre-1980s basketball* as I learn so much from them).

*I came of age in the 1980-90s and learned basketball from watching the Showtime Lakers and listening to Chick Hearn analyze the game.

---

Thanks for your kind words. There is a great deal on the internet about Bill Russell, and he's written two autobiographies. I can only add what would be personal experiences of mine, growing up and learning to love and learn basketball myself in the same part of the country. Russell arrived in Oakland at the age of 8, so I assume he learned to play the game here. We must remember that in those days, the big stars for us were the college players. The NBA was still in its infancy, and far away, mostly on the Eastern seaboard, with a few teams in the Midwest. There were no NBA teams on the West Coast. There was no TV of NBA games, and very few college games were televised. So there were few great players around in the Bay Area to emulate. The NBA was really struggling financially, and very few Bay Area college players traveled East to play in the NBA, as the salaries were very low. Many of them went to play in the AAU, or entered military service, and played for one of the service teams. There was a local league for good players, with teams sponsored by Stewart Chevrolet and Rossi Florists, and others. Cal's great Andy Wolfe played for Stewart Chevrolet.

Bill Russell attended McClymonds high in Oakland, and played for coach George Powles. As a junior, Russell was a member of the JV team, and was cut from that team. As a senior, he was picked up as the 16th player on the 15-man varsity. He started a few games, but he graduated at mid-season. Without him, McClymonds went on to win the Tournament of Champions, and three of his teammates made the 5-man All-TOC team. Another teammate, Frank Robinson, who went on to become a Hall of Fame baseball player. So while Russell did not accomplish much in high school, he was at least able to start some games on a team with some of the best high school players in the Bay Area.

No colleges were interested in Russell, but USF did invite him to their campus for a visit. Russell wrote in one of his books that he came over to San Francisco by bus, and got lost, so he never found the school that day, and had to return home. When he did arrive at USF, he played on the freshman team, averaging 20 points per game.

USF did not have a gym. Home games were played in an old run-down gym on Page st. By the time Russell arrived, the city had built a new gym, Kezar Pavilion, with glass backboards and a floor that was mounted on springs, which allowed all players to jump a few inches higher than the usual gym floor. I played most of my high school games at Kezar. It was the only place where I could dunk a ball, and I did it in the very last game I played there as a senior.

Kezar was 3 blocks from our apartment. I never saw any games there, probably due to the cost of a ticket. My dad was no USF fan. He had played on the Cal Frosh team, so whatever money we had for tickets, he spent it on Cal games.

Phil Woolpert was Russell's coach at USF. Woolpert was Pete Newell's backcourt teammate at Loyola in LA. Russell and the black players on USF threatened to boycott the games unless Woolpert would give the black players more playing time, which he did. After graduating, Russell would have nothing to do with USF.

The first time I saw Russell play was on TV, a rare TV game, which was the "stall" game. A low point in Newell's career. But Cal had only one long range shooter, Larry Friend, so there was probably nothing else to do against the great USF team, which would go on to win its 2nd straight NCAA title.

In high school, I played one summer for the St Agnes Youth Center. It was an undersized gym, with no seating other than a built-in bench on both sidelines, so when you sat on it, your feet would be inside the boundary of the court. In the summers, there were great pickup games, where the best players from all over the Bay Area would come to play, Meschery, LaCour, Shelby Dirks, Gene Womack, LaRoy Doss, Abe Woodson and Gary Lewis of the 49ers, and KC Jones and Hal Perry of USF. One day, the director announced that the center would be closed for a week (or two, I don't remember), because Bill Russell, and KC Jones, both now big NBA stars playing for the Celtics, had reserved it for their basketball skills camp. The kids would pay $100 each. All of us kids were upset. This was a lower class to lower middle class neighborhood, and most of us kids didn't have two quarters to rub together. Where were we going to get $100, and where were we going to go to find a gym with good competition? These two big stars, with all their money - didn't they remember where they grew up, the poor kids they once were? So the white kids with the wealthy parents from all over town and beyond began showing up at our little gym, and we resented it. But we were kids, and soon forgot the offense. They were idols, these players. After I graduated high school, I got into a pickup game at St Agnes with that very same KC Jones. He had just been named starting point guard for the Celtics, and he realized he could do anything he wanted with me on the court, but he chose mostly to take it easy, and not embarrass me. A real gentleman.

Before the Philadelphia Warriors moved the franchise to the West Coast, they agreed to play an NBA league game at the Cow Palace in SF. It was the first time I saw Russell in a game in person. Russell had said in the newspaper before the game that Wilt was averaging 45 points and what he needed to do was hold Wilt to 41 or 42 points to give the Celtics a chance to win. He held him to 38, and even though Heinsohn scored 44 points, the Warriors won by 2 or 3 points. We sat in the 2nd row behind one basket, so we were about 12 feet away from the basket when the ball was at our end of the floor, so watching Russell guard a man much bigger, taller, stronger, and faster, was fascinating. Russell once said in an interview that he never played Wilt the same way twice. He had to try and play him differently every game, to try and keep him guessing or frustrated. Wilt once told Russell, "You were a better player than I was, because you made all your teammates better. My teammates all made me a better player."

Russell said that he studied all his opponents' shooting, especially where they usually missed (short, long, left, right) When he faced an opponent, he already knew that if he missed his shot, he would know exactly where the most likely missed shot would go, so he would be in the best position to rebound the miss. Maybe the smartest player who ever played.

I was visiting Boston a couple of years after I graduated, and doing some sightseeing. I was looking for the Boston Garden, when I saw Russell and KC Jones walking on the other side of the street. Russell was only 6-9 or 6-10, but he towered over the crowd.

---

Thanks for this, SFCB! It was pretty much exactly what I was hoping to read. It provides so much more context not just to basketball in that era, but also a very human touch with how you were personally affected. I very much enjoy reading your posts about Bay Area sports (especially basketball) from an era I never got to know.

---

You're welcome. A big thing to remember about Bill Russell is that he was the first player to play above the rim at both ends of the court. It completely changed the game of basketball.

---

You might find some who would put Bob Kurland, from (then) Oklahoma A&M in the mid 1940s in this category.

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SFCityBear said:

---

59bear said:

---

SFCityBear said:

---

01Bear said:

---

SFCityBear said:

---

01Bear said:

---

When I first heard Bill Russell passed away, I expected there to be more discussion about his life on this board. Specifically, I thought SFCityBear would add some of his thoughts and recollections about Bill Russell (I was looking forward to reading them as I always enjoy his posts about pre-1980s basketball* as I learn so much from them).

*I came of age in the 1980-90s and learned basketball from watching the Showtime Lakers and listening to Chick Hearn analyze the game.

---

Thanks for your kind words. There is a great deal on the internet about Bill Russell, and he's written two autobiographies. I can only add what would be personal experiences of mine, growing up and learning to love and learn basketball myself in the same part of the country. Russell arrived in Oakland at the age of 8, so I assume he learned to play the game here. We must remember that in those days, the big stars for us were the college players. The NBA was still in its infancy, and far away, mostly on the Eastern seaboard, with a few teams in the Midwest. There were no NBA teams on the West Coast. There was no TV of NBA games, and very few college games were televised. So there were few great players around in the Bay Area to emulate. The NBA was really struggling financially, and very few Bay Area college players traveled East to play in the NBA, as the salaries were very low. Many of them went to play in the AAU, or entered military service, and played for one of the service teams. There was a local league for good players, with teams sponsored by Stewart Chevrolet and Rossi Florists, and others. Cal's great Andy Wolfe played for Stewart Chevrolet.

Bill Russell attended McClymonds high in Oakland, and played for coach George Powles. As a junior, Russell was a member of the JV team, and was cut from that team. As a senior, he was picked up as the 16th player on the 15-man varsity. He started a few games, but he graduated at mid-season. Without him, McClymonds went on to win the Tournament of Champions, and three of his teammates made the 5-man All-TOC team. Another teammate, Frank Robinson, who went on to become a Hall of Fame baseball player. So while Russell did not accomplish much in high school, he was at least able to start some games on a team with some of the best high school players in the Bay Area.

No colleges were interested in Russell, but USF did invite him to their campus for a visit. Russell wrote in one of his books that he came over to San Francisco by bus, and got lost, so he never found the school that day, and had to return home. When he did arrive at USF, he played on the freshman team, averaging 20 points per game.

USF did not have a gym. Home games were played in an old run-down gym on Page st. By the time Russell arrived, the city had built a new gym, Kezar Pavilion, with glass backboards and a floor that was mounted on springs, which allowed all players to jump a few inches higher than the usual gym floor. I played most of my high school games at Kezar. It was the only place where I could dunk a ball, and I did it in the very last game I played there as a senior.

Kezar was 3 blocks from our apartment. I never saw any games there, probably due to the cost of a ticket. My dad was no USF fan. He had played on the Cal Frosh team, so whatever money we had for tickets, he spent it on Cal games.

Phil Woolpert was Russell's coach at USF. Woolpert was Pete Newell's backcourt teammate at Loyola in LA. Russell and the black players on USF threatened to boycott the games unless Woolpert would give the black players more playing time, which he did. After graduating, Russell would have nothing to do with USF.

The first time I saw Russell play was on TV, a rare TV game, which was the "stall" game. A low point in Newell's career. But Cal had only one long range shooter, Larry Friend, so there was probably nothing else to do against the great USF team, which would go on to win its 2nd straight NCAA title.

In high school, I played one summer for the St Agnes Youth Center. It was an undersized gym, with no seating other than a built-in bench on both sidelines, so when you sat on it, your feet would be inside the boundary of the court. In the summers, there were great pickup games, where the best players from all over the Bay Area would come to play, Meschery, LaCour, Shelby Dirks, Gene Womack, LaRoy Doss, Abe Woodson and Gary Lewis of the 49ers, and KC Jones and Hal Perry of USF. One day, the director announced that the center would be closed for a week (or two, I don't remember), because Bill Russell, and KC Jones, both now big NBA stars playing for the Celtics, had reserved it for their basketball skills camp. The kids would pay $100 each. All of us kids were upset. This was a lower class to lower middle class neighborhood, and most of us kids didn't have two quarters to rub together. Where were we going to get $100, and where were we going to go to find a gym with good competition? These two big stars, with all their money - didn't they remember where they grew up, the poor kids they once were? So the white kids with the wealthy parents from all over town and beyond began showing up at our little gym, and we resented it. But we were kids, and soon forgot the offense. They were idols, these players. After I graduated high school, I got into a pickup game at St Agnes with that very same KC Jones. He had just been named starting point guard for the Celtics, and he realized he could do anything he wanted with me on the court, but he chose mostly to take it easy, and not embarrass me. A real gentleman.

Before the Philadelphia Warriors moved the franchise to the West Coast, they agreed to play an NBA league game at the Cow Palace in SF. It was the first time I saw Russell in a game in person. Russell had said in the newspaper before the game that Wilt was averaging 45 points and what he needed to do was hold Wilt to 41 or 42 points to give the Celtics a chance to win. He held him to 38, and even though Heinsohn scored 44 points, the Warriors won by 2 or 3 points. We sat in the 2nd row behind one basket, so we were about 12 feet away from the basket when the ball was at our end of the floor, so watching Russell guard a man much bigger, taller, stronger, and faster, was fascinating. Russell once said in an interview that he never played Wilt the same way twice. He had to try and play him differently every game, to try and keep him guessing or frustrated. Wilt once told Russell, "You were a better player than I was, because you made all your teammates better. My teammates all made me a better player."

Russell said that he studied all his opponents' shooting, especially where they usually missed (short, long, left, right) When he faced an opponent, he already knew that if he missed his shot, he would know exactly where the most likely missed shot would go, so he would be in the best position to rebound the miss. Maybe the smartest player who ever played.

I was visiting Boston a couple of years after I graduated, and doing some sightseeing. I was looking for the Boston Garden, when I saw Russell and KC Jones walking on the other side of the street. Russell was only 6-9 or 6-10, but he towered over the crowd.

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Thanks for this, SFCB! It was pretty much exactly what I was hoping to read. It provides so much more context not just to basketball in that era, but also a very human touch with how you were personally affected. I very much enjoy reading your posts about Bay Area sports (especially basketball) from an era I never got to know.

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You're welcome. A big thing to remember about Bill Russell is that he was the first player to play above the rim at both ends of the court. It completely changed the game of basketball.

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You might find some who would put Bob Kurland, from (then) Oklahoma A&M in the mid 1940s in this category.

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You're right. I remember reading about Kurland. There were a few other players in the 1940s who were dunking basketballs in games. However, Russell said that he (himself) was the first player to play above the rim, and I think he was referring not just to dunking, but playing above the rim both offensively and defensively. There was no goal tending rule. If Russell was near the basket, and a teammate would put up a shot, Russell would go above the rim and guide the shot into the basket. Small disputes surfaced as to whether the shooter or Russell should be credited with making the basket. After one season of Russell and his teammates scoring lots of points in this way, the NCAA came up with the rule against offensive goal tending. Russell was also goal tending by constantly going up and blocking shots which were inside the imaginary cylinder directly above the basket, and the NCAA had to make a rule about that to keep Russell from having an unfair advantage. Maybe it was all in the same rule. I don't remember. Even after the rule changes, Russell was always soaring above the rim on his own shots and dunking, and he'd be up there on opponent shots as well, blocking the ones which were not inside the cylinder, and careful to avoid the ones that were inside it, just to let the opponent know he was there ready to block any shot. He still was pretty much alone up there in the stratosphere, until Wilt came along. Now everybody plays above the rim, or tries to.

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SFCityBear said:

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01Bear said:

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When I first heard Bill Russell passed away, I expected there to be more discussion about his life on this board. Specifically, I thought SFCityBear would add some of his thoughts and recollections about Bill Russell (I was looking forward to reading them as I always enjoy his posts about pre-1980s basketball* as I learn so much from them).

*I came of age in the 1980-90s and learned basketball from watching the Showtime Lakers and listening to Chick Hearn analyze the game.

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Thanks for your kind words. There is a great deal on the internet about Bill Russell, and he's written two autobiographies. I can only add what would be personal experiences of mine, growing up and learning to love and learn basketball myself in the same part of the country. Russell arrived in Oakland at the age of 8, so I assume he learned to play the game here. We must remember that in those days, the big stars for us were the college players. The NBA was still in its infancy, and far away, mostly on the Eastern seaboard, with a few teams in the Midwest. There were no NBA teams on the West Coast. There was no TV of NBA games, and very few college games were televised. So there were few great players around in the Bay Area to emulate. The NBA was really struggling financially, and very few Bay Area college players traveled East to play in the NBA, as the salaries were very low. Many of them went to play in the AAU, or entered military service, and played for one of the service teams. There was a local league for good players, with teams sponsored by Stewart Chevrolet and Rossi Florists, and others. Cal's great Andy Wolfe played for Stewart Chevrolet.

Bill Russell attended McClymonds high in Oakland, and played for coach George Powles. As a junior, Russell was a member of the JV team, and was cut from that team. As a senior, he was picked up as the 16th player on the 15-man varsity. He started a few games, but he graduated at mid-season. Without him, McClymonds went on to win the Tournament of Champions, and three of his teammates made the 5-man All-TOC team. Another teammate, Frank Robinson, who went on to become a Hall of Fame baseball player. So while Russell did not accomplish much in high school, he was at least able to start some games on a team with some of the best high school players in the Bay Area.

No colleges were interested in Russell, but USF did invite him to their campus for a visit. Russell wrote in one of his books that he came over to San Francisco by bus, and got lost, so he never found the school that day, and had to return home. When he did arrive at USF, he played on the freshman team, averaging 20 points per game.

USF did not have a gym. Home games were played in an old run-down gym on Page st. By the time Russell arrived, the city had built a new gym, Kezar Pavilion, with glass backboards and a floor that was mounted on springs, which allowed all players to jump a few inches higher than the usual gym floor. I played most of my high school games at Kezar. It was the only place where I could dunk a ball, and I did it in the very last game I played there as a senior.

Kezar was 3 blocks from our apartment. I never saw any games there, probably due to the cost of a ticket. My dad was no USF fan. He had played on the Cal Frosh team, so whatever money we had for tickets, he spent it on Cal games.

Phil Woolpert was Russell's coach at USF. Woolpert was Pete Newell's backcourt teammate at Loyola in LA. Russell and the black players on USF threatened to boycott the games unless Woolpert would give the black players more playing time, which he did. After graduating, Russell would have nothing to do with USF.

The first time I saw Russell play was on TV, a rare TV game, which was the "stall" game. A low point in Newell's career. But Cal had only one long range shooter, Larry Friend, so there was probably nothing else to do against the great USF team, which would go on to win its 2nd straight NCAA title.

In high school, I played one summer for the St Agnes Youth Center. It was an undersized gym, with no seating other than a built-in bench on both sidelines, so when you sat on it, your feet would be inside the boundary of the court. In the summers, there were great pickup games, where the best players from all over the Bay Area would come to play, Meschery, LaCour, Shelby Dirks, Gene Womack, LaRoy Doss, Abe Woodson and Gary Lewis of the 49ers, and KC Jones and Hal Perry of USF. One day, the director announced that the center would be closed for a week (or two, I don't remember), because Bill Russell, and KC Jones, both now big NBA stars playing for the Celtics, had reserved it for their basketball skills camp. The kids would pay $100 each. All of us kids were upset. This was a lower class to lower middle class neighborhood, and most of us kids didn't have two quarters to rub together. Where were we going to get $100, and where were we going to go to find a gym with good competition? These two big stars, with all their money - didn't they remember where they grew up, the poor kids they once were? So the white kids with the wealthy parents from all over town and beyond began showing up at our little gym, and we resented it. But we were kids, and soon forgot the offense. They were idols, these players. After I graduated high school, I got into a pickup game at St Agnes with that very same KC Jones. He had just been named starting point guard for the Celtics, and he realized he could do anything he wanted with me on the court, but he chose mostly to take it easy, and not embarrass me. A real gentleman.

Before the Philadelphia Warriors moved the franchise to the West Coast, they agreed to play an NBA league game at the Cow Palace in SF. It was the first time I saw Russell in a game in person. Russell had said in the newspaper before the game that Wilt was averaging 45 points and what he needed to do was hold Wilt to 41 or 42 points to give the Celtics a chance to win. He held him to 38, and even though Heinsohn scored 44 points, the Warriors won by 2 or 3 points. We sat in the 2nd row behind one basket, so we were about 12 feet away from the basket when the ball was at our end of the floor, so watching Russell guard a man much bigger, taller, stronger, and faster, was fascinating. Russell once said in an interview that he never played Wilt the same way twice. He had to try and play him differently every game, to try and keep him guessing or frustrated. Wilt once told Russell, "You were a better player than I was, because you made all your teammates better. My teammates all made me a better player."

Russell said that he studied all his opponents' shooting, especially where they usually missed (short, long, left, right) When he faced an opponent, he already knew that if he missed his shot, he would know exactly where the most likely missed shot would go, so he would be in the best position to rebound the miss. Maybe the smartest player who ever played.

I was visiting Boston a couple of years after I graduated, and doing some sightseeing. I was looking for the Boston Garden, when I saw Russell and KC Jones walking on the other side of the street. Russell was only 6-9 or 6-10, but he towered over the crowd.

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59bear said:

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SFCityBear said:

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59bear said:

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SFCityBear said:

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01Bear said:

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SFCityBear said:

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01Bear said:

---

When I first heard Bill Russell passed away, I expected there to be more discussion about his life on this board. Specifically, I thought SFCityBear would add some of his thoughts and recollections about Bill Russell (I was looking forward to reading them as I always enjoy his posts about pre-1980s basketball* as I learn so much from them).

*I came of age in the 1980-90s and learned basketball from watching the Showtime Lakers and listening to Chick Hearn analyze the game.

---

Thanks for your kind words. There is a great deal on the internet about Bill Russell, and he's written two autobiographies. I can only add what would be personal experiences of mine, growing up and learning to love and learn basketball myself in the same part of the country. Russell arrived in Oakland at the age of 8, so I assume he learned to play the game here. We must remember that in those days, the big stars for us were the college players. The NBA was still in its infancy, and far away, mostly on the Eastern seaboard, with a few teams in the Midwest. There were no NBA teams on the West Coast. There was no TV of NBA games, and very few college games were televised. So there were few great players around in the Bay Area to emulate. The NBA was really struggling financially, and very few Bay Area college players traveled East to play in the NBA, as the salaries were very low. Many of them went to play in the AAU, or entered military service, and played for one of the service teams. There was a local league for good players, with teams sponsored by Stewart Chevrolet and Rossi Florists, and others. Cal's great Andy Wolfe played for Stewart Chevrolet.

Bill Russell attended McClymonds high in Oakland, and played for coach George Powles. As a junior, Russell was a member of the JV team, and was cut from that team. As a senior, he was picked up as the 16th player on the 15-man varsity. He started a few games, but he graduated at mid-season. Without him, McClymonds went on to win the Tournament of Champions, and three of his teammates made the 5-man All-TOC team. Another teammate, Frank Robinson, who went on to become a Hall of Fame baseball player. So while Russell did not accomplish much in high school, he was at least able to start some games on a team with some of the best high school players in the Bay Area.

No colleges were interested in Russell, but USF did invite him to their campus for a visit. Russell wrote in one of his books that he came over to San Francisco by bus, and got lost, so he never found the school that day, and had to return home. When he did arrive at USF, he played on the freshman team, averaging 20 points per game.

USF did not have a gym. Home games were played in an old run-down gym on Page st. By the time Russell arrived, the city had built a new gym, Kezar Pavilion, with glass backboards and a floor that was mounted on springs, which allowed all players to jump a few inches higher than the usual gym floor. I played most of my high school games at Kezar. It was the only place where I could dunk a ball, and I did it in the very last game I played there as a senior.

Kezar was 3 blocks from our apartment. I never saw any games there, probably due to the cost of a ticket. My dad was no USF fan. He had played on the Cal Frosh team, so whatever money we had for tickets, he spent it on Cal games.

Phil Woolpert was Russell's coach at USF. Woolpert was Pete Newell's backcourt teammate at Loyola in LA. Russell and the black players on USF threatened to boycott the games unless Woolpert would give the black players more playing time, which he did. After graduating, Russell would have nothing to do with USF.

The first time I saw Russell play was on TV, a rare TV game, which was the "stall" game. A low point in Newell's career. But Cal had only one long range shooter, Larry Friend, so there was probably nothing else to do against the great USF team, which would go on to win its 2nd straight NCAA title.

In high school, I played one summer for the St Agnes Youth Center. It was an undersized gym, with no seating other than a built-in bench on both sidelines, so when you sat on it, your feet would be inside the boundary of the court. In the summers, there were great pickup games, where the best players from all over the Bay Area would come to play, Meschery, LaCour, Shelby Dirks, Gene Womack, LaRoy Doss, Abe Woodson and Gary Lewis of the 49ers, and KC Jones and Hal Perry of USF. One day, the director announced that the center would be closed for a week (or two, I don't remember), because Bill Russell, and KC Jones, both now big NBA stars playing for the Celtics, had reserved it for their basketball skills camp. The kids would pay $100 each. All of us kids were upset. This was a lower class to lower middle class neighborhood, and most of us kids didn't have two quarters to rub together. Where were we going to get $100, and where were we going to go to find a gym with good competition? These two big stars, with all their money - didn't they remember where they grew up, the poor kids they once were? So the white kids with the wealthy parents from all over town and beyond began showing up at our little gym, and we resented it. But we were kids, and soon forgot the offense. They were idols, these players. After I graduated high school, I got into a pickup game at St Agnes with that very same KC Jones. He had just been named starting point guard for the Celtics, and he realized he could do anything he wanted with me on the court, but he chose mostly to take it easy, and not embarrass me. A real gentleman.

Before the Philadelphia Warriors moved the franchise to the West Coast, they agreed to play an NBA league game at the Cow Palace in SF. It was the first time I saw Russell in a game in person. Russell had said in the newspaper before the game that Wilt was averaging 45 points and what he needed to do was hold Wilt to 41 or 42 points to give the Celtics a chance to win. He held him to 38, and even though Heinsohn scored 44 points, the Warriors won by 2 or 3 points. We sat in the 2nd row behind one basket, so we were about 12 feet away from the basket when the ball was at our end of the floor, so watching Russell guard a man much bigger, taller, stronger, and faster, was fascinating. Russell once said in an interview that he never played Wilt the same way twice. He had to try and play him differently every game, to try and keep him guessing or frustrated. Wilt once told Russell, "You were a better player than I was, because you made all your teammates better. My teammates all made me a better player."

Russell said that he studied all his opponents' shooting, especially where they usually missed (short, long, left, right) When he faced an opponent, he already knew that if he missed his shot, he would know exactly where the most likely missed shot would go, so he would be in the best position to rebound the miss. Maybe the smartest player who ever played.

I was visiting Boston a couple of years after I graduated, and doing some sightseeing. I was looking for the Boston Garden, when I saw Russell and KC Jones walking on the other side of the street. Russell was only 6-9 or 6-10, but he towered over the crowd.

---

Thanks for this, SFCB! It was pretty much exactly what I was hoping to read. It provides so much more context not just to basketball in that era, but also a very human touch with how you were personally affected. I very much enjoy reading your posts about Bay Area sports (especially basketball) from an era I never got to know.

---

You're welcome. A big thing to remember about Bill Russell is that he was the first player to play above the rim at both ends of the court. It completely changed the game of basketball.

---

You might find some who would put Bob Kurland, from (then) Oklahoma A&M in the mid 1940s in this category.

---

You're right. I remember reading about Kurland. There were a few other players in the 1940s who were dunking basketballs in games. However, Russell said that he (himself) was the first player to play above the rim, and I think he was referring not just to dunking, but playing above the rim both offensively and defensively. There was no goal tending rule. If Russell was near the basket, and a teammate would put up a shot, Russell would go above the rim and guide the shot into the basket. Small disputes surfaced as to whether the shooter or Russell should be credited with making the basket. After one season of Russell and his teammates scoring lots of points in this way, the NCAA came up with the rule against offensive goal tending. Russell was also goal tending by constantly going up and blocking shots which were inside the imaginary cylinder directly above the basket, and the NCAA had to make a rule about that to keep Russell from having an unfair advantage. Maybe it was all in the same rule. I don't remember. Even after the rule changes, Russell was always soaring above the rim on his own shots and dunking, and he'd be up there on opponent shots as well, blocking the ones which were not inside the cylinder, and careful to avoid the ones that were inside it, just to let the opponent know he was there ready to block any shot. He still was pretty much alone up there in the stratosphere, until Wilt came along. Now everybody plays above the rim, or tries to.

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Although Russell ws largely responsible for the offensive goaltending rule, I'm pretty the defensive version of the rule came in before Russell, purportedly in response to Kurland's proficiency at swatting away shots (see wikipedia article on Kurland). Kurland had a very dominant career in his own right with 2 NCAA titles, 2 Olympic gold medals and 3 AAU titles. He never played in the NBA or any of its forerunners.

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