Beginnings William Felton Russell was born on February 12, 1934, to Charles, Sr. and Katie Russell in West Monroe, LA. His family moved to Oakland, CA, when Russell was a child and where he spent the remainder of his childhood and teenage years. Russell’s mother sud-
every court will display a shamrock- shaped logo with Russell’s #6 on the sideline near the scorer’s table. In 2011, President Barack Obama presented Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s high- est civilian honor. Russell joined Rev. Gardner C. Taylor (Alpha Omega 1939),
baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson. Russell failed to make the junior varsity basketball team as a freshman and was relegated to the bench as a sophomore. As he grew and matured physically, Russell gained more poise on the court, resulting in increased playing time as a senior.
“One of Bill Russell’s most extraordinary professional achievements was NBA players voting him the 1961-62 MVP, the same season Wilt Chamberlain, averaged 50 points per game, and Oscar Robertson’s averaging a triple-double (points, rebounds, and assists) per game for a season.”
The University of San Francisco Dons Not a highly recruited athlete out of high school, Russell accepted his only basketball scholarship offer from the University of San Francisco (USF). When Russell arrived at the tiny Je- suit institution across the bay, the San Francisco Dons program had not been successful in recent seasons. The pro- gram was labeled the “homeless Dons” since USF did not have a home arena; thus, the team practiced at a high school gymnasium and played home games in different venues in the city. The program’s on-court fortunes significantly improved with the arrival of Bill Russell combined with future Boston Celtics teammate, college room- mate, and Naismith Hall of Famer K.C. Jones. With Russell at cen-
Rev. Leon H. Sullivan (Tau 1940), and Arthur Ashe (Upsilon 1963) as the only Kappas to date bestowed the prestigious award. He also received two honorary degrees from Suffolk University and Harvard University.
denly died when he was 12, forcing his father to switch jobs to raise Russell and his older brother Charles, Jr. An awkward, lanky teenager, Rus- sell failed to make the basketball team in junior high school. He attended Oakland’s McClymonds High School, where he was a classmate of future
Achievements ♦ Two–Time NCAA Champion (1955 and 1956) ♦ 1956 Olympic Gold Medalist ♦ 11–time NBA Champion ♦ Five–time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) ♦ Second all–time in NBA in career rebounds (21,620) and rebounds per game (22.45) ♦ Undefeated (10-0) in NBA Playoff Game Sevens ♦ Three–time Sporting News MVP ♦ 1957–58 — First NBA Player to average 20 rebounds per game in a season ♦ 1963—NBA All-Star Game MVP ♦ 1966–67 — First African American named head coach of a team in a major professional sports league in the United States and the first to win an NBA championship one season later ♦ 1968 — Named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year ♦ 1970 — Named to the NBA 25th Anniversary All-Time Team ♦ 1975 — Inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame as a player and its first AfricanAmerican ♦ 1980 — Named to the NBA 35 th Anniversary All-Time Team. ♦ 1980 — Professional Basketball Writers Association voted Russell the greatest player in the history of the NBA ♦ 1999 — Ranked No. 18 on ESPN’s list of the greatest athletes of the 20 th century ♦ 2006 — One of the inaugural inductees into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame ♦ 2007 — Inducted into the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Hall of Fame ♦ 2008 — Received the American Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award ♦ 2009 — NBA named the MVP trophy of the NBA Finals named after Bill Russell ♦ 2017 — NBA Lifetime Achievement Award ♦ 2019 — ESPN awarded Russell the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, given annually to those who “stand up for their beliefs, no matter what the cost.” ♦ 2020 — Awarded the Mannie Jackson – Basketball’s Human Spirit Award for his decades-long commitment to social justice
ter and Jones at guard, the University of San Francisco Dons won 55 consecutive games and back-to-back championships in 1955 and
May 1956 issue of the Kappa Alpha Psi Journal.
1956. In 1955, Russell earned the NCAA tournament’s Most Out- standing Player Award. When the USF Dons defended its national championship by defeating the University of Iowa 83-71 in the 1956 NCAA Championship Game, the Dons became the first undefeated team in
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