Bill Russell is widely considered one of the greatest basketball players in NBA history, and a civil rights activist and icon awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

William Felton Russell was born in West Monroe, Louisiana in 1934. When he was eight, the family moved to Oakland, California, where they struggled with poverty. Russell’s mother suddenly died when he was 12, forcing his father to switch jobs in order to be closer to Bill and his siblings.

As Russell grew older, he developed a love for basketball. Despite leading his high school team to two state titles, he received only one college offer from the University of San Francisco, joining their basketball team in 1953 and leading the school to two national titles, with Russell winning the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player Award in 1955. Russell and his college teammates constantly dealt with racism in road games during his time in San Francisco. He captained the 1956 Gold medal winning US Summer Olympic Basketball team.

Russell joined the Boston Celtics after a bold trade by coach Red Auerbach in the 1956 NBA Draft. He became the centerpiece of the Celtics team that captured 11 titles in 13 years, with eight straight titles from 1959 to1966. He won 5 MVP Awards, was named an All-Star in 12 of his 13 seasons, led the league in rebounding four times, and tallied an impressive 21,620 rebounds in his career. In 1966, Auerbach retired and named Russell as his successor. He became the first African American head coach for a North American professional sports team, and the only person to win two championships as Player and Coach at the same time.

Bill Russell’s basketball awards are numerous. He founded the NBA Players Union and has The Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award named after him. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975 as a player, and a second time in 2021 as a Coach. He was one of the founding inductees into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006 and was enshrined in the International Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007. He was selected into the NBA 25^th, 35^th and 75th Anniversary Teams, and named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996. The NBA retired Russell's #6 jersey league-wide in 2022, making him the only player in NBA history to receive the honor.

As Russell led the Celtics to 11 titles, he dealt with racism in Boston and around the country. One of the more notable incidents came when fans broke into his home in Reading, painting racist graffiti on his walls and defecating on his bed. Russell’s direct experience with racism, from his youth through his professional career, led him to become a civil rights advocate. During a Celtics trip for an exhibition game in 1961, African American teammates were denied entry into a coffee shop in Lexington, KY; Russell led the protest to boycott the game. When civil-rights leader Medgar Evers was killed in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963, Russell traveled to Mississippi to run an integrated basketball camp. When Muhammad Ali refused to serve in the Vietnam War after being drafted, Russell and other prominent African American athletes stood with Ali at the 1967 Cleveland Summit, considered one of the most important civil rights acts in sports history. Russell was awarded the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1968 for being an athlete with a social conscience.

In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Russell the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, not just because of his on-court excellence, but also because of his work as a civil rights activist.

Bill Russell died in 2022 at the age of 88.

“For all the winning, Bill’s understanding of the struggle is what illuminated his life,” his family’s statement read. “From boycotting a 1961 exhibition game to unmask too-long-tolerated discrimination, to leading Mississippi’s first integrated basketball camp in the combustible wake of Medgar Evans’ assassination, to decades of activism ultimately recognized by his receipt of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, Bill called out injustice with an unforgiving candor that he intended would disrupt the status quo, and with a powerful example that, though never his humble intention, will forever inspire teamwork, selflessness and thoughtful change.”

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Russell

CBS Sports, “July Bill Russell dies at 88: A look at the Celtics legend's illustrious NBA career by the numbers”, July 31, 2022

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2022/07/31/bill-russell-dies-obituary-celtics/