Bill Russell, Hank Aaron and me

By Tami Kamin-Meyer

Former Boston Celtics great Bill Russell is a very tall man. When I interviewed him after he received the Anti-Defamation League’s Hank Aaron Diversity in Sports Award in Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 17, I stood on a chair so we could speak at eye level. His eye level.

Russell is known for many things. On the basketball court, he is famous for making defense part of a team’s offensive attack. He owns 11 NBA Championship rings, was selected to the NBA’s All-Star roster 12 times and voted the league’s Most Valuable Player five times when players still did the voting. He’s a college basketball champion as well as an Olympic Gold Medalist.

Still, Russell said that all his basketball accomplishments bear no resemblance on who he really is. “I am a man who also happened to play basketball. But I am not only a basketball player,” he said.

Bill Russell is also known for speaking his mind about race relations and equality. He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King. According to former New York Yankees pitcher Jim Bouton, the evening’s Master of Ceremonies, “Bill Russell was the first sports figure to actively support the Civil Rights Movement.” It’s no secret he once thought of Boston as one of the most racist cities in the country.

But that was then. Times have changed and Russell is clearly pleased about that.

Russell said he was thrilled to toss the ceremonial first pitch when the Boston Red Sox opened their 2005 season. Of Boston’s current mayor, Tom Manino, the basketball standout said, “He is my friend. And he wants to be the mayor for all of Boston.”

Said CBS Sports Analyst Clark Kellogg, whose 6’7” frame is two inches shorter than Russell’s, “I’ve looked up to Bill Russell for years. As a young African-American athlete, I honor him not only for what he accomplished in sport but that he’s also a difference maker.”

Randy Arndt, a Columbus lawyer active in social and Jewish issues, served on the event’s planning committee and attended the dinner. “It’s exciting for me to see Bill Russell in person. It’s incredible that he played alongside John Havlicek, an Ohio State basketball standout I followed throughout his great years here,” said Arndt.

The crowd of 370 attendees sat in rapt attention as Hank Aaron, major league baseball’s all-time homerun king, described his early years in the sport. He recalled that in the South in those early days, black players were not permitted to sleep in the same hotels as their white teammates. It was during one of those times when he slept on the outskirts of a town that he met and befriended Bill Russell.

“G-d intended us to be a family,” said Aaron.

Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker, last year’s recipient of the Hank Aaron award, spoke of the enormous impact Aaron and Russell made, not only in the world of sports, but in the world itself.

“I thank them for putting me in the position I am in today,” he said.

Baker also joked about Russell’s winning ways. Not content with leading his team to the 2002 National League West pennant and being named National League Manager of the Year in 1993, 1997 and 2000, Baker said, “I yearn to be like Bill and have someone get tired of me winning championships!”

 

Tami Kamin-Meyer is an Ohio attorney and writer.

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