SAN MATEO, Calif. – The West Coast Conference will celebrate the life and legacy of Bill Russell, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, during Conference men’s and women’s basketball games taking place during the first week of February as the WCC celebrates Bill Russell Recognition Week.
 
Student-athletes from all 20 men’s and women’s basketball programs will wear a shirt representing Russell’s famous No. 6 during pregame activities for conference contests on Feb. 2 and 4. A tribute video honoring Russell’s legacy, both on and off the court, will air prior to each game and the Conference will recognize Russell and Black History Month on its digital platforms and broadcasts.
 
Russell, who passed away on July 31, 2022, led the University of San Francisco to back-to-back NCAA Championships in 1955 and 1956. He was a two-time National Player of the Year, two-time consensus first-team All-American, the 1956 WCC Player of the Year and the 1955 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player. For his collegiate career, he averaged 20.7 points per game and 20.3 rebounds per game.
 
As a center for the NBA’s Boston Celtics, Russell was a five-time NBA Most Valuable Player and a 12-time NBA All-Star. He was an invaluable member of a Celtics’ dynasty that captured 11 NBA championships during his 13-year career. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1975. In 2006, he became one of the founding inductees in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame and was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2021, he was inducted, as a coach, into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
 
Russell’s impact was even greater off the court as he successfully used his platform to support social justice throughout his lifetime. In 1966, while still playing, Russell was named the Celtics’ head coach, becoming the first Black head coach of a professional sports franchise. Since 2010, the NBA Finals MVP award has been named in his honor. He was a 2010 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2017 was the inaugural recipient of the NBA Lifetime Achievement Award.
 
In August of 2020, the WCC announced the Russell Rule, a groundbreaking conference-wide diversity hiring commitment. With the adoption of the Russell Rule, the WCC became the first NCAA Division I conference to establish a diversity hiring commitment. The Russell Rule requires each member institution to include a member of a traditionally underrepresented community in the pool of final candidates for every athletic director, senior administrator, head coach and full-time assistant coach position in the athletic department. Since the adoption of the Russell Rule, more than half of the hires across the WCC were candidates from traditionally underrepresented communities.
 
Follow @WCChoops on Twitter and @WCCsports on Instagram, as well as wccsports.com, as the WCC celebrates Bill Russell Recognition Week.