Remembering the time Mississippi civil rights icon James Meredith coached vs. Bill Russell

Nick Suss, Mississippi Clarion Ledger
·2 min read
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Before he became one of the most accomplished and revered figures in NBA history, Bill Russell briefly crossed paths with Mississippi civil rights icon James Meredith.

Russell, who died Sunday at 88 years old, was the captain of the United States' 1956 Olympic basketball team before his rookie year with the Boston Celtics. Fresh off two All-American seasons, and national titles, at the University of San Francisco, Russell was poised for stardom.

At the same time, six years before he became the first Black student to enroll at Ole Miss, Meredith was serving as the commander of a squadron on an Air Force base in Peru, Indiana.

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As Meredith remembers the story, Russell and the Olympic basketball team came through Peru to train for the games in Melbourne, Australia.

"The Cold War was just heating up," Meredith remembers. "They were building a new fighter group. I was the third person assigned to the base. I was the commander of my squadron.

"The (1956) Olympics came up. Bill Russell and the others came up. He was a big man – he was the star. The (basketball team) stayed on the base and that’s where they did their practice. Most of the time they practiced with other teams, but we had a base team and I was the coach of the base team. I didn’t even know how to bounce a ball."

Meredith's interactions with Russell were brief. Meredith says he was closer with Russell's primary rival, Wilt Chamberlain; the two became close in the 1960s and '70s and Meredith says he frequented Chamberlain's nightclub.

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Still, even a basketball novice like Meredith was able to recognize Russell's greatness in the moment.

"That was my only real connection with Bill Russell," Meredith said. "I didn’t know nothing about basketball, but I was still the coach."

Contact Nick Suss at 601-408-2674 or nsuss@gannett.com. Follow @nicksuss on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: When Mississippi icon James Meredith coached against Bill Russell