The Dandy Dons: Bill Russell, K. C. Jones, Phil Woolpert, and One of College Basketball's Greatest and Most Innovative Teams

18. The Aftermath

“Find a way to get this guy, because he can play against anybody in the nba and come out a winner.” —Don Barksdale to Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach Phil Woolpert had hoped the Dons as a team would represent the United States in the 1956 Olympic games, but it was not to be. Olympic rules had been changed to prohibit the ncaa championship team from competing in the qualifying tournament. Rather, fourteen seniors were to be picked from various colleges to play against the aau champion. Players would be selected from the two teams. The selection process angered Woolpert. “This gives the colleges very little chance,” he said. “I’d match usf as a unit against any amateur outfit in the country, but putting fourteen strangers under a new coach for a couple of weeks and then sending them against an aau team is something of a penalty.” EIGHTEEN The Aftermath 182 The Aftermath Woolpert’s former college teammate Pete Newell said that the Dons could probably beat any aau team. “It doesn’t make any sense to me that only two members of the current usf team should get a chance to make the Olympic squad,” he said. “If the ncaa picks an All-Star squad for its team in the playoffs, why doesn’t the aau do the same thing? You can bet the aau won’t go for a plan like that.” Santa Clara coach Bob Feerick noted that the “top colleges always are just as good as the top aau clubs.” But the college All-Stars lost. Only Russell and Jones from the usf team were invited, and officials selected both of them for the Olympic team. Woolpert was so angry over the rule change that he turned down an offer to coach the Olympic team. The 1956 U.S. Olympic team, with Russell and Jones leading the way in Melbourne, Australia, walked all over its opponents while averaging nearly 100 points a game in eight games. Their closest game was a 35-point victory over the Soviet Union. Russell was the leading scorer, averaging 14 points over eight games. He picked up only five fouls in those eight games. Four players averaged double figures, including Jones with almost 11 points a game. The world had never seen anything like Russell. In a game against Bulgaria, Russell put in one of his “steer” shots. “No goal,” an astonished referee from Singapore ruled. Only some fast-talking from U.S. coach Gerald Tucker got the goal allowed as perfectly legal. In the mid-1990s, K. C. Jones was strolling down a street in Seoul, South Korea, when a man who had played against the 1956 Olympic team recognized him. “He recalled the game against the United States and said he never played another game after he played us,” Jones said. Jones asked him why not. “Because every shot I took, Bill Russell blocked.” Jones replied, “You shouldn’t really feel bad about that, because that’s what he did in the United States, same as the Olympics.” The Aftermath 183 Russell said that when he received his gold medal, his thoughts returned to his freshman year in college when “I was told I could go to the Olympics. I thought then, ‘People like me don’t go to the Olympics. There are millions of basketball players out there.’ Being there was an honor.” Even so, Russell fumed about the segregated housing for black athletes. Woolpert also helped Russell with his efforts to turn pro. Along with the Olympics and marriage to his longtime girlfriend, Rose Swisher, Russell’s thoughts turned to playing professional basketball . Before he left for the Olympics he entertained an offer to sign with the Harlem Globetrotters, although he and Jones preferred to play in the nba. “But you’ve got to think about the money,” Jones said. “I’ve been Russell’s roommate for three years. He’s a natural born funnyman. As well as I know him, I’ve got to laugh a hundred times a day. Best part of it he knows he’s funny and enjoys it. If one of those clown teams offers him a passel of jack, I wouldn’t be surprised” to see him take it. Globetrotters’ owner Abe Saperstein threw around figures as high as $50,000 in the newspapers, claiming he was going to offer that much to Russell to...