RIP Bill Russell

Swede was a little bit tall. My mom was attending OSC that year. She didn't go to that game because there were not enough student tickets.

My dad was at that game. Played on the osu frosh team for Bob Edwards in 54 or 55. 

A buddy who worked at a golf golf shop in Vegas years ago had the pleasure of having Russell and Julius Erving come in and look for golf clubs. They were doing what you would expect...busting each other's butts. Fun times lol

He was 7-3...osu had a second 7-0 named Phil Shadoin on that team too. 11,000 plus fans in Gill Coliseum that day when you could sit in the aisles. Osu missed a last second shot that would have given them the lead.

#1 San Francisco led #10 Oregon State 57-51 with 43 seconds left.  Russell scored 29 of San Francisco's 57 points.  Swede scored 14 points up until that.  Swede hit a hook shot off the glass with some English to pull within four.  San Francisco inbounded the ball, but Oregon State trapped the Don in the corner, and Bill Toole stole the ball.  They passed it around and found Swede for the second time with 13 seconds left.  San Francisco called a timeout.  On the subsequent inbounds play, the Dons were assessed a technical foul after K.C. Jones (who played with Russell for a decade with the Celtics) ran into Toole, which resulted in a free throw that Reggie Halligan (a 73% free throw shooter) hit to pull within one.  Ron Robbins missed the game winner from the corner, and the rebound ended in a jump ball between Jones and Swede.  Back then, there was no arrow.  Swede won the tip over Jones, but Russell was able to tip it away to a Don.  Oregon State stole the ball but missed the game winning layup just a hair after the clock hit all zeros.

Russell finished with 29 points and 16 rebounds, the Western Regional MVP.  

San Francisco beat Colorado by 12 in the Final Four, and beat La Salle by 14.  The Dons ended with a 26-game winning streak in 1954-55 and would win the next 34, a 60-game winning streak.  The only game within five points was the Elite Eight win over Oregon State in 1955.  It was especially impressive, because the Dons had defeated the Beaves by 26 earlier at the Cow Palace almost three months before.

It is before my time, so I don't know that I have to forgive anything.  Anyway.........

The picture is an optical illusion. Swede's arm isn't straightened out. Not the same reach.

Bill Russell was selected #2 overall in the 1956 draft by the St. Louis Hawks.  The Celtics traded two aging Hall of Famers in Cliff Hagan and Ed Macauley for Russell on draft day.

Swede Halbrook, the tallest basketball player ever, was great in 1954-55, but he skipped class so often that Slats Gill threatened to cut him from the 1955-56 team.  Gill and Valenti expected a commitment to attend class more often, but did not receive one.  It is unclear, if Halbrook just gave up or if Gill and Valenti cut Halbrook.  In either instance, the 1955 Elite Eight was Halbrook's final game for Oregon State.  Despite that, Halbrook was selected #28 overall in the 1956 draft by the Syracuse Nationals (who would become the Philadelphia 76ers in 1963).

Instead of playing for the Nationals, Halbrook decided to play for the Wichita Vickers, the AAU/NIBL team for Vickers Petroleum.  At the time, the NBA and AAU/NIBL were relatively comparable in pay and talent with the NBA eclipsing the AAU/NIBL as the repository for basketball talent in the years that followed.  The Vickers won the AAU/NIBL Championship in 1959, but Swede missed that entire year with a back injury.  Swede returned the next year.

In 1960, the Nationals finally signed Halbrook, who played every game for the Nationals.  In the process, Halbrook became the tallest player to ever play in the NBA.  No player that tall would play again until the 80s.  The Nationals crushed Wilt Chamberlain's Philadelphia Warriors in a three-game sweep.  Chamberlain later admitted being intimidated by Holbrook's size.  The Nationals went to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost in five games to Russell's Celtics.  The next year, he disappeared from the Nationals for a week before returning.  The Nationals did not play Swede the final 13 games, including all five games against the Warriors.  The Nationals cut Swede the following year.

Halbrook returned to Oregon to become the self-described "World's Tallest Clown."  Halbrook died alone on a city bus in Portland in 1988.  Despite being 7'3", it took 12 hours to identify Halbrook.

I can't tell what Swede's deal was.  From reading tea leaves, it appears hinted at that it was alcohol or drugs or something along those lines.  But it is never explicitly stated.

That 1955 season was Oregon State's best season between 1949 and 1962.  In fact, in the four years before Swede and the two years afterwards, 1949-1957, eight total years, Oregon State had a losing record every year without Swede, only posting two winning seasons with Swede.