A thick Boston Celtics-green colored ribbon was cut on Wednesday morning, commemorating the new William Felton “Bill” Russell Bridge, in honor of the Celtics player who helped secure 11 NBA championship titles from 1956 to 1969.
The ribbon-cutting took place on Lovejoy Wharf with the bridge, formerly known as the North Washington Street Bridge, serving as the backdrop. Governor Maura Healey, local politicians including Mayor Michelle Wu, Russell’s friends and family members, and his former Celtics teammates gathered for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“His name is synonymous with Boston and Massachusetts,” said Healey in a speech at the event. “It’s synonymous with Boston and Massachusetts ever working to get better, to create more opportunity and in today’s world, we need his example and his legacy more than ever, with the values he taught.”
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Russell was a renowned basketball player with a legacy of uplifting both his team on the court and his community off it. During his career, Russell was one of the first Black players on the Celtics, joining the team in 1956 and becoming its player/coach in 1966. He became the first Black head coach in NBA history and was the first Black head coach to win a championship title.
Russell was also a leader in the fight for civil rights and against racism. He is often viewed as a role model who never shrank in the face of the racism he faced as a prominent Black man in a time of racial injustice. After his basketball career ended, Russell continued to speak out against injustice, following Colin Kaepernick’s lead in 2017 and taking a knee with other athletes to protest police brutality.
“When he stood up to racism, he stood up for civil rights for all of us. When he invested in businesses that served and uplifted the Black community, he made us better,” Healey said. “When he mentored young people and gave us the best role model we could have had, he made us better.”
Robert “Bobby” Sager, a photographer and friend of Russell’s, attended the ribbon-cutting event, sitting front row to the festivities and walking the bridge with the Russell family.
“I’m smiling, thinking that Bill is up in heaven, going, like, ‘what’s all the fuss about?’” Sager said.
Sager said that while Russell was a great player, it was who he was as a person that made him special.
“The most important thing is who he was as a human being,” he said.
Mayor Wu also spoke at the ribbon-cutting, remembering the values and lessons Russell held strongly, and the ideals that continue to be instilled in Boston sports fans today.
“Whenever I’m in our schools and in our classrooms, talking to our young people, they bring up the new that’s been happening, what they’ve been following, and what they take from our teams is not only that sense of pride, but also real lessons about teamwork, about standing up for each other, about trying your very hardest and just keep going no matter what that is completely infused into who we are as a city,” she said.
Wu also announced that along with the bridge, the parks on either side would honor resident-heroes, Robert J. “Bobby D.” DeCristoforo, a Boston resident, teacher, and founder of the nonprofit North End Against Drugs, and Boston Fire Lieutenant Steven F. Minehan, a firefighter who died in a warehouse fire while looking for his comrades in 1994 .
Robert Malcolm “Mal” Graham played basketball with the Celtics during Russell’s last two seasons he coached, and remembers him as a player/coach who instilled in his players that winning was not only a possibility, but a certainty. The physical reminder of Russell’s legacy, cemented in the pillars of the bridge, keeps his impact on the city strong, said Graham.
“Russell meant so much to this city, and it’s very easy for someone’s contribution to the city, someone who can make you feel so wonderful about being a member of that community, it can fade over time, if there isn’t some kind of reminder that you were there, and this is a wonderful reminder,” he said.
Katarina Schmeiszer can be reached at katarina.schmeiszer@globe.com. Follow her on X at @katschmeiszer.
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