ALL-TIME local great Fortunato (Atoy) Co Jr. was a natural left-hander who had no choice but to learn to play basketball with his right after he broke a bone in his left hand at age seven.
Because of the accident, the former King Cardinal from the Mapua Institute of Technology became ambidextrous in playing ball. He would dribble with his left hand and shoot with his right.
Unknown to many, the player with the most championships in the history of the American professional league National Basketball Association also was not a southpaw all his life.
William Felton (Bill) Russell, who won 11 championships with the Boston Celtics during a distinguished 13-year NBA career from 1956-57 to 1968-69, was a naturally right-handed.
But his Uncle Bob had been unsuccessful in becoming a first baseman in the Negro baseball leagues and blamed the failure on not being left-handed.
He therefore was determined to make his nephew a southpaw.
“One time we bought a 22-pound turkey and Bill started in on the leg,” recalled the 6-foot-10 Russell’s father.
“Before he got through he fell asleep with the unfinished turkey leg in his right hand. Uncle Robert went over and switched it to his left. Billy’s been a left-hander ever since.”
Named by his parents after the president of Southeastern Louisiana College in Hammond, William Felton, the 82-year-old Russell is a revered figure in the city of Boston.
On November 1, 2013, the city and the Celtics unveiled a statue in Boston’s City Hall Plaza in honor of the Monroe, Louisiana native.
The design features a statue of the two-time NCAA champion (1955, 1956) from the University of San Francisco in game action with 11 plinths representing the number of NBA titles that he helped the Celtics win.
The plinths feature a key word and a related quote to illustrate Russell’s multiple accomplishments. Funding the project was the Bill Russell Legacy Foundation, which was established by the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation.
To date, Russell remains active in NBA activities although he now walks with a limp and a cane.
The NBA Finals Most Valuable Trophy has been named after him since the 2009 Finals.
He was in attendance during the enshrinement ceremony of members of Class 2016 to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts last September 9.
Among the new 10-member set of Hall of Famers were Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson and Yao Ming.
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