Boston Celtics Legend Bill Russell Statue to Be Unveiled On Boston City Hall Plaza

Boston Celtics Legend Bill Russell Statue to Be Unveiled On Boston City Hall Plaza

Special Ceremony to Honor Boston Celtics Legend Bill Russell

Boston, MA – Boston City Hall Plaza

A
sculpture honoring William Felton “Bill” Russell designed by local
Artist Ann Hirsch in collaboration with Pressley Associates and with the
Boston Art Commission will be unveiled on
Boston City Hall Plaza. A special ceremony to honor him emcee'd by TNT
NBA Analyst Kenny Smith will include: Bill Russell- the Boston Celtics
Legend himself, Bill Russell's daughter Karen Kenyatta Russell, Boston
Mayor Thomas Menino,
Co-Owner, Managing Partner, and Shamrock Foundation President
Stephen Pagliuca, Celtics Managing Partner, Governor, CEO and
Co-Owner Wyc Grousbeck, Celtics Managing Partner and Co-owner Bob
Epstein,
Team
President Rich Gotham, Congressman Joe Kennedy III, NBA Commissioner
David Stern, NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver along with Arnold “Red”
Auerbach's daughters Randy and Nancy Auerbach Collins.
Other guests include: NFL Icon and Activist Jim Brown, MLB Great Joe
Morgan, MLB Great Frank Robinson, NBA Icon Julius “Dr. J” Erving, NBA
Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, NBA Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor, NBA Hall
of Famer Clyde “The Glide” Drexler, NBA Hall
of Famer George “The Iceman” Gervin, NBA Great Fred “Downtown” Brown,
Chairman of the Professional Basketball Club, LLC. Clay Bennett,
Co-founder and board member of The National Mentoring Partnership Geoff
Boisi, CEO of the National Mentoring Partnership
David Shapiro, CEO of the Mass Mentoring Partnership Marty Martinez,
President and Chief of Operations for the Golden State Warriors Rick
Welts, Musical Legend Johnny Mathis, Musical Icon Bill Withers, Country
Music Star Ron Harbin, Former Senior Advisor to
the President David Axelrod, Isabel Wilkerson and Pulitzer Prize
Winning Author of
The Warmth of Other Suns, Pultizer Prize Winner Taylor Branch
best known for his Martin Luther King Trilogy; RFK's Daughter, Author
and Human Rights Activist Kerry Kennedy, LSU Men's Basketball Head Coach
and Celtics alumni Johnny Jones, Celtics alumni
Emmette “Em” Bryant, Celtics alumni Togo Palazzi, Celtics alumni Ronnie
Watts, Celtics alumni Rick Weitzman, Celtics Legend Tommy Heinsohn,
Celtics Legend Sam Jones, Celtics Legend Satch Sanders, Celtics Legend
Bill Walton, Celtics Legend JoJo White, Celtics
alumni Jim Loscutoff's wife Lynn Loscutoff, Russell Family Friend
MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell host of the The Last Word and Hollywood
Actress Alfre Woodard.

In
2011, President Barack Obama gave Bill Russell the highest civilian
honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. During the ceremony, President
Obama said he hoped that Boston would build
a statue of Russell, “I hope that one day in the streets of Boston,
children will look up at a statue built not only to Bill Russell the
player, but Bill Russell the man.”

“I
think the President's comments certainly catalyzed a lot of thoughts
and efforts that were going on in the city,'' Celtics Co-owner and
President of the Shamrock Foundation
Stephen Pagliuca, who collaborated extensively with Mayor Thomas M.
Menino to honor Russell. “The Mayor has been the #1 biggest fan of this
statue.  So I think those comments really helped bring the Bill Russell
Legacy Project Committee Members together to
get this statue done. It's so exciting because now it's become a
reality.”

The Bill Russell Statue was created by Ann Hirsch, a Somerville based artist. Hirsch's approach focuses on the body, movement and traditional sculpture technique to create spaces
for interaction that enhance the experience of a place.
The
artwork represents Bill Russell the whole man, honoring him as an
athlete, coach, human rights activist, ground breaker and mentor.  The
larger than life sculpture of Russell is on a low base in
game action, poised
with basketball in hand about to pass the ball to a teammate. He aims
towards a low-standing, open stone engraved with Mr. Russell's quote,
“The most important measure of how good
a game I'd played was how much better I'd made my teammates play.” As
visitors step up on the open base, ready to catch the pass, they become a
teammate, not only in the game of basketball, but in continued advocacy
for human rights and mentorship programming.
Ten
granite blocks, surround Russell for a total of 11 elements
representing Mr. Russell's 11 championships with the Boston Celtics. 
Each plinth features a key word and a corresponding quotation to
illuminate the myriad of accomplishments spanning Mr. Russell's career
both on and off the court. The artwork is inscribed in a field of brick
and granite pavers that reflect the proportions of a court.

 “Mr.
Russell's legacy is vital to the story of this city in sports and in
terms of human rights,” Ann Hirsch said. “I am proud and humbled to have
been chosen to create this artwork and
am especially thrilled that I will be able to work as a mentor myself
by involving local children in my process through the Shamrock
Foundation.”

In
addition to erecting the statue of Russell, the Bill Russell Legacy
Project, along with the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation and Mass
Mentoring Partnership developed a Mentoring Grant
program in Russell's name to ensure his passion for mentoring children
is carried on. The grant's main objective is to expand the resources for
mentoring programs in the city of Boston.  In the grant's inaugural
year, over $50k in grants were awarded to the
following programs: Adoption and Foster Care Mentoring, Generations,
Inc. and The DREAM Program, Inc. Sculptures of children will be added in
a second phase of the artwork as an extension of the mentorship
program.

“I
am happy to see the Celtics embrace mentoring and create this program
that benefits children.” Bill Russell said. “My lifelong passion is to
help the mentoring of children and the biggest
honor of my career was to be Captain of the Boston Celtics.”

Co-chaired
by Boston Celtics Managing Partner/Co-owner and President of the Boston
Celtics Shamrock Foundation Stephen Pagliuca and Boston Philanthropist
and Founder of the Bobby Sager
Traveling Foundation and Roadshow Bobby Sager, the Bill Russell Legacy
Committee includes Boston Mayor Tom Menino, Karen Russell and Russell's
former teammate Tommy Heinsohn. The Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation
established the Bill Russell Legacy Fund to
act as the major funding vehicle for the project.