THE FRONT PORCH: We need your articles. Do you have news about our community, please send them so that we can
post them on our website. Also, I would like to update our photo gallery so, if you have any pictures that you would like
to share, please send them to me via email and I will have them added to our website.
Email: Butchie@AltgeldGardens.com
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Cazzie
Russell: South Side Superstar
Russell took his game from hard-nosed city playgrounds all the way to an NBA crown
August 24, 2008
BY NEIL HAYES
Larry Hawkins found the 18th Greatest Athlete in Chicago History and perhaps
the finest college basketball player the city has ever produced in a Carver High gym class in 1958. He was the 6-1 son of
a steel mill worker from nearby Altgeld Gardens housing project.
His
name was Cazzie Russell, and he was destined to become a basketball star the likes of which Chicago had never seen.
Cazzie Russell was a star wherever he played, from Carver to Michigan to the NBA.
''I'm in a P.E. class and he comes up and tells two or three of us he wants us to stay
after class,'' Russell said. ''My first reaction was, 'What have I done?' He had us shoot some baskets,
bank shots and layups from each side. He wanted to take a look at us. I took it seriously. I made both bank shots and hit
my layups and he said, 'I want you to come out for the team.'''
Hawkins, the longtime Carver coach and educator, drilled fundamentals into the promising freshman. By the time he
was a junior, Russell was one of the best players in the state. As a senior averaging 25 points per game, he led Carver to
Public League and city championships. Many high school basketball observers had never seen anything like this futuristic man-child,
whose combination of size (now 6-5) and athleticism allowed him to dominate any position on the floor.
Despite Carver losing a controversial state title game to Decatur, when it came to Illinois
basketball, Cazzie was king.
''You had to go around Chicago
and play in different tournaments to get the stamp of approval,'' Russell said. ''You had to play on the East
Side, 71st Street and at the Y to prove that you weren't a fluke. Guys are tough in Chicago, man. They learn how to play.
You can't be a softee and play in Chicago.''
The brand
of basketball that Russell learned on the playgrounds served him well in the Big Ten after he chose a woebegone Michigan program
over some 70 other schools because, after watching them on television, he decided ''they were so bad they needed some
help.''
After sitting out his freshman year, as NCAA rules
dictated, Russell scored 30 points in his college debut and went on to average 24.8 points to break Michigan's single-season
scoring record and earn All-American honors while leading the Wolverines to their first Big Ten title in 16 years, a first-ever
NCAA regional championship and a third-place finish at the NCAA championships.
After his first full college season, legendary UCLA coach John Wooden said Russell was better as a sophomore than
superstars Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas had been. One NBA scout told the Sun-Times that Russell was talented enough to
play in the NBA ''right now.''
Turning pro wasn't
an option for Russell, who was accomplishing something few thought possible: He was transforming a traditional football power
into a basketball school. People began lining up for tickets outside antiquated Yost Fieldhouse as Russell shattered his own
single-season scoring record twice more during his junior and senior seasons. Overflow crowds resulted in additional bleachers
being built so fans could watch the soon-to-be three-time All-American and two-time Big Ten MVP lead the Wolverines to two
more Big Ten titles and the 1965 NCAA Championship game, where his team fell to the fabled Bruins.
By the time he was a senior, when he was named the 1966 College Player of the Year after averaging
30.1 points, Michigan basketball games were being broadcast live on local television and a larger basketball arena was being
built on campus.
''He not only impacted Michigan basketball
but Michigan athletics,'' said ex-Michigan player and coach Dave Strack, whose relationship with the school dates
to 1941. ''In my opinion, Cazzie is the best athlete to play any sport at Michigan. That's how big of an impact
he made.''
Russell was a key contributor when the Knicks
won their first NBA title in 1970. He averaged 15 points during a 12-year NBA career.
''Cazzie could score on anybody and from all over the floor,'' former Warriors teammate Jim Barnett
said. ''I never saw anybody shoot the ball with less trajectory yet have so much success with it. It was the most
amazing thing. He had a very flat shot but it was the softest shot on the rim I've ever seen. He always got bounces.''
Russell recently completed his 12th season as coach of Division III Savannah (Ga.) School
of Art and Design. He also is an ordained minister.
''I don't
have any complaints,'' he said. ''I went to the pinnacle of basketball. Nobody can take that away.''
THE CAZZIE RUSSELL FILE
Full name: Cazzie Lee Russell.
>Sport: Basketball.
>High school: Carver.
>College:
Michigan.
>Career highlights: Averaged 21 points in three years
at Carver, including 25 his senior year, when he led Challengers to city title. Scored 24 points in dramatic loss to Decatur
in 1962 state championship game. Led Michigan to three consecutive Big Ten titles (1964-66) -- the program's first since
1948 -- and to Final Four appearances in 1964 and 1965. Scored school-record 670 points as a sophomore. Went on to break his
own scoring record in each of his next two seasons. His career 27.1 points per game average is tops in Michigan history, as
is his 30.8 average in 1966. He finished his career with 2,163 points, breaking Bill Buntin's school record by 439 points.
Three-time All-American and two-time Big Ten MVP was named College Basketball Player of the Year in 1966. The enthusiasm and
fan support he generated at Michigan led to the construction of Crisler Area, which was dubbed, ''The House that Cazzie
Built.'' Russell was the NBA's first draft pick in 1966 (by the Knicks), and was named to the 1967 All-Rookie
team. He was part of the famous 1970 Knicks team that won the NBA championship over the Los Angeles Lakers. Russell played
in the 1972 NBA All-Star Game while with the Golden State Warriors. He averaged 15 points per game during a 12-year NBA career
that ended with a stint with the Bulls in 1977-78. He currently is coach of Division III Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and
Design.
Black in America: Black Buying Power
By DANYELLA
DAVIS
Published: Thursday, August 21, 2008 2:56 PM CDT
.
The African-American
community is estimated to have $800 billion in buying power, a figure that has increased substantially since 2004, reports
The Multicultural Economy.
.
Buying power is typically defined as the total personal income one has available after taxes for spending
on goods and services. Yet with this grossly large figure, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, African-Americans living in
poverty has increased since the 20th century.
So
how is it possible that the Black community's ability to purchase has increased yet their ability to create wealth and
rise above the poverty line has diminished?
Dan
Mcquiston, marketing professor at Butler University, calls this discretionary use.
"One of the things that we have discovered with a lot of minorities
is that they don't really make a distinction between buying power and discretionary buying power," Mcquiston said.
"If their take home paycheck is $500 a week, they will assume that is $500 they can spend."
The National Urban League Institute for Opportunity and Equality
says historically the Black community has always spent more than what it has had.
A study found African-Americans spent more money on children's apparel,
personal care products and telephone services than other groups, and on average African-American households spend $204.24
on women's shoes compared to that of a Caucasian household that spends $142.46.
"We have a consumer mindset. We have moved from being a production
slave to the distribution slave to the consumer slave," says Thomas L. Brown, a professor at Martin University.
Brown argues the importance of understanding the value of a
dollar and working together as a collective unit to put money back into the hands of African-Americans instead of using disposable
dollars outside the Black community.
"We
are enslaved to consumption. We are the only population in America that doesn't turn their dollar over," Brown said.
Though consumption power has increased, many should not confuse
this for a sign of a strengthened economy for the Black community. Though the middle class continues to emerge, it is debatable
whether or not that segment of the Black community is improving or diminishing.
Nonetheless, Dr. Bessie House-Soremekun, professor of African-American and African
Diaspora studies at IUPUI, says the African-American mindset of an individualistic model has done more damage than repair.
"African-Americans are the only racial group in the world
that don't utilize a collective economic ethos in their behavior," House-Soremekun said. "We don't use our
resources to help our whole community."
House-Soremekun
says it's vital African-Americans patronize Black businesses to reduce the bulk of income flows out of the Black community
within the first five business days in the first month.
Only three percent of that income remains in the African-American community.
Dr. Claud Anderson, president of PowerNomics Corp. of America
says there is no community in the world that can really build a viable economic developmental future for its people if only
three percent of its disposable income is being used for African-American enterprises.
Brown, House-Soremekun and Anderson agree that in order to get the residual
benefits of the dollar and the $800 billion buying power, Blacks need to pursue business ownership and invest more into African-American
enterprises.
With investment comes
knowledge of finances and the desire to want to break the cycle of not properly using disposable buying power and living paycheck
to paycheck. But financial education and economic development is a learned or self-taught trait.
William Rieber, professor of economics at Butler, says, "Generally,
the ability to invest is determined by income. A person with a low income will generally invest little since so much of their
after-tax income goes to necessities, including food and gasoline."
So where does this cycle end? Will the African-American community continue to increase its
buying power yet continue to work individually and see no residual benefits from their labor?
"I think this is a two-edged sword because you have a rising
Black middle class, which does have the money to spend, but by the same token culturally it's very important in the lower
incomes to be seen as having it," said Mcquiston.
