Walter Jones Bellamy (July 24, 1939 – November 2, 2013) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player. A four-time NBA All-Star, he was inducted into the

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

College career

Bellamy chose to play basketball at Indiana University. About the experience, he recalled: "In the summer after my junior year of high school I played with some guys from Indiana. Indiana at the time was the closest school to the South that would accept African-Americans. It was an easy transition for me to make. Not that I was naive to what was going on in Bloomington in terms of the times, but it didn't translate to the athletic department or the classroom. Every relationship was good." Bellamy graduated from Indiana University with the most school rebounds in a career with 1,087 in only 70 games, or 15.5 per game. He also averaged 20.6 points per game and shot 51.7 percent from the floor for his college career. As a senior, Bellamy averaged 17.8 rebounds per game (still Indiana's record). He also holds the school records for most rebounds in a season (649) and most double-doubles in a career (59). In 2000, he was selected to Indiana University's All-Century Team. In his final college game, he set an Indiana and Big Ten Conference record that still stands with 33 rebounds in an 82–67 win over Michigan. Bellamy was named an All-American in both his junior and senior year (1960 and 1961). Bellamy was the first Hoosier taken No. 1 in the

1961 NBA draft The 1961 NBA draft was the 15th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on March 27, 1961, before the 1961–62 season. In this draft, nine NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball playe ...

and the first Hoosier named NBA Rookie of the Year.

1960 Olympics

Bellamy was the starting center on the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

-winning 1960 American basketball team at the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

. 10 of the 12 college players on the undefeated American squad went on to play professionally in the NBA, including fellow Big Ten player Terry Dischinger and fellow future Hall-of-Famers Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, and Jerry Lucas.

NBA career

Bellamy had a stellar 14-year career in the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

, and was the

NBA first overall draft pick The National Basketball Association's first overall pick is the player who is selected first among all eligible draftees by a team during the annual National Basketball Association (NBA) draft. The first pick is awarded to the team that wins ...

in 1961. Bellamy was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1962 after having arguably one of the three greatest rookie seasons in NBA history along with Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson. His 31.6 points per game average that season is second all-time for a rookie to Wilt Chamberlain's 37.6, and the 19 rebounds per game he averaged that season is the third-best all-time rookie mark (to Chamberlain's 27 and Bill Russell's 19.6). No NBA rookie has since surpassed Bellamy's 973 field goals during the 1961–62 season. Bellamy also led the NBA in field goal percentage in his rookie season, and had a 23-point, 17-rebound performance in the

1962 NBA All-Star Game The 12th National Basketball Association All-Star Game was played on January 16, 1962, in St. Louis.The coaches were Red Auerbach for the East, and Fred Schaus for the West. Western Conference Eastern Conference Score by Periods *Halftime ...

Members of the 1963–64 Baltimore Bullets

In the 1964–65 season, Bellamy scored 30 points and 37 rebounds in a win against the St. Louis Hawks. His 37 rebounds was his career-high in rebounds. Bellamy played with the Chicago Packers, which became the Baltimore Bullets, for his first four seasons before he was traded to the

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

for

Johnny Green John Waldo Green (October 10, 1908 – May 15, 1989) was an American songwriter, composer, musical arranger, conductor and pianist. He was given the nickname "Beulah" by colleague Conrad Salinger. His most famous song was one of his earli ...

Johnny Egan John Egan may refer to: Sports *John Egan (basketball), basketball player who participated on Loyola University Chicago's 1963 championship team *John Egan (Dublin GAA) (1951–2007), former Dublin GAA County Chairman *John Egan (footballer, born 1 ...

, Jim Barnes, and cash a few games into the 1965–66 season. Due to trades to teams with offset game schedules during the 1968–69 season when he was traded (with

Howard Komives Howard K. "Butch" Komives ( ; May 9, 1941 – March 22, 2009) was an American professional basketball player who spent ten seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, Buffalo Braves and Kansas ...

) from the Knicks to the Detroit Pistons for Dave DeBusschere, Bellamy set a still-standing record for NBA games played in a single season with 88, playing 35 games with the Knicks and 53 with the Pistons. He later played for several seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, and finished his career with the

New Orleans Jazz New Orleans Jazz may refer to: * Dixieland, a style of jazz music (New Orleans Jazz) * * New Orleans Jazz (NBA team), professional basketball team that relocated and became the Utah Jazz *New Orleans Jazz football club New is an adjective referri ...

. Bellamy ended his NBA career with 20,941 points and 14,241 rebounds, and is a two-time

inductee, being inducted in 1993 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the

1960 United States men's Olympic basketball team The 1960 United States men's Olympic basketball team competed in the Games of the XVII Olympiad, representing the United States of America. The USA team, coached by California Golden Bears head coach Pete Newell, dominated the competition, winni ...

Personal life

After his retirement from the NBA, Bellamy was active with the NAACP, the Urban League and the YMCA in the Atlanta area. He served as a Goodwill Ambassador and member of the Executive Committee of the NAACP's Georgia State Conference. Bellamy was a member of

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved int ...

fraternity. His half-brother is professional boxer

Ron Bellamy "Rockin'" Ronald Lee Bellamy (born December 13, 1964) is an American professional boxer. He is the half-brother of former NBA center Walt Bellamy. Ron also started his career in basketball, playing collegiately at UNC-Charlotte and profession ...

. Bellamy died on November 2, 2013 at the age of 74. He was survived by his wife of 53 years, Helen Hollie Ragland Bellamy, son Derrin Bellamy, and two grandsons. He was buried at Atlanta's South-View Cemetery.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

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Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

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New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

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Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

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Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

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Playoffs

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1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

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1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

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1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Januar ...

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, 6, , –, , 46.2, , .421, , –, , .625, , 16.0, , 3.5, , –, , –, , 20.0 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

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1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

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, 5, , –, , 43.2, , .594, , –, , .759, , 14.4, , 2.0, , –, , –, , 20.8 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

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, 6, , –, , 41.2, , .488, , –, , .628, , 13.7, , 1.8, , –, , –, , 18.5 , - , style="text-align:left;",

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 6, , –, , 41.2, , .395, , –, , .452, , 12.2, , 2.2, , –, , –, , 13.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 46 , , – , , 42.2 , , .471 , , – , , .642 , , 14.8 , , 3.0 , , – , , – , , 18.5

References

External links

*
Basketball Hall of Fame profile for Walt Bellamy

Walt Bellamy – A reflection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellamy, Walt 1939 births 2013 deaths African-American basketball players All-American college men's basketball players Atlanta Hawks players Baltimore Bullets (1963–1973) players Basketball players at the 1960 Summer Olympics Basketball players from North Carolina Centers (basketball) Chicago Packers draft picks Chicago Packers players Chicago Zephyrs players Detroit Pistons players Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball players Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees National Basketball Association All-Stars National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees New Orleans Jazz expansion draft picks New Orleans Jazz players New York Knicks players Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball Sportspeople from New Bern, North Carolina United States men's national basketball team players American men's basketball players Burials at South-View Cemetery 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American people

College career

1960 Olympics

NBA career

Personal life

NBA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

See also

References

External links