1956 National Champions
National Champions
1956 West Coast Athletic Conference Champions
Head Coach: Phil Woolpert
Overall Record: 29-0 WCC Record: 14-0
All-WCC Team: K.C. Jones, Bill Russell (POY)
Top Scorer: Bill Russell (20.5) Top Rebounder: Bill Russell (21.0)
USF Hall-of-Famers: Carl Boldt, Gene Brown, Mike Farmer, K.C. Jones, Hal Perry, Bill Russell, Phil Woolpert
Posted a 29-0 record on its way to a second consecutive NCAA Championship…defeated UCLA (72-61), Utah (92-77, SMU (86-68) and Iowa (83-71) to become just the third school to win back-to-back national championships…Bill Russell scored 26 points and grabbed 27 rebounds in the title game against Iowa, while Hal Perry, subbing for K.C. Jones, scored 14 points in the semifinals and championship game…led by the high-scoring Carl “Sugar” Cain, the Big Ten champion Hawkeyes raced to a 15-4 lead…just as he did a year before, head coach Phil Woolpert made a key defensive switch and assigned Gene Brown to guard Cain the rest of the way…Russell then took the game over on both ends of the floor and in one sequence, rejected three straight Hawkeye shots as the Dons carved out a 38-33 lead at halftime…USF extended its lead to 17 points in the second half before eventually winning by the final score of 83-71…Russell and Perry were named to the all-tournament team.
Did You know? Bill Russell scored so many points on put-back offensive rebounds that rival coaches came up with the “Russell-Rule.” The NCAA widened the free-throw lane to 12 feet so that Russell would have to stay farther out of basket-hanging range. Despite the new rule, he was still able to time his moves and made those startling, high-leaping tap-ins with ease.
They Said It: "I'd have an advantage over the other boys. They have to jump over the hurdles. All I have to do is walk over them," Bill Russell was also a track and field star at USF. He cleared the high jump at 6’9” and ran the 440 in 4.96. He figured he could combine those talents and train for the 400-meter hurdles as well.
