A look back at two memorable events in Kansas City for the great Bill Russell, who died Sunday

There’s no telling how many times Bill Russell visited Kansas City in his remarkable life that ended on Sunday at age 88. But two of those occasions stand with his most memorable basketball moments.

The 1955 NCAA championship game matched Russell’s San Francisco Dons against Tom Gola and La Salle at Municipal Auditorium. La Salle was bidding for a second straight title. It didn’t come close, as San Francisco ran away 77-63. Russell finished with 23 points and 25 rebounds.

Starting that season, Russell’s teams won the NCAA or NBA championship 13 times in 15 years, and he was the best player on all of them. He served as the Boston Celtics’ player/coach for the final two. Repeating such a run is unfathomable.

That first title and Russell’s college career were celebrated in Kansas City in 2006, when the inaugural class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame was enshrined.

The event, at the Crown Center Exhibit Hall, brought together the sport’s luminaries to watch the induction of Russell, Oscar Robertson, John Wooden and Dean Smith, along with Ian Naismith, the grandson of basketball inventor James Naismith.

A presenter introduced each inductee, and Russell’s, former Georgetown coach and Celtics teammate John Thompson, canceled the previous day because of an illness.

Bob Knight, the three-time national championship coach at Indiana who was leading Texas Tech’s program, filled in admirably. That night, he and Wooden called Russell “the most valuable player in basketball history.”

Russell stunned the audience during his acceptance. He looked toward the table of the other inductees and said: “To be on that list with them is probably the highest honor I’ve ever had in basketball. If I could live up to the standards, especially that you two coaches have set, I would be pleased and my father would be proud.”