Bellamy was born on July 24, 1939, in New Bern, North Carolina. Money was tight and food sparse for his family. He attended West Street School and J.T. Barber High School where the 6 ft 1 in 14-year old learned basic basketball skills from coach Simon Coates. As a senior in 1956, he was on the football team that won a state championship, with Bellamy gaining all-state honors as a football player. In the same year, he had 47 points in a state playoff basketball game. He graduated in 1957. There is a street named for him in New Bern.[1]
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."[2]
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).[3][4] 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.[4]
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.[5][6] 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 and the first Hoosier named NBA Rookie of the Year.[4]
1960 Olympics
Bellamy was the starting center on the gold medal-winning 1960 American basketball team at the 1960 Summer Olympics.[7] 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 (a future Bellamy NBA teammate in Chicago and Baltimore[8][9][10]), and fellow future Hall-of-Famers Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, and Jerry Lucas. The team produced four consecutive NBA rookies of the year, and three members of the NBA's 50 greatest players list announced in 1996.[11][12][13]
NBA career
Bellamy (No. 8) averaged 31.6 points per game and 19.0 rebounds per game during his rookie season.
Bellamy had a stellar 14-year career in the NBA, and was the NBA first overall draft pick in 1961, drafted by the Chicago Packers.[14] 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.[4][15] 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[16] he averaged that season is the third-best all-time rookie mark (to Chamberlain's 27 and Bill Russell's 19.6).[4] No NBA rookie has since surpassed Bellamy's 973 field goals during the 1961–62 season, and the only rookie with more field goals was Wilt Chamberlain with 1,065.[17] Bellamy also led the NBA in field goal percentage in his rookie season (ahead of Chamberlain),[18] and had a 23-point, 17-rebound performance in the 1962 NBA All-Star Game.[19] From 1964-1966 he was the all-time leader in field goal percentage, but was passed by Chamberlain.[7] In his first game against Chamberlain, in 1961, Bellamy did not score in the first half, Chamberlain blocking Bellamy's first nine shots.[20][21]
In the 1964–65 season, Bellamy scored 37 points and had 37 rebounds in a win against the St. Louis Hawks.[22][23] His 37 rebounds was his career-high in rebounds.[24] Bellamy played with the Chicago Packers (1961-1962), renamed the Chicago Zephyrs the next season (1962-1963), and then the Baltimore Bullets,[25] for his first four seasons. He was traded from the Bullets to the New York Knicks for Johnny Green, Johnny Egan, Jim Barnes and cash on November 1, 1965. He had been coveted by the Knicks since he entered the league.[26]
Due to trades to teams with offset game schedules during the 1968–69 season when he was traded (with Howard Komives) 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,[15] playing 35 games with the Knicks and 53 with the Pistons.[16] Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Curt Gowdy Media Award writer Peter Vecsey believes that the significance of this trade to the Knicks future success obscured the fact that Bellamy was one of the top players in NBA history.[27] He later played for several seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, and finished his career with the New Orleans Jazz.[16]
When Bellamy retired, he was the sixth all-time leading scoring and third all-time in rebounding.[15]
Personal life
After his retirement from the NBA, Bellamy was active with the NAACP, the Urban League and the YMCA in the Atlanta area.[28] He served as a Goodwill Ambassador and member of the Executive Committee of the NAACP's Georgia State Conference.
Bellamy died on November 2, 2013, at the age of 74.[30] 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.[31]
