Stong Thursday, November 25, 2021
Meet UCLA’s most beloved player. He’s a walk-on who has made one basket in four years Bill Plaschke, LA Times, 11-25-21
The chant first appeared at Pauley Pavilion two weeks ago, in UCLA’s season opener against Cal State Bakersfield, sweeping down from the student section like a prayer. “We want Rus-sell! We want Rus-sell!” The Bruin basketball team is filled with some of the sport’s most colorful players, prominent personalities who have captured the city with breathtaking shots. The chant is for a kid who has made one basket in four years. “We want Rus-sell! We want Rus-sell.” The celebrated Bruins basketball team is led by celebrity athletes participating with full scholarships and marketing deals and a real chance at big NBA money. The chant is for the kid who is paying to play. “We want Rus-sell! We want Rus-sell.” And thus, in this year’s Bruins basketball bible, the last shall be loudest. Arguably the most beloved player on one of America’s most popular teams sits at the end of the bench, plays only at the end of the games, and marvels that anybody even knows his name, much less chants it at the end of blowouts. “I was like, ‘Are they really cheering for me?” recalled senior walk-on Russell Stong of the first time he heard the rallying cry. “I was in shock. Nobody warned me. I was taken aback. It’s the most amazing thing.” In a world where big-time college athletics has sprinted beyond the reach of most regular college students, it’s the most perfect thing. Stong has a 3.86 GPA while studying mechanical engineering and business economics, his parents pay around $40,000 a year in tuition and he races around campus on a motorized scooter while constantly juggling classes and labs and tests. Yet for four years he’s also played on the basketball team, an 176
UCLA Faculty Association Blog: 4th Quarter 2021