Walter Jones "The Big Bell" Bellamy (July 24, 1939 – November 2, 2013) was an American professional basketball player. He played 13 full seasons as a center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for four different franchises. Bellamy was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame twice: in 1993 for his individual career and again in 2010 as a member of the 1960 United States men's Olympic basketball team.
He was a star player for Indiana University in basketball, where he averaged 20.6 points and 15.5 rebounds per game over a three-year career, with a .517 field goal percentage. Bellamy was named an All-American and first-team All-Big Ten while at Indiana as a junior and senior. After his junior year, Bellamy was invited to join the 1960 United States men's Olympic basketball team. In the Olympic Games that year, the U.S. gold medal team won every game by an average of over 40 points and is considered among the best amateur level basketball teams of all time.
Bellamy was the first overall pick of the 1961 draft, when he was selected by the expansion team Chicago Packers. In his rookie season, he averaged 31.6 points and 19 rebounds per game on his way to winning Rookie of the Year in what has been called one of the best rookie seasons in NBA history. He had a double-double in every game in which he played during his rookie season.
After over four seasons with the franchise (which moved to Baltimore in 1963), Bellamy was traded to the New York Knicks in 1965. He played nearly four seasons with the Knicks before being traded to the Detroit Pistons, whereupon he played parts of two seasons before being traded to the Atlanta Hawks in the close of the 1969-70 season. He played four seasons for the team before playing one game for the New Orleans Jazz to close his career. Bellamy reached the Division finals in 1965 and 1970, but never played in the NBA Finals.
Bellamy was a durable player who played 74 or more games in thirteen consecutive seasons, including a record-setting 88 games in one season. He was an efficient scorer and leading rebounder who averaged over 20 points and 13 rebounds per game for his career. Bellamy ranked third all-time in field goal percentage at the time his career ended, after leading the NBA in field goal percentage as a rookie, being second to Wilt Chamberlain four times, and third in the NBA three times. He is 7th all-time in NBA history in rebounds per game. Bellamy was named an NBA All-Star during the first four seasons of his career. He was the second player (after Wilt Chamberlain) to score 20,000 points and have 14,000 rebounds for a career; only seven other players have achieved the mark since Bellamy.
Bellamy was born on July 24, 1939, in New Bern, North Carolina. Money was tight and food sparse for his family. His father and grandfather were Masons, and his older brother was an early advocate against segregation. Bellamy attended West Street School and J.T. Barber High School where the 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 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.
Bellamy also played on Barber's basketball team; averaging 19 points per game as a sophomore, 22 points per game as a junior, and 31 points per game as a senior. In 1956, he had 47 points in a state playoff basketball game and was All-State and All-Conference in basketball as a senior. He was also selected to play in two all-star games where he scored a combined 62 points. Bellamy graduated in 1957. There is a street named for him in New Bern.
Bellamy chose to play basketball at Indiana University under coach Branch McCracken. Bellamy's high school coach Simon Coates had attended graduate courses at Indiana, and initiated an interest in Bellamy to attend Indiana. Bellamy himself 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 played center for three years on Indiana's varsity team (1958 to 1961). As a sophomore (1958–59), his Indiana team had an 11–11 record. Bellamy averaged 17.4 points and 15.2 rebounds per game. He was third in the Big Ten Conference in total rebounds (335) as well as rebounds per game. The Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) named Bellamy second-team All-Big Ten in 1959.
Indiana was 20–4 the next season (1959–60), and was ranked No. 7 in the AP's final poll that season. The 6 ft 11 in (2.08 m) 225 lb (102 kg) Bellamy averaged 22.4 points and 13.5 rebounds per game; with a .535 field goal percentage. He was third among all Big Ten players in total points (537); and fourth in points per game, total rebounds (324), and rebounds per game. The Associated Press and United Press International named Bellamy first-team All-Big Ten in 1960. The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) named Bellamy a second-team All-American in 1960. The Associated Press and UPI named him a third-team All-American. Bellamy was among the 10 players chosen as All-Americans by the United States Basketball Writers Association for Look magazine in 1960.
As a senior (1960–61), Bellamy averaged 21.8 points and 17.8 rebounds per game; with a .501 field goal percentage. He was first among all Big Ten players in rebounds per game, second in total rebounds (428), and fourth in both points per game and total points (522). The Newspaper Enterprise Association selected Bellamy a first-team All-American in 1961. The Associated Press and United Press International named Bellamy a second-team All-American in 1961, and he was a consensus second-team All American. The Associated Press named Bellamy first-team All-Big Ten again in 1961, and United Press International named him second-team All-Big Ten.
Bellamy had 27 points and 28 rebounds in a March 6, 1961 game against the Wisconsin Badgers, setting an Indiana single game rebounding record. The following week in his last collegiate basketball game, Bellamy broke that record with 33 rebounds, while also scoring 28 points, in an 82–67 win over Michigan. The 33 rebounds is still a Big Ten Conference and Indiana record for rebounds in a single game.
Bellamy played in 70 career games for Indiana, with 1,441 points (20.6 per game), 1,087 rebounds (15.5 per game) and a .517 career field goal percentage. He graduated from Indiana University holding the school record for most rebounds in a career, which stood as the school record until broken by Alan Henderson in 1995; with Bellamy now third all-time in career rebounds for Indiana. Bellamy's 17.8 rebounds per game and 428 total rebounds as a senior are school single season records (through 2025–26). His career 59 double-doubles at Indiana is also a school record. His career scoring average is fourth best in Indiana history.
Bellamy was the starting center on the gold medal-winning 1960 United States men's Olympic basketball team at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Ten of the 12 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), 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. Bellamy averaged 7.9 points per game, over eight games, and the U.S. men's team won their games by an average of over 40 points per game.
Bellamy had a stellar 13-year career in the NBA (1961 to 1974), and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993. He was nicknamed "the Big Bell".