Russell Blunt

Who was Russell Blunt?

Dr. Russell Blunt was an American high school and collegiate track and basketball coach.

Blunt's mother moved to Massachusetts from Virginia to work as a domestic. His family lived in Massachusetts' Merrimack Valley during a time when the Black population was tiny, but he recalled the large annual church picnic outing that famiiles from neighboring Lynn, Lowell, and Haverhill would attend each summer in Salem, Mass. He attended the old Punchard High School. As a young man and collegian, Russell earned money by waiting tables in the dining hall at the famed Andover Prep school. He also played semipro baseball for the St. Clair Oil Company team, the Andover Giants, and a team called Tyer Rubber, usually as a catcher. With a baseball team called the Fairviews out of Seabrook, N.H., Blunt earned $5 and $7 a game as a catcher. Some of his teammates in those days had surnames later heavily associated with Massachusetts baseball, such as "Gagne" and "Bedrosian".

In 1927, Blunt left his home town in Massachusetts to attend St. Paul's Normal and Industrial in Lawrenceville, Virginia. When the train reached the Mason-Dixon Line, he had to switch cars because of segregation. Blunt graduated from St. Augustine's College in 1936, where he began his coaching career. Blunt coached every year until his retirement, except in 1944, when he earned his master's degree from Boston University. In addition to becoming an assistant football coach at St. Paul's in 1946, Blunt also worked as a basketball official.