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, Massachusetts He attended the old Punchard High School.
Blunt"s mother moved to Massachusetts from Virginia to work as a domestic. As a young man and collegian, Russell earned money by waiting tables in the dining hall at the famed Andover Preparatory school (Phillips Academy). He also played semipro baseball for the Saint 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, New Hampshire (U.S.), 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 Saint 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 Saint 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 Saint Paul"s in 1946, Blunt also worked as a basketball official He started coaching at Hillside High in Durham, North Carolina in 1955. He also coached high school basketball at Hillsidehis best known players were future college All-Americans and National Basketball Association players John Lucas, and Rodney Rogers.
In the 1990s, United States of America Today published an article that stated Coach Blunt was the oldest high school basketball coach in America.
Doctor Blunt was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame in 1995 and the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. Duke University"s Russell East. Blunt East Coast Invitational is named for the coach.
