Catamount Men’s Basketball: DYK...?

CATAMOUNT MEN’S BASKETBALL DID YOU KNOW...?

• Western Carolina’s HENRY LOGAN – the program’s all-time leading scorer – helped break the color barrier in college basketball when he signed with WCU in 1964 becoming the first African-American collegiate athlete in the history of North Carolina and perhaps at any predominantly white institution in the southeastern United States ... Logan scored an astounding 3,290 points – an average of 30.7 points per game – during his WCU career and was a four-time NAIA All-America selection ... One of 11 in WCU’s initial Athletics Hall of Fame Class, Logan was also inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2000; • WCU gave birth to the 3-point shot in the NCAA as former Catamount RONNIE CARR buried the first 3-pointer in WCU’s 77-70 victory over Middle Tennessee State on Nov. 29, 1980 … the ball he used is on display at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. … The shot was made from the left corner with 16:09 left in the first half (7:06 pm) ... Carr, who is in the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame, actually took and missed a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the 18:15 mark of the first half; • WCU has three retired or honored numbers hanging from the rafters in the Ramsey Center – the No. 10 of the aforementioned HENRY LOGAN; the No. 15 of RONALD ROGERS, a three-time NAIA AllAmerican from 1951-53 and three-time, first-team North State Atlantic Conference pick; and the No. 20 of MEL GIBSON, a first-team NAIA All-American selection in 1963 who was a second-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Lakers; • WCU finished as the 1963 NAIA National Runner-Up under head coach Jim Gudger ... With a 28-7 overall record, WCU won the Carolina’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAC) tournament and the NAIA District title ... the Catamounts then rattled off wins on consecutive days over Eastern Montana, Miles, Lewis & Clark and Fort Hayes State before falling in the championship game to Texas Pan American; • In its only NCAA tournament appearance, the 1996 Catamounts led by WCU Hall of Famer ANQUELL McCOLLUM nearly pulled off the most improbable of upsets as the No. 16 seed fell by two, 73-71, to No. 1 seed Purdue in Albuquerque, N.M. ... the game was tied 71-71 with under three minutes to play with Purdue’s Brandon Brantley scoring the game’s final bucket with 1:30 showing on the clock at “The Pit” ... WCU had two looks at both a game-winning and a game-tying shot inside the closing seconds but both attempts missed; • WCU’s bid to play in the CollegeInsider.com Post-Season Tournament (CIT) following the 2009-10 season represented the Catamounts’ return to post-season play for the first time since 1996 ... WCU made its third post-season appearance all-time in 2015-16 when it traveld to Burlington, Vt., in the firstever meeting against the Vermont Catamounts in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI); • WCU’s most recent former player to play in the NBA is KEVIN MARTIN, who played for the Catamounts from 2001-04 ... Martin, a WCU Hall of Famer and the first-round pick of the Sacramento Kings in ‘04, was the FIRST Catamount to ever be selected in the first round of the NFL, NBA or MLB Draft.

WCU ALL-TIME SCORING LEADERS

1. 3,290 Henry Logan 1964-68 2. 2,020 Mel Gibson 1959-63 3. 1,996 Trey Sumler 2009-14 4. 1,838 Kevin Martin 2001-04 5. 1,818 Ronald Rogers 1950-53 6. 1,793 Greg Dennis 1978-82 7. 1,777 Anquell McCollum 1992-96 8. 1,680 Robert Gaines 1989-93 9. 1,628 Greg Wittman 1965-69 10. 1,589 Gene McConnell 1966-70

WCU ALL-TIME REBOUND LEADERS

1. 1,354 Greg Wittman 1965-69 2. 1,281 Tommy Lavelle 1960-64 3. 1,208 Darrell Murray 1960-64 4. 857 Kenny Trimier 1979-83 5. 796 Gene McConnell 1966-70 6. 781 Gaston Seal 1959-63 7. 771 Bob Thompson 1965-68 8. 756 Wilson Scott 1970-73 9. 700 John Brintnall 1962-66 10. 699 Marc Gosselin 2015-19 699 Dondrell Whitmore 1996-00

WCU ALL-TIME ASSIST LEADERS

1. 1037 Henry Logan 1964-68 2. 647 Casey Rogers 1998-02 3. 557 Larry Grant 1969-73 4. 530 Kevin Young 1978-82 5. 520 Lee Gibbs 1973-76 6. 501 Vincent Walker 1983-87 7. 496 Trey Sumler 2009-14 8. 475 Larry Caldwell 1977-81 9. 463 Joel Fleming 1994-98 10. 398 Brigham Waginger 2006-10