What a night they had in Spartanburg Monday as the Southern Conference enshrined its first hall of fame class.
True, it’s almost mind-boggling to think that a league that’s 88-years-old had never started a hall of fame. Even more significant is the footprint the conference has as just about every major school in the south has been in the league at some point.
One of the interesting aspects of the first class of 10 was that three of the most prolific scorers in college basketball history are a part of it.
Frank Selvy once scored 100 points in a game for Furman and in the mid-50s was one of college basketball’s great scorers. Jerry West is known as “The Logo” as his image is the one used by the NBA in its insignia and at West Virginia in the late ‘50s he let it be known he’d be a force in the game for many years to come. Then you had Valorie Whiteside, who established the league’s all-time women’s scoring record in her days at Appalachian State in the mid-‘80s after a stand-out career at Chapman High in Inman. In an era when Steph Curry put the league’s hoops back on the map nationally Monday was a time to reflect on other great periods in hoops for the SoCon.
A conference that also honored Arnold Palmer, Charlie Justice, and Dick Groat in its inaugural Hall class really should have come up with the idea much sooner than nearly 100 years into its existence.
A couple of other thoughts.
Doesn’t it drip with irony that the same congress that recently approved various bailouts and stimulus plans to save businesses “that couldn’t fail” is now pushing for a college football playoff that would put a number of bowls out of business, costing the cities where they’re located a significant amount of money in hotel, restaurant, and other revenue?
This is not to say that the BCS is a good thing and that a playoff isn’t needed in college football’s biggest division but to me it just reflects how those we send to Washington can step into the pothole of hypocrisy in any number of ways.
I am so hoping that Mine That Bird wins the Triple Crown. I just think it would be great to finally see the Triple Crown drought come to an end with the performance of a horse that looks as if it’s bound for the glue factory instead of legendary status.
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