WCU Men’s Basketball – Did You Know...?

CATAMOUNT MEN'S BASKETBALL >>>>> DID YOU KNOW...?

RONALD ROGERS

HENRY LOGAN

RONNIE CARR

• 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 in 1990, Logan was 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 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 ... the 1995-96 Catamount men's basketball team was inducted into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022; • 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 201516 when it traveld to Burlington, Vt., in the first-ever 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 2019 inductee into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame 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; • KEVIN MARTIN (2001-04) and FRANKIE KING (1993-95) were both named to the Southern Conference's 100th Anniversary Men's Basketball team at the end of the year-long celebration in 2021.

FRANKIE KING

ANQUELL McCOLLUM

KEVIN MARTIN