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THE RECORD TURNS 100: Buffalo State's greatest athlete
On February 27, 2013
In celebration of 100 years of service to Buffalo State, The Record will re-print one former article in each of its 10 issues this semester, chronicling the paper's rich history since its establishment in 1913. This week, we feature an article that appeared in Vol. 73, Issue No. 38, published on Tuesday, March 2, 1971.
It has been 42 years since Randy Smith made his last shot as a member of the
Buffalo State men's basketball team. Back then, Smith rewrote the record books
in soccer, track and field and, most notably, basketball, and earned All-America
honors in all three sports. In basketball, Smith scored 1,712 points over three
seasons with the Bengals, a record that stood for 41 seasons until senior Jake
Simmons surpassed the mark this past December. Smith, regarded by many
as Buffalo State's most distinguished athlete of all time, went on to be selected
by the Buffalo Braves in the seventh round of the 1971 National Basketball
Association draft. He averaged 16.7 points per game over his professional
career, playing in 906 consecutive games, a then-NBA record, and was named
to two NBA All-Star teams before retiring in 1983.
The Record covered Smith throughout his career at Buffalo State, and ran a story titled, "Bengals coast
to 102-81 victory over Cortland," written by reporter Mike Hanrahan, covering
Smith's final regular-season game. The Bengals would go on to win the SUNYAC
championship in the coming weeks and host the Eatern Regionals of the NCAA
tournament, where they lost in the first round to Hartwick on March 13 - Smith's
final basketball game at Buffalo State.
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Buffalo State honored senior Randy Smith on Friday night, and he responded
with 22 points and eight assists to lead the Bengals to a 102-81 basketball victory
over the Cortland State Red Dragons. The win assured State of at least a tie in
the SUNYAC division.
Senior co-captain Glen Henley, also playing his last regular season home
game, was outstanding, giving the best all-around effort, with 15 points
and a game-high 21 rebounds. Durie Burns and Kenny Zak also had fine
performances, with Papa D. getting 22 points and 15 retrieves, and Zak adding
19 markers and eight assists.
The game started out slow, and after five minutes had passed, the score stood
at 11-11. Then State showed the fans the kind of ball that got them the NCAA
Eastern Regional bid; then minutes later State had a 47-26 lead. The score at
half was 53-36.
During halftime, one of the Cortland players got overzealous in protesting with
the referee, so the second half started with Henley shooting a double technical,
called for unsportsmanlike conduct. The fans, during the break, were treated to
an indoor soccer match.
The Bengals played mediocre ball for most of the second half, but still had the
game well in hand. Cortland could not make up for their lack of height, as State
outrebounded them 88-41.
Cortland's high scorer was Mike Eidel with 27 points, while Bob Austin had 19
in the losing effort. The Dragons shot a respectable 43 percent from the floor,
and the Bengals hit on only a dismal 40 percent of their two-point attempts.
State's percentage would have been lower except for Geroge Holt and Ken Zak,
the only Buffalo starters to hit for better than 50 percent of their shots.
In pre-game ceremonies, Smith was honored for his many achievements in
sports at Buffalo State. Letters were read from the Athletic Department, President
E.K. Fretwell, and Smith was presented a plaque by his three major coaches
at State (Howard MacAdam, Don O'Brien and Fred Hartrick) for his all-around
excellence and his being the only three-sport All-American in Buffalo State
history.
The ceremonies were marred when strikers from WGR-TV crashed the gate
and surrounded a strikebreaker who was filming the presentations. The fans
were angered at the strikers who were deliberately trying to create trouble.
If the Bengals looked poor Friday night, it could be attributed to the
announcement that State was in the Eastern Regionals and that they would host
the first step to Evansville (site of the NCAA basketball finals). The pre-game
excitement also had an effect on the home squad.
Cortland was given a "warm" reception before the game - during bench
warm-ups some fans (mainly BCM's) spat upon and verbally abused the visitors.
The uncalled for action was disgusting, and showed that some Buffalo State fans
are not of the same caliber as their basketball game.
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