" ."
That was one of our headlines Monday, when we posted about Grinnell College basketball player Jack Taylor's 109-point performance the night before in a victory over Crossroads College. As we noted, it was his second 100-or-better game. He against Faith Baptist Bible College last year.
We also wrote Monday that, "Taylor is one of only three men to have hit the century mark in a single game between two NCAA opponents. ... Now, Taylor is the only college man to have hit or exceeded the 100-mark twice."
It was those lines that led University Nebraska-Lincoln journalism professor to give us a call. His constructive criticism: We'd given short shrift to Clarence "Bevo" Francis, who's in the NCAA record books for the 113 points he scored while playing for Rio Grande College (of Ohio) in a 1954 game against Hillsdale College.
McCoy wanted to make sure we knew that Francis had another 100+ game while playing for Rio Grande (now known as the ).
Now, we were aware that Francis also scored 116 points in a 1953 game against Ashland (Ky.) Junior College. But we'd seen that, , "the 116-point game and many of the 39 wins from 1952-53 were deemed ineligible as the NCAA established a still-standing policy that only games played against four-year U.S. colleges would count in a team's won-lost record and for team and individual statistics."
But McCoy points out that the decision to wipe Francis' 116-point game from the NCAA record books was made retroactively, which does have a tinge of unfairness about it. He also notes that Francis' big games came three decades before the three-point shot and a shot clock were brought to college basketball. Players typically couldn't wrack up points quickly back then.
So considerable respect needs to be given for Francis' accomplishments. As :
"Francis spent only two seasons at Rio Grande, but his 46.5-point scoring average in 1953-54 remains an N.C.A.A. single-season record. He was enshrined in the in April."
Francis, now 81, .
McCoy has and the Rio Grande team that "captured the hearts and imagination of an entire nation" as the players went up against — and beat — much bigger schools. Coming on the heels of a cheating scandal in men's college basketball, Rio Grande arguably saved the game's reputation.
One other note: Grinnell's Taylor was in a game Wednesday. Wartburg College had two or three players assigned to defend against him the whole game. But .
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