Hersey Hawkins recalls Bradley basketball days as he's inducted into college Hall of Fame
PEORIA — Hersey Hawkins looked back on his career at Bradley University on Monday, hours after his induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City.
He was one of eight inductees in a ceremony Sunday night, joined by David Greenwood, Jim Jackson, Antwan Jamison, Paul Pierce, Rick Byrd, Tom Penders and the mother of the late Len Bias. They received Hall of Fame medals and re-lived old times.
Hawkins recalled his 63-point game for Bradley in a 122-107 win at Detroit Mercy on Feb. 22, 1988. It remains a Braves school record for most points in a single game. And it could have been more.
"When you score 63, it's an unbelievable night. You feel like everything you throw up is going in," said Hawkins, 55, a longtime player programs director for the Portland Trail Blazers. "I remember being in a zone, and the team getting me the ball."
Then Hawkins laughed as he delivered a punch line: "Thinking about it about a week afterward, it was one of those games I regret because I could have scored 70 or 75 if I'd just shot the ball a little more.
"But I took so many shots I was starting to feel guilty that I was shooting so much, so I started passing the ball. Just one of those memorable nights, the coaches know you're hot, the team knows you're hot."
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The great shooting guard started 125 games at Bradley and finished with 3,008 points, one of the 14 program records he set.
Hawkins went on to play nearly 1,000 games in the NBA with Philadelphia, Charlotte, Seattle and Chicago, and his Bradley No. 33 jersey has long been retired to a place of honor on the Carver Arena wall.
"We had some pretty good teams my four years there," Hawkins said. "Hanging out on campus, walking across the quad, going to class and stopping to talk to students. You go there to have fun, to mature and grow up. I experienced all of those things playing basketball.
"It was a wonderful experience for me at Bradley."
More: Stan Albeck convinced Hersey Hawkins not to transfer from Bradley. The rest is history.
Hawkins came out of Chicago highly motivated to prove power programs wrong after being disregarded.
"Everyone thinks that they are a power conference type player," Hawkins said. "I was overlooked. When you win Chicago High School Player of the Year but you're not recruited by any Big Ten schools or no DePaul or anything, you sort of have a little chip on your shoulder. I had to prove to those guys I was capable of playing there.
"(Bradley coach) Dick Versace at the time had all the right things to say. He knew I would get an education, he would look after me and that was extremely important to me, to go somewhere I would be not just an athlete but also someone that a coach can help mature as a person."
It launched a brilliant college career, an NBA career and now a place in the college Hall of Fame.
"My senior year there was a group of us that had gone in there together, Trevor Trimpe, Donald Powell, Jerry Thomas, Greg Jones — the five of us had played our entire four years together, so we wanted to go out with a bang, give it all we had," said Hawkins, referring to Bradley's 26-4 team that was ranked No. 11 in the AP poll in 1987-88. "Make a serious push.
"It all came together. We didn't win it all, but as a group we knew what our ultimate goal was. Everyone sacrificed what they had to do in their game in order to win. Unfortunately we got knocked out by Auburn (90-86 in the NCAA Tournament first round).
"But that was a good run for us."
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. Reach him at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Hersey Hawkins of Bradley inducted in college basketball Hall of Fame
