2012-13 Furman Basketball The Record Book / Man Of The Century of Selvy’s 100-point Man of the Century game have been re- ported by media across February 13, 2004 marked the 50th anniversary of Frank Selvy’s the country over the last five decades, including 100-point game — a record that is likely to stand as long as col- the Associated Press lege basketball is played. and Sports Illustrated. There are people who have never been within Reprinted from Fall 2003 issue of Furman magazine. 1,000 miles of the Fur- man campus who know By Vince Moore that Frank Selvy played basketball at Furman. If you’re going to score 100 points in a college basketball game, the first thing you Wh e n R o n a l d need to do is get to 98 and then give yourself one final opportunity to reach the century Granieri, a former Fur- mark. man history professor Furman’s Frank Selvy had already accomplished the first part and now he had just who now teaches at a few seconds to manage the second. He got the ball near the top of the key at the far the University of Penn- end of the court, took a couple of steps and launched a running, one-handed shot as the sylvania, tried to tell clock expired. his Dad about Furman It was February 13, 1954. Furman was playing Newberry in Greenville’s old Textile after the university had Hall, and the game had already assumed historic proportions. Local television station hired him in 1997, he WFBC was broadcasting the game live, the first such broadcast in the state. A large was stopped in mid- contingent from Selvy’s hometown of Corbin, Ky., including his entire family, had driven sentence. “I know Fur- down for a special celebration. It was, in fact, the first time Selvy’s mother had seen man,” said his father, him play in college. A crowd of 4,000 was packed to the rafters and the public address a lifelong resident of announcer was providing a running total of Selvy’s points, so everybody knew exactly New York. “Frank Selvy where he stood. scored 100 points for If there was ever a moment when a player could be expected to launch a brick from them once.” 40 feet, this was it. But Frank Selvy was the best college basketball player in America, For Furman fans, Known as “The Corbin Comet,” Selvy led the and nobody was surprised when the ball sailed on a perfect line and swished through the the 100-point game has nation in scoring (41.7 ppg) and was named national basket as Furman won, 149-95. And although Selvy is as humble a former All-American assumed near mythical player-of-the-year in 1954. and No. 1 NBA draft choice as you’ll ever meet, he will admit that he knew the shot was status. Therefore, it’s good before the ball left his hand. easy to take for granted “I never had any doubt about that last shot,” he says. “It was a night I felt like I could what Selvy actually managed to do. The statistics are otherworldly — 41 of 66 from the do just about anything on the basketball court.” field, 18 of 22 free throws, a team-high 13 rebounds. But perhaps the most impressive This season marks the 50th anniversary of Selvy’s remarkable feat, which still stands thing is that on a night when Selvy was pushed to center stage in front of family and live as the greatest individual accomplishment in Division I college basketball. In the interven- TV cameras and 4,000 people who came for the express purpose of watching him play, ing 50 years, no player has come close to scoring that many points in a game. Accounts he raised his performance to a level that college basketball had not seen before — or since. Selvy will tell you that he was not at all nervous that night. In fact, he says he can’t recall a nervous moment on the court during his four years at Furman — not during games that came down to the last shot, not against Duke or North Carolina, not playing in Madison Square Garden, not even before a 40-foot heave to reach 100 points. And that explains a lot about why people still remember Frank Selvy’s name. In 1949-50, the year before Selvy came to Furman, the basketball team posted a 9-12 record. In the 10 years prior to that, the team had two winning seasons. But in the winter of 1950, providence knocked on Furman’s door. A group of teen- agers from Corbin High School in Kentucky had driven to Greenville to see about playing for the Furman football team. Although he had no interest in football, Selvy accompanied them in hopes that he might get a basketball tryout. Melvin Bell ’50, who coached the basketball team that year, was sitting in his office when the athletic director asked him to work out a few of the Corbin boys on the court. “You never know,” he said. “Some of them might be able to help out the basketball team, too.” What Bell witnessed that afternoon is still burned into his memory. “I came into the gym and Frank was warming up,” says Bell, a Greenville resident. “He must have hit 10 left-handed hook shots in a row. I finally said, ‘Son, are you left- handed?’ He said ‘No, sir,’ and then he turned around and hit another 10 right-handed. We started scrimmaging, and he drove around players like they weren’t there and scored anytime he wanted.” By the time the workout was finished, Bell was unsure of what he had seen. Was it possible that somebody could just show up, unannounced, from Corbin, Ky., and be that good? But he knew he wasn’t hallucinating when the Furman football players who had The first live telecast of a sporting event in Upstate South Carolina history, taken part in the scrimmage came into his office afterward and said, “Man, who in the Frank Selvy’s NCAA record 100-point scoring performance versus Newberry world was that?” on Feb. 13, 1954, could not have been more historic. Bell immediately called Lyles Alley, Furman’s head coach who was on a sabbatical to work

44 2012-13 Furman Basketball The Record Book / Man Of The Century on a master’s degree at Columbia University, and told him that Furman needed to offer who was head coach at North Carolina at the time, said, “The Southern Conference is the this Selvy kid a scholarship. Alley agreed but said he wanted to see Selvy for himself toughest league in the country and Frank Selvy is the best player in the league.” Del Booth, when he returned to Furman. Selvy made a second trip to campus to work out for Alley a writer with the Associated Press, said, “Selvy is the finest basketball player I have seen in the spring, and the deal was finalized. any time, any place.” And it has been written that Rupp believed letting Selvy get away to Furman was the greatest mistake of his coaching life. “Where I grew up, if you told somebody you were go- “Frank was the best college basketball player I ever saw,” says Melvin Bell. “The only college players I thought were in the same class were Jerry West (West Virginia) and David ing to do something, you did it,” he says. “I never once Thompson (North Carolina State). He was that good.” thought about going back on my commitment to Furman.” Anybody who watched Selvy play in those days said he could do it all. He was a deft ball-handler who could drive to the basket or stop and shoot a deadly accurate jump shot Frank Selvy from any distance. But he was also big enough to post up inside and hook with either hand. It was pretty much up to the defense to decide how they wanted him to score his points. “Once he got the ball, there wasn’t much a defensive player could do,” Bell says. “If The Furman coaches were already aware of their good fortune, but they would soon you didn’t go right to him, he would hit a shot. If you did, he would drive right around learn just how preposterously good it was. Selvy had always been a late bloomer, and they you.” had landed him just prior to a complete metamorphosis. Selvy, for instance, hadn’t even Dan Foster ’49, the longtime sports editor for The Greenville News, remembers one made the Corbin varsity team as a sophomore. And while he was a first-team all-state particular night that Selvy was playing in Textile Hall. center as a senior, he was only 6 feet and 150 pounds when he finished high school. But “Frank drove the lane and left his feet to pass to a teammate when a defensive player he grew to 6-2 over the summer and would reach 6-4 and 180 pounds by his senior year suddenly blocked his way,” Foster says. “So he twirled around on his way out of bounds in college. and spun the ball off the backboard and into the basket. That just wasn’t something you When Selvy played in all-star games in Kentucky and Ohio the summer after high saw in those days.” school and was voted the most valuable player in both, the University of Kentucky and its As if that wasn’t enough, Selvy was also a campus leader during his Furman years. legendary coach, Adolph Rupp, rushed to offer him a scholarship. So did North Carolina, He was president of his senior class and a member of the Blue Key honorary fraternity. Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky. But Selvy had already agreed to attend Furman, and The school newspaper voted him “Student of the Year” and he was elected to Quaternion, he spurned all other offers. the select men’s society. “Where I grew up, if you told somebody you were going to do something, you did And yet, through it all, he remained unaffected by all the attention and accolades. “I it,” he says. “I never once thought about going back on my commitment to Furman.” have never seen a boy carry such great publicity so humbly,” Walter Johnson, the athletic Selvy, of course, was as good as advertised. Freshmen couldn’t play on the varsity director at Presbyterian College, said at the time. in those days, but the 1950-51 Furman freshman team went undefeated as Selvy av- Selvy’s basketball career did not end after he graduated from Furman in 1954. He eraged better than 25 was the No. 1 pick of the points per game. The Baltimore Bullets in the varsity, which had posted National Basketball As- a 3-20 record that same sociation draft and signed season, managed a to- a $10,000 contract, the tal turnaround Selvy’s most money ever paid sophomore year, going to a rookie at that time. 18-6 with Selvy averag- But the NBA was not the ing 24.6 points a game. billion-dollar empire it Furman was named the is today — which Selvy most improved team in found out when the Bul- the nation. lets declared bankruptcy Selvy — the Corbin three weeks into his first Comet — only got bet- season. ter. He led the country in “They told us scoring as a junior (29.5 the team had folded after points per game) and as a game in Fort Wayne, In- a senior (41.7), and he diana,” Selvy says. “They played every minute of also told us we could get every game his final sea- back to Baltimore the best son. That same year, he way we could.” became the first player Selvy thought to average more than 40 about giving up the pro points a game and score game right there, but more than 1,000 points the NBA had a re-draft in a season (1,209). for the Bullet players and During his varsity he was the only player on career, Furman com- the team selected. So it piled a 59-21 record and The arrival of Selvy (No. 28) helped Furman’s 1952 team (pictured) defeat Duke and South Carolina on was on to the Milwaukee defeated Duke, South the way to an 18-6 season, making the Paladins the nation’s most improved team. (later St. Louis) Hawks, Carolina, Miami (Fla.), where he averaged 19 Clemson, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Manhattan. By the time his Furman points per game in 1954-55 while playing alongside another star rookie, forward Bob career was finished, Selvy held 24 major college records and had scored 50 points or Pettit. But his pro career was interrupted again when he was called into the U.S. Army. better eight different times. He was a three-time All-American, which included being Stationed in Germany, he missed part or all of the next three seasons. named to the first team his junior and senior years, and was named the United Press When his service commitment ended, Selvy returned to the NBA. After a season International National Player of the Year his final season. with the New York Knicks, he spent the last five years of his pro career as a member of If there was a better player in America, people couldn’t say who it was. Frank McGuire, the Minneapolis and Los Angeles Lakers, where his teammates included Hall of Famers

45 2012-13 Furman Basketball The Record Book / Man Of The Century FURMAN VS. NEWBERRY Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. The Lakers Feb. 13, 1954 made the playoffs every year Selvy was Furman (149) FG FT TP there and played in the championship finals Bennett...... 0...... 1-1...... 1 twice. He retired from the league in 1964. Floyd...... 12...... 1-1...... 25 Selvy spent a total of nine seasons in the Fraley...... 3...... 0-2...... 6 NBA, none of which mirrored the spectacu- Poole...... 0...... 0-0...... 0 lar success of his college years. Although he did produce big scoring games and was the Thomas...... 5...... 1-1...... 11 leading vote-getter for the West team in the Kyber...... 0...... 0-2...... 0 all-star game his rookie year, there were no Roth...... 0...... 0-0...... 0 coaches like Lyles Alley who made Selvy the Gordon...... 0...... 0-0...... 0 focal point of their offenses. SELVY...... 41.... 18-22...... 100 “I think I could have done in the pros what Deardorff...... 1...... 1-1...... 3 I did in college, but you have to have plays Wright...... 0...... 0-0...... 0 set up for you and you have to get a lot of Jones...... 0...... 1-1...... 1 shots,” says Selvy, who averaged 10.8 points Gilreath...... 1...... 0-0...... 2 per game for his pro career. “I played point TOTALS...... 63...... 23-31...... 149 guard for the Lakers, and my role was to play defense and get the ball to Jerry West and Newberry (95) FG FT TP Elgin Baylor. And that’s what I did.” Boland...... 0...... 0-0...... 0 Once he left the NBA, however, his bas- ketball career wasn’t over. There was one Warner...... 2...... 0-4...... 4 final stop, this time as a coach at his alma Leitner...... 6...... 4-7...... 16 mater. He and his wife, Barbara, returned Bailey...... 0...... 1-2...... 1 to Greenville, and after two years as an as- Blanko...... 14...... 7-10...... 35 sistant at Furman, he took over for Alley just Cone...... 1...... 0-0...... 2 before the start of the 1966-67 season. His Roth...... 0...... 3-4...... 3 44-59 record in four years as Furman’s coach McElven...... 1...... 0-0...... 2 helped rebuild the program and paved the Davis...... 13...... 6-7...... 32 way for the success of the Joe Williams years. TOTALS...... 37...... 21-34...... 95 But Selvy doesn’t remember his coaching days fondly. Newberry 19 25 22 29 — 95 “If I had it to do again, I wouldn’t have Furman 38 39 32 40 — 149 coached,” he says. “It was a mistake for me to come back. There weren’t many full scholarships and I put too much pressure on myself. We did OK and made a few improvements, but I was glad to get out alive.” After that, Selvy joined the sales department of St. Joe Paper Company in nearby The first player selected in the 1954 NBA Draft, Selvy played alongside Laurens and worked for 25 years, retiring in 1995 on the same date he started. He says NBA greats such as the Hawks’ Bob Pettit and the Lakers’ Jerry West and he never played basketball again once he left the pros, not even in pick-up games. “I was Elgin Baylor. too beat up,” he says, citing a litany of nagging injuries. Now 71, Selvy lives just outside of Greenville. He and Barbara, a former Miss Ar- courtesy of his playing days. kansas he met on a blind date set up by Pettit during his Army days, enjoy spending time As for that night nearly 50 years ago, when he set a record that will likely hold up as with family. He still plays a pretty mean game of golf — he is a former club champion long as people play college basketball, Selvy is finally ready to reveal the secret to scoring at Greenville Country Club — and likes to take pictures of his grandchildren and e-mail 100 points in a game them to friends and relatives. He manages to attend about 10 Furman basketball games “I was able to relax and not let all the hoopla and pressure get to me,” he said. “That’s a season, and he remains in excellent health except for those lingering aches and pains the only way something like that can be done. Just relax and let it happen. And that’s the way I always played. I just wanted to go do it. I had no doubts.” FRANK SELVY Other — Jersey No. 28 Retired; Furman Athletic Hall-of-Fame (Charter Member); South Carolina G, 6-4, 180, CORBIN, KY., FURMAN UNIVERSITY Athletic Hall-of-Fame; Furman Records Held (17); Southern Conference Records Held (10); NCAA Records Held (5) YEAR G FGM-FGA .PCT FTM-FTA .PCT PTS AVG 1951-52 24 223-556 .401 145-199 .730 591 24.6 FRANK SELVY’S PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL CAREER 1952-53 25 272-646 .421 194-263 .733 738 29.5 Year Team(s) G FG-FGA PCT FG-FTA PCT REB PTS AVG 1953-54 29 427-941 .454 355-444 .794 1209 41.7 1954-55 Balt.-Milwaukee 71 452-1195 .378 444-610 .728 394 1348 19.0 Totals 78 922-2143 .430 694-906 .766 2538 32.5 1955-56 St. Louis 17 67-183 .366 53-71 .746 54 187 11.0 1952 — All-America (3rd Team Converse); All-Southern Conference (1st Team); All-Southern 1957-58 St. Louis-Minn. 38 44-167 .263 47-77 .610 88 135 3.6 Conference Tournament (1st Team); South Carolina Player-of-the-Year. 1958-59 New York 68 233-605 .385 201-262 .767 248 667 9.8 1953 — All-America (1st Team Converse); All-Southern Conference (1st Team); All-Southen 1959-60 Syr.-Los Angeles 62 205-521 .393 153-208 .735 175 563 9.1 Conference Tournament (1st Team); Southern Conference Player-of-the-Year; South Carolina Player- 1960-61 Los Angeles 77 311-767 .405 210-289 .727 301 832 10.8 of-the-Year; Southern Conference Athlete-of-the-Year. 1961-62 Los Angeles 79 433-1032 .419 298-404 .758 412 1164 14.7 1954 — United Press National Player-of-the-Year; All-America (1st Team Consensus); All-Southern 1962-63 Los Angeles 80 317-747 .424 192-269 .714 288 826 10.3 Conference (1st Team); All-Southern Conference Tournament (1st Team); Southern Conference 1963-64 Los Angeles 73 160-423 .378 78-122 .639 149 398 5.5 Player-of-the-Year; South Carolina Player-of-the-Year; No.1 Draft Pick of Baltimore Bullets. Career 565 2222-5640 .394 1676-2312 .725 2109 6120 10.8

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