SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Doug Collins has had many names during his career: Jet, GOAT, friend, father, All-American, father-figure, Olympian, mentor, broadcaster, All-Star, benefactor, but on Sunday evening he added another – Nasmith Basketball Hall of Famer.
The top honor to anyone associated within the game of basketball, Collins joins a Who’s Who of basketball’s history, including basketball founder James Naismith, and a player that he coached both in Chicago and Washington, who is arguably known as the greatest to ever play the game, Michael Jordan.
Collins has played and worked in basketball at almost every level including being an All-American at Illinois State, an NBA top overall draft pick, an Olympian in 1972, playing for the Philadelphia 76ers, coaching the Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, and Washington Wizards, and an NBA and Olympic broadcaster for ABC/ESPN, CBS, NBC, TNT, and TBS.
“I think I have an inerrant gene that if I do something, I want to be the best at it,” said Collins at his Saturday press conference. “As a young person, I never was afraid to fail, and I always thought that in those moments I could learn a lot about myself. I didn’t start on my high school team until I was a senior. I scored three points per game as a junior. I went to college to play for the first black head coach in Division I basketball. I met Coach Will Robinson and fell in love with him, and he taught me toughness and gave me great wisdom.”
“I’ve always developed relationships with older men, because I like wisdom,” said Collins when asked about his decision to play for the first black head coach, and his pride in that. “In the Bible it says seek wisdom, and I’ve always sought that. Coach Robinson came at the end of my freshman season, and he was around 60 years old at the time and came from Detroit Pershing High School. He coached Spencer Heyward there. When you meet with someone sometimes, and you look into their eyes and you can just feel something special, and I felt that about coach.”
His humble beginnings and expectations quickly blossomed into something much more under the knowledge and tutelage of Coach Robinson. “I was 6-2 and 150 pounds when I went to college, so I didn’t go there looking to be an NBA player, I went there trying to be my high school coach. I wanted to be a teacher, I wanted to be a coach, I wanted to get married and have a family. Every year that went by, my career just kept exponentially rising. (Coach Robinson) had a great way to not let you get too silly about yourself when you were young.”
When talking about Coach Robinson, Collins recounted a moment that ended up being a fulfilled prophecy. “We played Arkansas my senior year – we always had to play the bigger schools on the road because they wouldn’t come here to play us – and we beat them. It was a really good win. We were walking off the court and he had his arm around me, and I said that it was a great win, but asked how he took all the heckling and the things being said about him. He said ‘Champ, those people don’t know that one of these days they’re going to have a black coach’. Now you go to 1994 and it’s Duke vs. Arkansas in the NCAA Championship Game, and my son is playing for Duke. Arkansas (with Nolan Richardson as head coach) wins on a Scotty Thurman three-pointer. Not only was Coach Robinson a visionary that they were going to have a black coach, but that he was going to lead him to a National Championship. He could spot a phony a mile away, and just know that someone has nothing for you. I listened to him.”
Collins’ playing ability will forever be in the Illinois State history, but his legacy is literally cemented into history outside of CEFCU Arena. “My friend Don Franke and his family paid to have a statue built in front of our arena at Illinois State, and its Coach Robison kneeling, with my hand on his shoulder. I’ve always told people that it’s not a basketball story. It’s a white kid from Benton, Illinois meeting this black man from Detroit, and coming together to creating a Division I program that they could lead. It is a love story. My hand on his shoulder, to me, was saying ‘Coach, I trust you and I believe in you’.”
Collins is joined in the 2024 Hall of Fame class by 12 others including: Chauncey Billups, Vince Carter, Seimone Augustus, Bo Ryan, Michael Cooper, Walter Davis, Charles Smith, Dick Barnett, Harley Redin, Michele Timms, Jerry West, and Herb Simon.
Collins remains the most decorated athlete in Illinois State history. The three-time All-American and 1972 Olympic Team member holds Illinois State records in career scoring (2,240), season scoring (847), career field goals made (894), and season field goals made (352). He had nine career 40-point scoring games over his ISU career, including the second- and third-highest scoring games in program history. He scored in double-figures in all 77 of his career games. The floor at CEFCU Arena was re-named “Doug Collins Court” on February 3, 2007. Because of his stellar play, he was the No. 1 pick in the 1973 NBA Draft by the Philadelphia 76ers.
He had also received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 and was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
Collins becomes the 15th inductee from a school in the Missouri Valley Conference, including: Coach Dr. Forrest C. (Phog) Allen (Kansas, 1959 Class), Coach Walter Meanwell (Missouri, 1959 Class), Ed Macauley (Saint Louis, 1960 Class), Bob Kurland (Oklahoma State, 1961 Class), Coach Henry “Hank” Iba (Oklahoma State, 1968 Class), Coach Eddie Hickey (Creighton and Saint Louis, 1978 Class), Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati, 1979 Class), Wes Unseld (Louisville, 1988 Class), Coach Ralph Miller (Wichita State, 1988 Class), Coach Denny Crum (Louisville, 1994 Class), Larry Bird (Indiana State, 1998 Class), Chet Walker (Bradley, 2012 Class), Nolan Richardson (Tulsa, 2014 Class), and Maurice Cheeks (West Texas State, 2018 Class).
Located in Springfield, Massachusetts, the city where basketball was born, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, preserving, and celebrating the game of basketball at every level – men and women, amateur and professional players, coaches, and contributors, both domestically and internationally.
The Hall of Fame Museum is home to more than 400 inductees and over 40,000 square feet of basketball history. Nearly 200,000 people visit the Hall of Fame Museum each year to learn about the game, experience the interactive exhibits and test their skills on the Jerry Colangelo “Court of Dreams.” Best known for its annual marquee Enshrinement Ceremony honoring the game’s elite, the Hall of Fame also operates over 70 high school and collegiate competitions annually throughout the country and abroad.
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