WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina -- If you are going to have college basketball hall of fame dedicated to the small colleges and universities, Big House Gaines and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe are two of the initial inductees that make sense.The Small College Basketball Hall of Fame, a new hall of fame that will be in Evansville, Indiana has been started.
The induction ceremony will be held Nov. 17 at the Ford Center.
Gaines, who died in April of 2005, guided WSSU to 828 wins in a 47-year career that included a national championship.
Monroe, 71, played at WSSU in the late 1960s and went on to become one of the all-time greats in the NBA.
“I’m just reading the e-mail as you called,” Monroe said by telephone today from New York. “I had no idea or any inkling that this was going to happen but it’s exciting for all of us who went to small colleges.”
Monroe was especially happy that Gaines, one of his mentors, is recognized for his contributions to basketball.
“It’s absolutely terrific that coach Gaines is going in as well and you can’t forget John McLendon also going in,” Monroe said about McLendon, the former N.C. Central coach.
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