It's great to (see his jersey) go up there (in the Dee Events Center rafters) with Willie. You can't beat that. It's a heck of an honor. – Bruce Collins
OGDEN — Almost 40 years ago, a soft-spoken, shy young man from Rock Springs, Wyoming, who'd hardly been recruited by Division I schools, decided to play his college basketball at Weber State College.
The year was 1976, and that young man's name was Bruce Collins.
Four years later, no one could've guessed that he'd leave Weber State as the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,019 career points — a record that still stands.
And Saturday night, nearly 40 years after he first came to play for the Wildcats, Collins' No. 22 jersey was retired by the school in a halftime ceremony during the Wildcats' game against Portland State. He joins the late Willie Sojourner, whose No. 35 was retired last year, as the only former Weber State greats to be so honored.
"I was pretty delighted, caught off guard a little bit," Collins said about receiving word of the prestigious honor. "They kept saying it was coming, and last year they honored Willie Sojourner and my friends called me and told me I'd probably be the next one. I said we'll wait and see but, once they told me, I got pretty excited.
"It's great to (see his jersey) go up there (in the Dee Events Center rafters) with Willie. You can't beat that. It's a heck of an honor."
Collins was a quick, agile 6-foot-5 shooting guard who could do it all on the court — shoot from the outside, drive hard to the basket, dunk the ball with the best of 'em, jump out of the gym for rebounds and play some wicked defense, too.
And with the amazing way he could get up off the floor to dunk the ball, grab a rebound or swat away an opponent's shot, his nickname became "High C" — a fitting moniker for a high-flying fella whose vertical leap defied gravity.
Yet, despite his tremendous athletic ability and stellar performances on the court, Collins was a humble, soft-spoken guy who shied away from the spotlight. Instead, he was always quick to credit his teammates for their contributions to the team's success.
Yes, that was Bruce Collins — a rather quiet, unassuming and easy-going guy off the court, but one who could absolutely tear his opponents' hearts out with his all-around basketball ability on the court.
Collins played 120 games in his four-year career at Weber State and, amazingly, he started in every one of them. The Wildcats went 90-30 overall in those games, were 43-15 in Big Sky play and, along the way, won three consecutive Big Sky Conference tournament championships and reached the NCAA Tournament in each of his final three seasons at the school.
As a sophomore, he was a member of the first Weber State team to play in the then-newly built Dee Events Center. And, in his final game at Weber State, Collins had 32 points and 11 rebounds in an NCAA Tournament loss to Lamar. That disappointing defeat came in the Wildcats' own "Purple Palace" and ended one of the greatest seasons in Weber State history.
During the 1979-80 campaign, the 'Cats knocked off defending NCAA champion Michigan State, beat UNLV on the Rebels' own court, won another tough road game over New Mexico at "The Pit," piled up a school-record 18 consecutive victories, achieved a top-15 national ranking — the only time in school history that's happened — and finished 26-3 overall.
"When we came here, we wanted to make history as far as the Dee Events Center and as a team, and I guess we did a little bit of that, too," Collins said humbly. "So tonight's (ceremony) is just another part of it.
"We wanted to set a mark, and my teammates trusted me to score — and I could score. My defense created my offense, and it went on from there."
Collins came to Weber State in a recruiting class that included a couple of outstanding young players from California, point guard Mark Mattos and small forward David Johnson, along with another player from Wyoming, 7-foot center Richard Smith, who'll join Collins and Co. in the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame in a couple of weeks.
The four of them were affectionately called "McCarthy's Kids" after then-Weber State head coach Neil McCarthy, and several of those former teammates were on hand Saturday to help share in Collins' jersey-retirement ceremony.
During his collegiate career, Collins won a Big Sky Most Valuable Player award, was a three-time All-Big Sky first-team selection and was named MVP of the conference tournament three times. He still ranks as the second-leading career scoring in Big Sky history — not bad for a guy who played when there was no 3-point shot in college basketball.
If there had been, Collins' career point total would no doubt be considerably higher.
That said, the ever-humble Collins noted that current former Weber State great and current NBA star Damian Lillard "should've broken (Collins' career scoring record) a few years ago. I was down here, coming and watching games and getting ready for him to break it. And then he broke his foot and so he had to redshirt that year and then he left after the next year, or he would've broken it very easily. He was going for 24 or 25 a game."
Collins' son, Kyle, served as a graduate assistant on the Weber State staff for a couple of seasons when Lillard was playing for the Wildcats.
"I've talked to him several times and he's a very polite young man," Collins said of Lillard, "and the kid can play."
Collins is one of just three players in Big Sky history to reach 2,000 career points. Collins is also Weber State’s career leader in field goals made (823) and attempted (1,692) and also ranks fourth in career rebounding and fifth in career free throws made.
After his collegiate career came to an end, Collins was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the second round (33rd overall) of the 1980 NBA draft.
He went on to play three seasons of professional basketball in Asia before returning to Wyoming, where he has worked for 18 years for the city of Rock Springs at the city's family recreation center. He also has continued to do basketball camps for boys and girls, helping them learn the fundamentals of the game.
He and his wife of 33 years, Teresa, have two sons and a granddaughter, and many members of his family along with a lot of good friends from Wyoming made the trek from Rock Springs to join in Saturday night's celebration.
Collins has plenty of fond memories of the Ogden community.
"All the people here, their basketball knowledge, our coaches, our teams," Collins said as he reflected on his favorite times from his Weber State days. "We came here as a team, we didn't come here as individuals. Every game, it wasn't our last game but we played like it could have been.
"You can't beat this community. The community is a basketball community and they took good care of us and were always good to me. Everywhere we went, there were positive people around us, and we did a lot of good things in the community. We used to go down and do basketball camps on the weekends and always had a good time."
And from 1976-80, Bruce Collins and the rest of "McCarthy's Kids" joined together to make watching Wildcat basketball a rocking good time, too.
EMAIL: rhollis@desnews.com