RIP Bryan Adrian: Davidson Wildcat Basketball star from the 70’s

Bryan John Adrian:
Mr. Adrian, 59, of Charlotte, was born on May 19, 1950 in New York City, NY and died on February 28, 2010 in Charlotte.. …

Bryan Adrian helped the Davidson Wildcats knock off John Roche, Tom Owens, Tom Riker, John Ribock, Kevin Joyce and company back in 1970 and Bryan Adrian was going coast to coast with his Bryan Adrian basketball camps back when basketballl camps were almost unheard of on a national basis and Adrian brought his camps right here to the Triad back in the early to mid-80’s…..

The word on those that knew about those Bryan Adrian camps:
Over the past 30 years, The Bryan Adrian Basketball Camp became the Premier Summer Basketball camps in the United States….Past participants included:
Michael Jordan
Tim Duncan
Jerry Stackhouse
Antwan Jamison
Vince Carter

On Bryan Adrian and his beloved Davidson Wildcats from here at Greensborosports.com back on March 28, 2008:

I saw Davidson play back in the day when the Wildcats ruled the real Southern Conference with Richmond, ECU, Furman, William and Mary and all the other giants of mid-major college basketball back in the late 60’s/early 70’s. I was there watching as the group I would call the best-ever Wildcats took the court. Mike Maloy, Doug Cook, and Jerry Kroll….There was never a better three-some at Davidson.

Maloy(now I remember Maloy with one “L”, like Buddy Landel with one “L”) was All-American in 1968, 1969, and 1970. The teams with Maloy, Cook, and Kroll were a win away from the Final Four two years in a row and lost each time to Dean Smith’s UNC Tar Heels. There was not a better trio around than Maloy, Cook and Kroll. Maloy was a black college athlete and he is still Davidson’s all-time career leader in rebounds and he did all it in three years. Like Stephen Curry; Maloy, Cook, and Kroll could compete with college basketball players on any level.

Maloy, Cook, and Kroll had a guy with them in ‘68 and ‘69 named Wayne Huckel and Huckel was also with the Wildcats in 1967. I remember Huckel real well and then in 1970 Bryan Adrian was one of the stars with the Maloy, Cook, and Kroll bunch.

Among the stand-alone greats at Davidson were Fred Hetzel who averaged 27.3 points per game in the 1963-1964 season and Hetzel has the Davidson single-game scoring mark with 53 points. Hetzel was All-American in 1963, 1964, and 1965. Dick Snyder averaged 26.9 points per game for the Wildcats in the 1965-1966 season. John Gerdy averaged 26.7 points a game for Davidson in the 1978-1979 season and Mike Maloy checked in at 24.6 points a game back in 1968-1969.

I still haven’t seen anything that can compare to the that team that featured Mike Maloy, Doug Cook, and Jerry Kroll and Maloy is, in my opinion, “the best-ever basektball player at Davidson and one of the best to ever play college basketball in this state”.

10 thoughts on “RIP Bryan Adrian: Davidson Wildcat Basketball star from the 70’s

  1. Don’t forget Michael Spann from Burlington Williams who was a starter on that team with Malloy, Kroll, Cook, etc. That was in the days of a 16-team NCAA before socialism and greed took over D1 basketball. LOL!!!!!!

  2. I grew up with Brian and played against him as a kid. He was the best player in the project I ever saw and we had many great ones.After his injury, he came home and I hung around with him for about a year and always remembered he was a wonderful person who loved to laugh and party. After a year or so ,he went back down south. I thought he taught tennis but I guess he went back to what he was successful with.I’m happy he had sucess in his camps because he was a fine person when I knew him.

  3. I love him like a brother. I wish that he I got to see him more often. He was always good to me. I miss him so much. We always laughed about our ages He was younger but I said I was better looking. Miss you and love you
    Ellen

  4. I watched him play for Davidson at the Old Charlotte Coliseum . I had a remarkably talented kind and had him in Brian`s camps in Charlotte simply for the fundamentals & discipline. There will be NO OTHER liek Brian Adrian .
    dmg

  5. A truely tragic story. Brian was an incredibley complex and talented person. Basketball and tennis were skills were incredible. His story is sad and tragic. RIP my brother.

  6. I worked for Bryan and Mary for years doing their camps. Bryan was very private, yet when he would visit the camps the kids loved him. He will be missed by the Charlotte area.

  7. wow so sorry to hear the news i still got my programs when he played for davidson, such a great basketball player,he will be missed.

  8. I am pretty sure that I played against Brian Adrian in a Christmas Tournament in December of 1967 in Falls Church VA. Can someone let me know if he played for Archbishop Malloy High in New York. They beat us in the second round (West Catholic Phiadelphia PA). I believe that Kevin Joyce was also on that team. Thanks,
    lwilt13@aol.com.
    Larry

  9. Yes, Bryan Adrian played for Archbishop Molloy High School in New York (we were called “Stanners”). Kevin Joyce and Brian Winters are two other Stanner athletes from that era.

  10. Just a slight correction to the lead: Kevin Joyce, a year behind Bryan Adrian at Molloy (the latter was in the class of ’68), was on a freshman team at South Carolina in 1969-70, so he wasn’t on the varsity at the time that Adrian, a soph, had that outstanding performance. It was Bobby Cremins, Roche’s backcourt mate, who had the thankless job of trying to stop Adrian that night. The other names in the lead (Roche, Owens, Riker, Ribock) are correct.

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