Last night on the WFMY News 2 Sports, Frank Mickens was doing the honors and Frank gave a very nice credit to Tyler Lewis, of Forsyth Country Day School and Frank said that Tyler was the first basketball player from Forsyth Country Day to go DI in basketball, or at least that is what I thought I heard Frank say….(Tyler Lewis has committed to attend N.C. State in the fall of 2011.)
No big deal, but I said to myself, when I heard what Frank was just sayin’ and I thought, didn’t Steve Warren/Steve Warden go DI back in the 80’s…
I was thinking it was Maryland or Wake Forest for Steve Warden and it was Wake Forest, and he played basketball for the Deacons there, back in 1982/1983….
I did some research on the former FCD Fury Warden, this morning, just to be sure I was correct in my thought processes and here is a note from Dave Glenn’s ACC Sports Journal on Warden at Wake:
Wake Forest basketball players went to athletic director Gene Hooks to complain about Deacons coach Carl Tacy. One of their many gripes was that Tacy had told 56 percent free throw shooter John Toms to fake an injury when he was fouled late in a one-point loss at Georgia Tech. Tacy inserted freshman Steve Warden to take two free throws….
Warden scored 62 points total for Wake in ’82-’83 and he was 7-8 at the free throw line, in a game versus the Duke Blue Devils….
After his freshman year at Wake Forest, Warden tranferred to Guilford College and here are his numbers as a Quaker, over a three-year period….
1983-1984: 11.4 points per game…..
1984-1985: 9.5 points per game…
1985-1986: 14.0 points per game…
Crazy enough, Guilford travels to play Wake Forest in an exhibition basketball game at the LJVM, this Friday night….
I always try and remember these names from the past and most times they do not totally escape me….
Big George from last year is on scholarship at HPU.
Colby Lewis walked on to UNC Charlotte.
Bobby Hoekstra walked on to wake for 4 years 05-09.
There are some more recent examples too.
Congrats to Tyler and all of his future success.