2000 Inductee
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Clarence 'Bevo' Francis
SPORTS
Nearly a half century after catapulting a virtually unknown college into national and international limelight with his phenomenal basketball skills, several NCAA individual scoring records are still held by the gentle and humble giant, Clarence 'Bevo' Francis.
Born one of 11 children in tiny Hammondsville, Ohio, Bevo received his education from schools in the Hammondsville, Irondale and Wellsville, before following his high school basketball coach Newt Oliver to the tiny Rio Grande College and community.
Despite being unable to play basketball at Wellsville High School until his senior year due to a school transfer and ineligibility mix-up, Bevo, nevertheless, broke the school's record and set a new state record by scoring 57 points in one game. He made the All-Ohio team and became the first high school athlete in the state's history to win a Helms Athletic Foundation Award.
His phenomenal scoring performance, honed in adolescence during weekend blitzes of "barn basketball" with friends, continued at Rio Grande for the 1952-53 and 1953-54 hoop seasons. Many of those feats stand today as reflected by NCAA records, which show that Bevo continues to hold the individual record for most points scored in a game (113); highest season average per game (46.5); number of games in which at least 50 points were scored (8 in 1954 and 14 in 1953-54); most field goals scored in a single game (38); most field goal attempts in a single game (71); most free throws in a single game (37) and most free-throw attempts both in a single game (35) and season (510).
After leaving Rio Grande, Bevo toured with the Boston Whirlwinds beginning in the summer of 1954. Later, after leaving the touring team, Bevo played in the Eastern Professional League. Drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors of the NBA but unable to reach an agreement with the team, Francis returned home to the Upper Ohio Valley and got on with the tasks of working and raising a family.
He and Jean, his wife of 49 years, are the parents of a son, Frank, and a daughter, Marge. They have three grandchildren and a great-grandson.
After settling in Highlandtown, where in 1955 he was among the 13 men who founded the Highlandtown Volunteer Fire Department, Bevo served as fire warden for several years. He also was active in Little League, refereed boys' basketball at Carroll Hills workshop for many years; and co-coached the Southern Local High School Girls Basketball Team in 1975 with his daughter-in-law, Gwen.
After working in various manufacturing jobs in the Upper Ohio Valley, Bevo retired in 1994. Honored annually at the University of Rio Grande, the school he, his coach and Redmen teammates put on the map, Bevo also has been the subject of numerous books documenting his on-court achievements.
Bevo's story seems destined to make the big screen on way or another. ESPN aired a one-hour show on him in December of 2000. In 1995, both Bevo and Oliver, his former coach, signed contracts with Disney Movie Studio for the rights to film the story of the famous Redmen team.