High-scoring Grant gets hall of fame nod

The big names in Sunday night’s induction ceremony in Kansas City will be Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, whose epic battle in the 1979 NCAA title game spawned the modern era of big-time college basketball. Johnson’s coach, Jud Heathcote, former Oklahoma star Wayman Tisdale, NCAA patriarch Walter Byers, longtime coach Gene Bartow and contributor Bill Wall will also be inducted.
Grant? He’s the answer to a trivia question most people get wrong: Who is the all-time leading scorer in college basketball?
The most common response? Maravich.
But Grant scored 378 more points than Pistol Pete. He just did it at a small, historically black teaching college in Frankfort, Ky., while Maravich caught the nation’s eye with his magic act at Louisiana State.
Grant chose Kentucky State over bigger schools because of his relationship with coach Lucias Mitchell. The two had met early in Grant’s high school days while Mitchell was coaching at Alabama State. When Grant graduated, he followed Mitchell to Kentucky State.
Turned out to be a great decision.
After spending the first half of his first game on the bench, Grant entered in the second half against Campbell College. He hit his first shot, another, eventually 10 straight. Grant became an instant cult figure with the Kentucky State fans, who dubbed him “The Machine” on the spot.
Grant kept churning out points after that. The 6-foot-7 shooter led the Thorobreds in scoring as a freshman, to three straight NAIA national championships from 1970-72, and became the first small-college player to win the Lapchick Trophy as college basketball’s player of the year as a senior.
By the time he was done, Grant had scored 4,045 points, still the all-time, all-division NCAA record. His name dots in the NAIA tournament record book, too, including points in a career (518), in one tournament (213) and in a single game (60 against Minot State in 1972).