New Kensington's B.B. Flenory first made headlines in 1973 as a ninth-grader featured in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd section.
Now, after all these years, Flenory is still in the headlines with his recent selection to the Pennsylvania Basketball Hall of Fame. Flenory, currently in charge of the family division at the Pressley Ridge School on Pittsburgh's North Side, will be formally inducted this summer at a Harrisburg banquet.
Among other distinctions in his career, Flenory holds the single-game scoring records at his high school and his college. In his senior year at Valley, Flenory poured in 52 points in a game at Norwin. While at Duquesne University, he tallied 48 in the West Virginia Classic against Ohio University on Dec. 30, 1978.
During one's playing career, it's common for an athlete to concentrate on the next game instead of personal accomplishments. Now, Flenory, 50, can look back fondly at his days on the hardwood.
"When I was in Sports Illustrated, my father, who was a police officer at the time, got an early edition and came home and woke me up," the New Kensington native recalled. "I said it was nice, but I wanted to go back to sleep. As I get older, that's nice to reflect on."
During his time at Valley, the Vikings went to back-to-back WPIAL finals, losing to long-time scholastic powers Uniontown in 1975 and Farrell in '76. In the '75 semifinals at the then-Pittsburgh Civic Arena, Valley pulled out a memorable double-overtime victory over South Hills Catholic in a game that is still talked about more than 30 years later.
"Those were the highlights of my high school years," Flenory said. "But we've always thought we could have done more. We lost both years to Fifth Avenue High School. I see where the one (1976) team was rated the fifth-best of all-time."
Flenory also played in the NCAA Tournament as a freshman in 1977 with Duquesne, where his teammates included Dukes great Norm Nixon.
"Norm and I are still good friends," Flenory said. "I'm humbled to say we helped each other in practice. I helped him become a better dribbler, and he taught me enhanced defense and the intricate parts of the game."
These days, Flenory is concentrating on coaching. He is starting a program at Pressley Ridge and was an assistant for the Pittsburgh Xplosion this past season. Flenory plans to be helping out at the second Valley Legends Camp in New Kensington this summer while working on his hall of fame acceptance speech.
"I was pleasantly surprised by this; I'm humbled to be in select company like Wilt Chamberlain, Earl "The Pearl" Monroe and "Pistol Pete" Maravich," Flenory said. "I'm just as happy for my father, mother and children being able to take this in."
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