Editor's Note: The following story is part of a series highlighting the members of the 2024 Washington State Athletic Hall of Fame Class. The Hall of Fame induction will take place, Sept. 6-7, at the Washington State University campus.
It is fitting Don Collins is inducted to the Washington State Athletics Hall of Fame in the same arena where he created so many wonderful memories for Cougars.
One memory he and all Cougars cherish is an unforgettable Saturday in late January of 1980 at Friel Court in Beasley Coliseum.
Two days earlier, the Cougars defeated USC, 77-57 to improve their record to a gaudy 14-3. Collins scored a game-high 36 points and added 11 rebounds in front of a raucous sold-out crowd, many of whom lined up outside Beasley Coliseum five hours before tip.
Next up was UCLA. The last time the Cougars defeated the Bruins was in 1966. The previous year was tantalizing close, falling to No. 1 UCLA at Friel Court in three overtimes.
Could the Cougars get over the hump?
"I think we had a bit of an inferiority complex when it came to UCLA and we needed someone who could lead us not only physically but mentally," said George Raveling, WSU men's basketball coach from 1972 to 1983.
"I knew, and the kids knew and believed, that we could beat them," Raveling continued. "We kept getting closer and closer and couldn't get it done at the end. The margin between winning and losing was getting thinner. You knew at some point we were going to do it."
"We learned from that," Don Collins, who scored 36 points in the loss, said. "We took them to the edge."
For those who were there, it is a game still etched in their memories.
Led by Collins' 31 points the Cougars beat UCLA 80-64, in front of 11,742 cheering fans.
As the Daily Evergreen described in its account of the game, Collins "made three key swipes and slam-dunked each basket to the delight of the screaming fans."
"It is the best memory that I cherish," Collins said of that weekend while speaking by phone from Oregon Ohio, a suburb of Toledo, of that weekend.
"Friel Court was awesome," Collins added. "The fans were there all the time. My senior year it was off the chain."
Collins delighted fans and WSU students at Friel Court not only on that day but throughout his career.
"He created a new mentality on campus with the students," Raveling said. "He gave our students something to be really proud of athletically."
Love of the game
"I believe that Donald was put on planet Earth to play the game of basketball," Raveling said. "Donald loved the game. And he manifested his love by the way he played.
"There's little doubt in my mind that he was by far the best basketball player I ever coached," Raveling added.
Raveling's first look at Collins was during a recruiting trip at a basketball tournament in Sharon, Pennsylvania, on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.
"I thought, 'Oh man, I got to recruit this guy," Raveling said.
Collins committed to attend Florida State, but the Seminoles were put on probation, and the NCAA let Collins out of his commitment.
"I didn't know what I was going to do," Collins said. "My high school coach kept pushing me, saying 'Give Pullman a chance.' Finally, he put me on a plane. I came to Pullman and I had a fantastic weekend playing rec ball with the fellows and meeting Coach Raveling. He told me a few things that made my decision easy.
"He said, 'I will give you the opportunity to play. I promise you you'll get a chance to play,'" Collins continued. "That's all I wanted. I felt like I could compete."
Before he could compete on the court, Collins had to battle a bout of homesickness.
"When I first got to WSU for the first semester, we wouldn't have a practice and I didn't really see my teammates because most of them been there for a year or two," Collins said. "I was homesick."
It was basketball, and being around his new family, that proved to be the remedy.
"Once practice started and I got to be around my teammates and we're doing team activities it was like when I came for that recruiting weekend," Collins aid. "I wasn't homesick anymore. That was my family."
Off and running
Collins averaged 5.3 points a game as a freshman and increased that to 15.2 points a game as a sophomore.
Entering his junior year in 1979, Raveling made Collins the focus.
"Coach put the ball in my hands my junior year and we were off and running," Collins said.
The focus of the offense, Collins averaged 18.5 points a game as a junior as the Cougars finished the season 18-9 and fourth in the Pac-10.
It was 1980 when the Cougars and Collins arrived.
Collins averaged 23.4 points a game and set the conference single-season scoring record with 442 points. He earned Pac-10 Player of the Year honors, still the only Cougar to achieve that honor.
After the win against UCLA, the Cougars closed out the regular season winning seven of the last nine games to finish with a 22-5 mark. It was the first 20-win season for the program since 1949 and first NCAA Tournament selection since the national runner-up season in 1941.
The legacy of the 1980 season still is felt today on the court and in the arena.
After the 1980 NCAA appearance, the Cougars made the tournament in 1983, 1993, 2007, 2008 and 2023 with numerous other postseason appearances along the way.
"He was one that helped make people respect Washington State in basketball," Raveling said.
"I think it was the beginning for it being okay to go to Washington State," Collins said. "They've had some great players after me that took the chance to go to Washington State who probably wouldn't have if we hadn't had that year in 1980."
The final game of the 1980 regular season was March 1, 1980 at Friel Court. Collins scored 19 points as the Cougars clinched their NCAA Tournament berth.
When he is inducted to the Hall of Fame on Friday, Sept. 6, it will be the first time Collins steps foot in the arena since that March day 44 years ago.
While Collins has been away from the WSU campus, WSU has never left him.
"I'm a Coug for life," Collins said and repeating for emphasis, "I'm a Coug for life.
"I am very proud to be a Washington State Cougar."
