Richard Fuqua has often been referred to as “the man who built the Mabee Center,” and now Oral Roberts University’s legendary basketball player has a practice court named in his honor.
Fuqua, a native of Chattanooga, Tenn., played basketball at Riverside High School prior to attending ORU. He was recruited by the late Ken Trickey who had just been hired to be the head coach at ORU in 1969. Prior to coaching at ORU, Trickey had been the head coach at Middle Tennessee State, his alma mater, and was already very familiar with the young basketball star at Riverside High School.
Upon graduation, Fuqua enrolled at ORU and was a standout on the basketball team for the next four years (1969-1973). Because ORU did not gain full NCAA Division I status until 1971, and the fact that the team was independent and not a member of any conference, much of Fuqua’s statistics have been left out of the NCAA Division I record books; what a shame.
Fuqua scored 3,004 points in 111 games. He averaged 31.8 points per game as a sophomore. He averaged 35.9 ppg as a junior and finished second in the nation in scoring that year (1971-72). Fuqua averaged 27.1 ppg over his four-year career.
In February 1971, during his sophomore year, Fuqua scored 60 points in a game against the University of the South. Keep in mind, there was no three-point basket at the time.
He had been a prep All-American in high school and was a second-team All-American selection in 1972 and a third-team All-American in 1973. Fuqua is one of few players to have his uniform number, 24, retired by ORU, and is a member of the school’s athletic Hall of Fame.
Fuqua helped lead the Titans to the National Invitational Tournament in 1972 and 1973.
When Fuqua first arrived on campus, the basketball team was playing their games in a small, igloo shaped building on campus called the Titan Fieldhouse. It seated fewer than 2,800 people but with standing room only areas, they could cram around 3,000 into the arena. Word spread quickly that this young phenom from Tennessee was lighting up the scoreboard each night, and often fans had to be turned away.
That’s when Oral Roberts decided he needed to build a larger facility to house his men’s basketball team, to showcase how special the team really was. The university broke ground in 1970, and in 1972 the Mabee Center opened with seating for more than 10,000 fans. Now, in Fuqua’s last season, a larger number of local fans could attend the games and watch him put on a show.
After his college career ended, Fuqua was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the 4th round (69th pick overall) of the 1973 NBA draft, but unfortunately, he never played a game in the NBA.
Last week, ORU honored the legend by naming the men’s practice court in the Micheal Carter Athletic Center after Fuqua.
Fuqua was on hand for the ceremony, joined by Ken Trickey’s children, Ken Trickey Jr. and Kay Trickey-Herring.
The tribute was made possible through a generous donation from Ken Trickey’s family and the Trickey-Herring family.
TULSA BEACON RADIO
Tune in to “Tulsa Beacon Weekend” radio show every week, featuring interviews with local and national guests, talking about everything from politics to family issues. This week, my guests will be local author Elven Lindblad and Allan Guerrero, senior admissions specialist at ORU. The show airs on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CST on 970am KCFO.