During the 2023-2024 season NU will be retiring his jersey. He was moved to tears. Really cool moment.
Billy McKinney
- Thread starter ThatkidfromHolland
- Start date
I watched Billy play back when McGraw Hall had a dirt floor and the court was a relic from (I think) Kansas State. Billy was great. Just an amazing talent on really crap NU teams. Glad he is getting the recognition.
Of course, you also need to add Otto Graham and John Shurna to the retired jersey list.....
Of course, you also need to add Otto Graham and John Shurna to the retired jersey list.....
I lived two doors away from Billy at Foster Walker. In addition to everything said about him above, he is a genuinely nice person, very down to earth, modest, and a pleasure to be around. (He was also a great addition to our intramural volleyball team.) Congratulations Billy, sometimes good things happen to nice people!
Did somebody cut some onions this morning? Thanks for sharing that video.
For those of you at the game: they also had a nice tribute on BTN to Art Aaron, a guard from the early 80s.
Yeah, the only thing surprising about this news is that this wasn't done a long time ago.
The ceremony next year will be every bit as emotional as Billy’s speech at the pep rally in Salt Lake City. He was an incredible talent who deserved to be an All-American.
1) Is there any reason McKinney was general rumor around NU until several years ago? I know he was in the NBA and he only recently moved back to the area, but he was in the Bulls and Bucks organizations for many years. Did he have an NU issue? Who can blame him? Anyhow, he's a great ambassador. Good for whoever brought him back in the mix.
2) His career scoring is amazing w/o the three-point line. For those of you who saw him, are we looking at another 500-800 points if he has a three-point line?
2) His career scoring is amazing w/o the three-point line. For those of you who saw him, are we looking at another 500-800 points if he has a three-point line?
I don’t know about 500-800 more points: the seasons were shorter then, and in four years as a starter, Billy played 102 games and averaged a little under 8 FG/game. Even assuming half of those were 3 pointers, that only translates to less than +400 or so.
Having said that, if there was a 3 point line when he played, I would think he would have taken quite a few more shots. I think he was the best Wildcat I have ever seen at creating space to get a shot. A few years ago when John Shurna became the all time leader in points, a lot of posters here tagged him as the greatest Wildcat ever. At the time, I said, and still believe, Billy was the best I have seen.
I suspect he’s just resettling in the area. He’s been mayor of Zion since 2019 and working for the city since 2015. 2017 was his last year with the Bucks.
It’s nice to hear him — a guy with true ties to the school — as the color guy. I only heard the first IU game on the radio, and it was a blast.
What a neat moment.
I covered the Cats for the Daily Billy’s senior year. I remember setting up an interview with him and he dropped by our dorm room at Hinman House to be interviewed. Totally humble and down to earth dude. I can still see him firing up that pull-up jumper.
My freshman year against that IU juggernaut Billy made Quinn Buckner look like a chump at McGaw Hall -- absolutely unable to stay in front of him and Billy went for big numbers. You could see Bobby just reaming Buckner on the sidelines, but Billy was too quick, too fast. In the rematch at Assembly Hall, every time Buckner got beat off the dribble, Bobby Wilkerson was there to help. Don't think Billy got to double figures that game.
If Scott May didn't break his arm, that Hoosier team would have gone two season unbeaten. Billy was a class act on and off the court. Spring quarter he was playing every day at Patton Gym, and didn't mind when the slow white kid who was able to hit free throws (that's how the next team was selected, winners stayed and first five to hit a free throw played the next game) was running with the big kids...
If Scott May didn't break his arm, that Hoosier team would have gone two season unbeaten. Billy was a class act on and off the court. Spring quarter he was playing every day at Patton Gym, and didn't mind when the slow white kid who was able to hit free throws (that's how the next team was selected, winners stayed and first five to hit a free throw played the next game) was running with the big kids...
McKinney led the Cats to one of their signature wins, an 89-77 triumph over defending NIT champion Kentucky. We used to play them a lot back in the day and our all-time record against them is 1-14!
It's also long past time to hang a 1931 Helms Foundation national champions banner.
I remember that game! Listened to it on the radio, and was stunned. As I recall, it was our season opener that year. Perhaps the only night of the season we could beat Joe Hall's boys - even tho it was not one of his typically dominant teams.
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Yes Sir. My all time favorite Wildcat in any sport. I was in HS at the time, and my junior year my dad bought me season tickets for basketball, one of my favorite birthday gifts ever. Even though we were HORRIBLE, even with Billy, who absolutely would have been an All American if he played for any decent team in the Big Ten.
His performance in 1977 against defending NCAA champ Michigan, virtually single handedly beating them in the Old Barn, scoring 27 points (IIRC), and virtually playing keep away by himself from Rickey Green and the whole Mich team for the last two minutes of the game might be my all time favorite and greatest NU performance ever by a player for NU in any sport.
I know 27 points doesn't sound extra big, but it seemed like Billy scored 40 that night, absolutely taking over the game in the second half. A truly rare, spectacular performance.
Billy was a terrific outside shooter, so I have to think he would have added 3-4 points per game to his average if the 3 had been around then. But like East Bay and somebody else mentioned, he was nearly unstoppable off the dribble, and I recall most of his shots coming off pull up jumpers from about 15 feet after beating his man off the dribble. He could also finish at the rim amongst the trees too, that's how quick and strong he was at only 6'0 tall.
Bottom line is, if Billy had played for any decent to very good Big Ten team where he wasn't the ONLY quality scoring option, and teams had to actually guard somebody else besides him, I bet he would have averaged 25 points per game easily.
Parenthetically, I thought Mich was rated #1 when we played and beat them that year, so I was surprised by all the hoopla after our win over Purdue that that was our first ever win over a #1 ranked team.... but I guess my memory's off a bit.
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When NU beat Kentucky they were ranked 7th in the country. It was NU's second game of the year ironically after visiting Nebraska. On Saturday, January 29, 1977, Billy's Senior Year, NU Beat 2nd ranked Michigan with Johnny Orr as coach. The highest ranked team NU had beat until February 12, 2023.
Michigan was #2 that week, per sports reference: https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/michigan/men/1977-schedule.html
Yes, thanks for clarifying the facts on both games I referred to (slightly incorrectly).
The win over Michigan was more amazing considering we went 7-20 that year. I went back and looked at the schedule/results for that season, and we actually won five games in the Big Ten that year (we usually went 2-16 back then). But we also went 2-7 non-con, in spite of a schedule that included Brown, Fairfield, Ohio U, and a weak Nebraska team. Those were really frustrating times as an NU hoops fan (even worse for football), and Billy was The Bright Light for a four year period.
I definitely haven't seen a better basketball player at NU than Billy. The dude made it in the NBA as a third or fourth guard for eight seasons, and averaged 8 ppg for his career, as an undersized guard. That's pretty freakin good. Have we had any other player since 1980 match or better that?
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In those days, for me, the only hoops highlights were Billy Mac and Tim Teasley, the above-mentioned wins over Kentucky and Michigan, and the last loss suffered by Magic Johnson in college. . . except for seeing Tex Winter trying to jump out of his seat to protest a call and falling over backwards off the raised floor onto the dirt track. Truth be told I think I pissed myself I was laughing so hard -- once it became apparent that Tex wasn't hurt.
I could swear that at Billy's final home game, or maybe sometime thereafter, then Athletic Director John Pont presented Billy with bags full of pennies in a red coster wagon, one for each point he scored, 1,900 pennies, or $19 worth. I'm not sure I am remembering this correctly. Does anybody else remember something like this?
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Well anyway, I was there, and that is what happened. AD John Pont rolled out a red coaster wagen full of bags of pennies onto the basketball floor to honor Billy. Good ol' Mcgaw Hall where the Wisconsin Basketball radio announcers used to quip that when they turned on the lights, it just got darker. Not sure what the attendance was that day but quite a contrast to last Sunday when the announcement that Billy's number 30 would be retired was made in front of a sellout crowd watching a championship caliber Northwestern team at sold out Welsh Ryan Arena.
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