Paul Grua
Weber State Media Relations
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Collins ranks second on the Big Sky’s all-time scoring list.
While he didn't travel too far to get to Ogden, Bruce Collins had quite a journey in his basketball career. He went from a lightly recruited player out of high school to the Big Sky's all-time scoring leader, to an NBA Draft pick, and a professional career in Asia.
It was a quite a ride for the player nicknamed "Hi-C" because of how he played above the rim, even as a guard. He is now regarded by many as the best basketball player in the history of Wyoming. But it didn't start out that way.
Collins was born Feb. 8, 1958 in Rock Springs, Wyo., the son of Willie and Mary Collins. He grew rapidly and developed basketball skills, particularly as a defensive specialist. "Since I was little I always guarded the best player and I was always tall," he recalled. "I started off from about fourth grade to ninth grade and I played center with my back to the basket. I already knew how to play in the low post. I had post moves and I could guard any center. That's why I had to guard Richard Smith at Weber State. He was 6-7 in seventh grade.
"When I got to ninth grade I wanted to be like my brother Willie," he continued. "He was a point guard and faced the basket and got to shoot the ball. He was a pure shooter and ended up going to Montana Tech. I wanted to be like him so I taught myself how to dribble with the right and left hand and I taught myself how to play in front of the basket instead of with my back to the basket. I spent five or six hours a day working on my game in high school. When I was a kid in the summer I would get up early in the morning and do my dribbling and running. Then in the afternoon I would do my shooting and at night I would go play ball at the gym. I had a really good routine but I always was doing my dribbling because I wanted to be a point guard and shoot the ball facing the basket instead of with my back toward the basket."
Collins had developed a complete overall game when he starred for Rock Springs High School. As a senior he was named the Wyoming 3A MVP and averaged 21.3 points and 15 rebounds a game in leading Rock Springs to the state championship. He was voted the MVP of the Wyoming-Montana All-Star game, scoring 27 and 38 points in the two games.
Despite his accolades in high school Collins wasn't flooded with offers to attend Division I schools. "I only had three Division I schools that recruited me: Weber State, Idaho State and South Dakota," he said. "I got hurt my senior year of high school and had an ulcer and I think that turned the University of Wyoming off. We used to go down to Utah all the time and when we went there it was always green and I liked the mountains. I just wanted something different than Wyoming so I chose Weber State."
"There were a series of events during his senior season of high school that probably kept him under the radar a little bit," said Neil McCarthy, the head coach at Weber State who lured Collins to Ogden. "For one thing he was in the hospital for a little while with a stomach problem. He played center for his high school team at 6-4 and they won the championship. The University of Wyoming was going through a coaching change and that probably had a factor in why Wyoming wasn't looking at him or Richard Smith.
Collins came to Weber State as a true freshman under coach McCarthy for the start of the 1976-77 season. However, he wasn't alone in new faces at the Ogden campus. He came in with three other freshmen that would form one of the strongest groups of players. Joining Collins that season was another player from Wyoming in 7-0 center Richard Smith from Green River. Mark Mattos came in as a point guard from Santa Barbara, Calif., and David Johnson joined Weber State as a 6-8 forward from Loomis, Calif. Those four players, who would become known as "McCarthy's Kids", would play four seasons together and combined to appear in 437 games for the Wildcats. They won three Big Sky titles, went to three NCAA Tournaments, and formed a strong bond that continued long after their careers ended.
"We all stayed in the same dorms for the whole time and we all got along really well and remained friends after we played," Collins said. "All four years we were there we all got along it was all about the team. We came in together as a team and we played as a team. That's how we did it."
Collins, who described himself as shy an innocent as a freshman, immediately became a starter and had 22 points and eight rebounds in his first career game, a 95-75 win over BYU. He followed that up with 28 points in a win over Utah in his second game. As it would turn out, Collins would start in all 120 games of his career as a Wildcat. As a freshman he averaged 14.4 points 8.2 rebounds a game and scored in double figures in 20 games.
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Collins was named Big Sky Tournament MVP three times.
One game Collins recalled that season was a meeting with ninth-ranked North Carolina at a tournament in Portland, a game which the Tar Heels won 75-54. "Every tournament we played in we thought we could win," Collins recalled. "The game we played against North Carolina when they were a top 10 team was the only game in my career we didn't think we could win. Other than that we thought we could win them all against anyone."
Coach McCarthy knew he had a special player in the freshman. "He was a tremendous athlete," he said. "He played center in high school and when we got him his freshman year I started him at small forward. We played for the championship as a freshman and he went for double figures. He had a great game as a freshman against Cal State Stanislaus. Our top scorer, Stan Mayhew, couldn't play that night and Bruce came in and had a terrific game as a freshman. He was a special player. He was very quiet and very nice. Never got into trouble and always conducted himself well. He was a very nice young man and an exceptional athlete."
In the win over Cal State Stanislaus Collins finished with career-highs of 39 points and 24 rebounds. The Wildcats posted a 20-8 record and finished second in the Big Sky at 11-3 during his freshman season of 1976-77. Senior Stan Mayhew led the Wildcats that year, averaging 22 points and 10.2 rebounds a game in his only season as a Wildcat. Mayhew set a Weber State single-game scoring record by posting 45 points in a home win over Utah State.
"I remember him as a freshman coming in and he was very, very quiet," Mayhew said of Collins. "He was a little shy; maybe a lot shy. He was kind of off to himself but was a really nice guy. He was a great teammate. He would do everything for the team. Some of those records will probably never be broken. He was a great player and athlete. I remember him dunking on people as a freshman. You're not supposed to be doing that as a freshman. He was a great all-around player and a very nice person with a big heart."
As Collins returned for his sophomore season a major change came to the Wildcat program as Weber State moved into the brand new 11,500 seat Dee Events Center in November 1977. The first few seasons saw terrific attendance at the Dee Events Center. "It was packed every night," Collins recalled.
"It was something new in town and we were winning so people wanted to see us. We called it the Golden Dome and people wanted to be in there."
As a sophomore Collins led the Wildcats in scoring in 15 of the 29 games and led the team in rebounding 14 times. He finished the year averaging career bests of 18.8 points and 8.3 rebounds a game and earned First Team All-Conference honors. The Wildcats finished 19-10 that season but won the Big Sky Tournament for the first time in school history and advanced to the NCAA Tournament, in what would be the first of three straight appearances, where they fell 73-52 to Arkansas. Collins averaged 35 minutes a game during that season.
The following season McCarthy's Kids were juniors and Collins was once again leading the charge, finishing with 16.2 points and 6.7 rebounds a game. Ben Howland also saw action in all 34 games that season and freshman Todd Harper played in 30 games.
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The Wildcats posted a 25-9 record, their most wins in 10 seasons, and captured the Big Sky title with a 10-4 record. They advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season and faced a New Mexico State team in the first round in Lawrence, Kansas. "Our first year in NCAA Tournament it was all bright lights and was a new experience for us," Collins said. "Our junior year we knew we could beat New Mexico State and we were able to."
Behind 19 points from David Johnson the Wildcats won the game 81-78 in overtime. It was Weber State's first NCAA Tournament win since beating Hawaii in 1972. Collins had 15 points and seven rebounds and played all 40 minutes.
After the win over the Aggies the Wildcats faced the Arkansas Razorbacks for the second-straight season in the NCAA Tournament and fell 74-63. Future NBA players Sidney Moncrief had 19 and Scott Hastings added 14 for the Razorbacks. David Johnson had a game-high 23 points but Collins struggled in the game, finishing with just two points on 1-5 shooting.
Entering the 1979-80 season McCarthy's Kids were now seniors and had high expectations for the year. Plus the Dee Events Center was selected as a host for the first round of the 1980 NCAA Tournament, which added even more to the excitement of the season.
Collins led the Wildcats once again, as Weber State posted a 26-3 record, including a 13-1 mark in Big Sky play. The 'Cats had an 18-game winning streak during the season and reached as high as 15th in the AP polls, the only time in school history Weber State has been nationally ranked. The 'Cats repeated as Big Sky champions and won the conference tournament. They did get the chance to play at home and faced Lamar in the first round of the NCAA Tournament but lost a tough 87-86 battle.
Despite leading the Big Sky in scoring at 18.3 points per game, Collins was not named conference MVP, but he did earn First Team All-Conference honors for the third straight season.
He finished his career as the Big Sky's all-time leading scoring with 2,019 career points and still ranks first in Weber State history in career scoring. He was named District VII Player of the Year, although he was not named as the Big Sky Player of the Year. Collins also finished his career fifth in rebounding in Big Sky history playing as a 6-5 guard. He averaged 18.3 points a game as a senior and started all 120 games of his career for the Wildcats.
"I'm so glad I got to play with Bruce," four-year teammate David Johnson said. "He was different than most guys you would think would be the leading scorer. He was soft-spoken and hardly said anything, unless he got mad; then he might blurt out something. He was just really quiet and calm and then all of the sudden he would dunk on the whole team. I remember when I was a freshman and we were out shooting before the season even started. I remember thinking he doesn't look that good and then he would jump and his head would be over the rim and I would say, 'How is that possible?' He was just one of those players that would lull you to sleep and the next thing you know he has 30 points on you."
"I watched Bruce play when I was at Utah State," said long-time Weber State Sports Information Director Bard Larsen. "He was one of those players that was so good of a guy and player that you couldn't really hate as an opposing fan. He didn't talk trash and a pretty cool and calm player. He was just one of those players that was good at everything. He was a good scorer, a good passer, a good rebounder, good defender and had spectacular dunks. He wasn't great at one thing but was really good at everything. He was a very hard worker and a humble person that always put the team first. He's may be the best all-around player we've ever had."
As of 2013 Collins is the only player in Weber State history to score 2,000 career points and still ranks third in rebounding in school history with 873. As he watched Damian Lillard move up the record charts Collins wasn't sure if his record would stand but Lillard finished his career 85 points shy of Collins.
"I can't believe I'm still the leading scorer after all these years," Collins said. "I was ready to go down and give my acceptance speech for Damian taking me over. He just fell a little bit short. I feel great still holding that record after 33 years. Not too many people hold on to records that long. I couldn't be happier about that. I'm even more surprised that I'm so high in rebounding because I was 6-6 and played small forward and big guard but I was always down there with the big guys."
After his Weber State career came to an end Collins was drafted in the second round (33rd overall) of the 1980 NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. "That first season in Portland I went through the preseason and played in seven of the preseason games before I got cut," he recalled. "I think they wanted to go big. I got cut for a guy who was 6-11 and that was what they wanted. The Blazers did help me get overseas to play. Right after that I went to Beijing, then Hong Kong and then the Philippines. I played overseas for three seasons and then just wanted to settle down and start a family."
Collins had the experience of playing professional basketball all over the world but decided to return to his home in Rock Springs and start a family. However, the transition from basketball to regular life was not an easy one for him. "After I got done playing basketball it was hard to get back to fitting into society," he said. "I had been playing ball so long and was used to playing ball I had a hard time fitting back in. It took my about nine years to get over not playing basketball at a high level."
After retirement he returned started working for the city of Rock Springs and a family recreation center. He also has continued to do basketball camps for boys and girls helping with the fundamentals of basketball. His son Kyle has been a manger with the Wildcat basketball team for several years under head coach Randy Rahe.
Collins is a member of the Weber State Athletics Hall of Fame and in 2012 was inducted into the Wyoming Sports Hall of Fame. His legacy continues as one of the best ever to play the game at Weber State.
