Sunday, January 19, 2014

the "Wilt Chamberlain of the deaf"

Perhaps the greatest high school basketball player of all time in the state of Arkansas history was deaf. It was on n this date (January 19, 1971-which is given here though the National Federation of State High School Associations says the game occurred on December 4, 1971) that Bennie Fuller score 102 points in a game against Leola that was played at Arkadelphia. Only three basketball players in U.S. history have scored more points in a high school career than Bennie Fuller did. Between 1968 and 1971, the 6-foot-2 guard scored 4,896 points for the Arkansas School for the Deaf becoming known as the "Wilt Chamberlain of the deaf." Now living in Oklahoma, Fuller sadly lost him home in 2013 to a tornado. He averaged more than 50 points a game that season. He was offered more than 100 scholarships to college but he ended up at Pensacola Junior College. He later worked for the US Postal Service and had four hearing children with his wife.