I saw a story on the news this evening. Some of you may remember Gene Banks; he was one of Duke's first high profile recruits (out of Philadelphia) in the modern era. He had a solid but unspectacular career in the NBA. He recently lost his wife to MS. He had moved here to the Greensboro, NC area several years ago so that she could be reunited with her family through her illness. She passed on a year or so ago, but Gene (who has a couple of daughters I think) is coaching women's basketball at Bennett College-- reviving a dormant program.
I remember him well. Gene Banks Gene is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a high school scholastic All-American. In 1977, The National Writers Association of America voted Gene “National Player of the Year” and his high school team (West Philadelphia High School) “National Champs” with a record of 30 wins and no losses. His high school honored him in retiring his number 20 uniform. Gene later chose Duke University over 500+ universities in the United States and led them to the national basketball championship game as a freshman. He led Duke to two ACC championships and was voted All-American his junior and senior year. He received a B.A. in History and was the commencement speaker, for the Class of 1981’ Duke University graduation. While at Duke, he finished second all time in scoring and finished in the top ten of every category. He was the ACC Rookie of the year, ACC First Team and Second Team. Gene was voted into the Duke University Sports Hall of Fame and the Duke Hall of Fame “Wall of Honors”. Gene was drafted by the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA and played 4 years with the Spurs alongside Hall of Fame great George “Iceman” Gervin an Artis Gilmore. He scored a career-high 44 points against the Los Angels Lakers and finished with an average of 15.9 points per game. Gene was later traded to the Chicago Bulls and joined up with the great Michael Jordan, where he was a starter for 3 years and considered their best defensive player. Gene had played and coached overseas for over 10 years in countries such as France, Italy, Israel, Argentina, Peru, Greece and Belgium. He developed THE GENE BANKS LEAGUE of Greensboro, North Carolina. This league is geared to under-privilege youth using sports and academics. He had taken up acting and was chosen to play a part in the movie “Eddie”, staring Whoopi Goldberg. He has done color commentary for the MEAC and Fosstone Production on HTS Network. Gene was also Head Basketball Coach at Bluefield State College and NCAA Compliance officer. He is currently the Athletic Director at Bennett College and the women’s basketball coach as well.
