Doug Collins isn’t sure how he's going to pull it off this weekend.
Collins was a top broadcaster for NBA games for many years, so he’s not lacking a gift of gab. The Redbird legend is struggling to come up with how to condense a lifetime of basketball from his years as a student-athlete at Illinois State University, as an Olympian, a pro player, a coach and a broadcaster into his speech when he is inducted this weekend into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.
“When you take 50 years, it’s hard to squeeze into 10 minutes,” Collins said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
Collins is the most decorated athlete in Illinois State Redbird history. He remains the basketball program’s all-time leading scorer a half century after he graduated.
Collins had the opportunity to leave ISU a year early and turn pro. He said he was promised a lucrative four-year contract with the Chicago Bulls at a time when $100 was all the money he had.
Collins decided to “bet on himself,” wait one more year to turn pro, play for ISU another season and also compete for the U.S. Olympic team.
“I said I want to find out how good I am. Had I left [ISU] early, there would be no jersey retirement, no name on the court, no statue and would not be a part of Illinois State the way I am today,” he said.
Collins was a member of the 1972 Olympic team that “had the gold medal ripped out of my hands” in a controversial 51-50 loss to the Soviet Union in the gold medal game. It came moments after Collins made what would have been the game-winning free throws.
In 1973, Collins was the No. 1 overall NBA draft pick by the Philadelphia 76ers. He played nine seasons before retiring due to injuries and then shifted to coaching and, later, broadcasting.
Collins said the Hall of Fame honor is more than he ever could have dreamed of as a kid who didn't start on his high school basketball team in Benton, Illinois until his senior season.
Current Redbirds
Collins said the Redbirds should be set up for success now that coach Ryan Pedon has had three recruiting classes to build the kind of team he wants.
“I said to coach Pedon, I’m not putting pressure on you, but once we get this right, we should never not be a top four team in the Missouri Valley,” said Collins.
Pedon called Collins a tremendous ambassador for the university, the men’s basketball program and the Missouri Valley Conference.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever met a more prideful alum than Doug Collins, and that’s really cool,” said Pedon, adding Collins has become a friend, mentor and occasional father figure.
“He’s a really special person to me and my family,” he said.
Horton Field House
Collins said he hopes ISU can make annual returns to Horton Field House. ISU brought back the venue for a game in late 2022, in the first game there since Redbird Arena opened in 1990. Collins, who attended the game, said the atmosphere, including the noise from fans and lighting through Horton’s exterior windows, provided a distinct home court advantage.
“The energy that was in that building, I said coach [Pedon], that’s the energy I felt every night I played, and they didn’t even have the big bleachers in,” Collins recalled.
The game was well received by fans and the university, but the second game there in December 2023 was marred by an alleged racial epithet that a player from the opposing team said they heard from a fan. ISU later said it couldn’t prove what was said.
Collins called the incident “unfortunate” and “tough,” but said he’d like to see ISU return to Horton at least once per season if it can make sense financially for the university.
ISU athletics director Jeri Beggs has said the Redbirds plan to bring back the Return to Horton games, but the facility will need to undergo some renovations that will delay that for at least a year.
Collins said the only way Redbird Arena could provide the same energy was if it had about 2,000 fewer seats.
“When we put 8,000 people in there, you have the home court advantage as opposed to having all these empty seats even when you have a big game,” he said.
State of the game
Collins expressed concern with many of the changes that have radically changed college sports in recent years, primarily Name Image and Likeness [NIL] rules that enable student-athletes to make money from endorsements.
“I would never coach college, because I could never put up with what’s to be in there,” he quipped, noting many of his contemporaries retired [coaches Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jay Wright, Jim Boeheim] around the time NIL was impacting college recruiting.
Collins said he’s concerned it will become harder for schools such as Illinois State to compete in bidding wars to recruit athletes, and keep them from transferring if they have success, adding he'd like to recruit the kind of players he could be proud of and would want to play for him.
Looking ahead
Collins, 73, said he doesn’t travel as much as he used to as he battles neuropathy in his legs and feet. He’ll follow the Redbirds and his son Chris Collins’ team at Northwestern.
As he prepares for the drive to Springfield from his second home in Westchester, Pennsylvania [his primary residence is in Scottsdale, Arizona], Collins said he’s looking forward to seeing more than 100 invited guests who plan to attend his Hall of Fame celebration being hosted by the Chicago Bulls.
Collins said nearly a dozen supporters from ISU athletics, including Pedon and Beggs, will join him this weekend.
“I’m blessed. I’m blessed beyond my wildest dreams,” he said.
