PI honors Smith for 1,000 points

Barney Smith played high school basketball in an era when the only statistics that mattered were wins and losses.

But the point guard who graduated from Presque Isle High School in 1965 also kept track of his own game-by-game scoring on one of those large Pepsi team schedules commonly found in storefront windows back in the day.

He had plenty to count.

“Back then it was sort of frowned upon to keep track of your scoring,” Smith said, “but I knew I scored 1,000 because I’d write down whether we won or lost on the schedule, and then the points I got I wrote on the right side.”

Forty-one years later, that accomplishment finally has been recognized by his alma mater, thanks to the help of a former teammate.

Jim Carter, PI Class of ’64, was broadcasting a Presque Isle game on local cable TV last winter when senior forward Greg Whitaker was recognized for reaching the milestone.

“I looked at the gym wall with the plaques of all the 1,000-point scorers, and I thought, ‘I think I played with a guy who scored 1,000, too,'” said Carter.

So he sought to prove that point, which required visiting the University of Maine at Presque Isle library to scour microfilm of the local newspaper from Smith’s playing days.

Eventually he found the needed documentation, not in a big feature outlining Smith’s career highlights, but within a modest game report.

Carter alerted school officials, and a plaque recognizing Smith as a 1,000-point scorer – the first in Presque Isle history – recently was mounted in the gym near those of Whitaker and others who reached the milestone as Wildcats.

“After 40 years, I really didn’t care,” said Smith, who for the past 18 years has lived in Jonesport. “I was a completely different person back then, but now it really didn’t matter to me that much.

“But I do appreciate the fact that Jim thought enough of it to go through the trouble of doing the research.”

A three-year varsity player at Presque Isle, Smith topped 1,000 in his final regular-season game. He then starred for coach Dint Lovely’s sixth-ranked Wildcats as they upset No. 3 Brewer and No. 2 Winslow on their way to a berth in the Eastern Maine Class LL championship game, where they lost to George Wentworth’s undefeated Stearns Minutemen.

That tourney run represented Smith’s career in microcosm. Against Brewer he was the consummate scorer with 34 points. Against Winslow he was both scorer and playmaker, ravaging the Black Raiders’ zone press for 28 points and 20 assists.

“That was my best game,” said Smith, who went on to play freshman basketball and varsity baseball at Duke.

Forty-one years later, Smith believes he might have been a more prolific scorer under modern basketball rules.

“I could shoot from the 3-point line, and with that shot being worth more now, it would have been to my advantage to shoot it more,” he said.

One thing Smith is even more emphatic about is sharing credit for his scoring success.

He thanks his parents, his school, his community, rival schools and communities, everyone who played a role in shaping a high school basketball environment that enabled him and others to thrive.

That gratitude hasn’t changed over four decades.

“I was lucky to have been able to do this because so many others made sacrifices to give me the opportunity,” said Smith. “I don’t think kids realize the efforts of so many people that go into making a program that can make a kid a star.”

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net