Super 70s Era – Superstar Players and More

Mike McConathy

In addition to the accolades of Dwight “Bo” Lamar at Southwestern Louisiana, the decade of the 1970s featured spectacular basketball performances with plenty of fantastic players in this 10-year period.

A three-time All-Southland Conference selection, Abilene Christian’s Ronnie Hearne led the league in scoring in 1970 with a 22.0 average.

Upon Louisiana Tech’s entry into the league in the early, few players were as physically gifted as the Bulldogs’ 6-10 center Mike Green, a two-time all-conference choice and the 1973 Southland player of the year after scoring 30.9 points per game. Green earned countless All-America honors, and was a first-round draft choice by both the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics and the ABA’s Denver Nuggets.

Arkansas State’s tandem of Steve Brooks and Don Scaife took scoring titles in 1974 and 1975, respectively.

Louisiana Tech’s Mike McConathy, who now leads Northwestern State as its head coach, earned three All-Southland honors as a sharp-shooting guard who twice led the league in scoring, including a 27.5 clip in 1977.

McConathy was followed by another great shooter, USL’s Andrew Toney who led the league in scoring from 1978-80, finishing as the Southland’s third all-time leading scorer with 2,526 points.

McNeese State’s Henry Ray (1975) and David Lawrence (1979) took league player of the year honors while each also earned first-team All-Southland honors.

Lamar’s dynamic scoring duo of Mike Olliver and B.B. Davis came on the scene in 1977, combining for over 5,600 points scored in their careers as the Billy Tubbs-led Cardinals became a nationally prominent program at the end of the decade.

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