Six-six forward Stan Boskovich taught the West Virginia University basketball team this valuable lesson when he arrived in Morgantown as a member of Joedy Gardner’s first recruiting class.

Boskovich, from nearby Masontown, Pa., remembers joining a group of 11 other basketball and football players for a four-on-four pickup game at the Coliseum. Boskovich patiently sat underneath the basket as the two teams were picked.

As is the case with most pickup games, selecting teams is often an exercise in first impressions. Boskovich, his long, floppy hair parted on the wrong side, t-shirt hanging on shoulders probably sculpted from a steady diet of candy bars, and the only white guy on the floor, didn't get picked.

Okay, he thought. I’ll sit this one out and I’ll get picked up when the next game starts.

Once the first game was over Boskovich was left out again. When he was passed over a third time, Stan decided to take matters into his own hands. He stopped the next game.

“What the hell is going on?” Boskovich asked.

Finally Johnny Schell, a junior defensive back on the football team from Atlanta, Ga., pointed at Boskovich and said, “Come on -- you’re on my team.”

Boskovich never sat the rest of the day. His team won every game and from that point on, he earned the respect of the 11 other players standing on the court. By the time his career at WVU was finished had the respect of every college basketball fan in the state.

Boskovich came to West Virginia University from Yavapai Junior College in Prescott, Ariz. His journey to Arizona started almost by accident.

He had signed a scholarship to play basketball at Pitt after his senior season in 1971. Pitt’s basketball coach, Buzz Ridl, was a distant relative of Boskovich although neither knew it at the time.

According to Boskovich, West Virginia Coach Sonny Moran, who was also hotly recruiting the Albert Gallatin star, discovered problems with his high school transcript, made it known to Pitt, and Boskovich wasn’t permitted to enroll in school.

“I never forgave Pitt for that and I told Sonny Moran that I would never play at West Virginia as long as he was the coach there,” Boskovich said.

With the end of the summer rapidly approaching and really no other alternatives, Boskovich went to Yavapai to play baseball.

That’s right: baseball. In addition to being one of the top prep basketball players in Western Pennsylvania, averaging 27.5 points per game as a senior including scoring 54 in one contest, Boskovich was also a top American Legion pitcher with a good fastball. The Pittsburgh Pirates picked him in the 33^rd round of the 1971 draft and offered him a Double-A contract.

At the time, college rules prohibited professional athletes from participating in any sport so if Boskovich had signed a pro baseball contract, he would not have been permitted to play college basketball.

He was not yet willing to sign away a promising basketball career. So with the help of Uniontown, Pa., native Tom Holliday, later baseball coach at Oklahoma State, Boskovich found his way to Yavapai Junior College, its campus situated on an Indian reservation. The baseball coach at Yavapai was Gary Ward, who later became well known at Oklahoma State and is now coaching at New Mexico State.

“I was so committed to playing baseball at the time that it didn’t matter where I went,” he said.

Meanwhile, Yavapai basketball coach Dave Brown also found out that Boskovich was on campus. The forward soon joined the Roughrider basketball team that fall and played so well that he never pitched an inning for the baseball team.

“We went to the NJCC tournament two years in a row in basketball and I missed fall and spring baseball,” he said. “After a while they just said, 'Stick with basketball, Stan.’”

While at Yavapai, Boskovich had done particularly well against Arizona Western College where Gardner happened to be coaching at the time.

In two games, Boskovich scored 52 points against Gardner's teams. The forward was a two-time all-region pick that also included junior colleges from California, Utah and Western Colorado, and helped his team to a 25-4 record as a sophomore in 1973.

During Boskovich's sophomore season at Yavapai, Gardner accepted the head coaching job at West Virginia. One of the first things he did was track down Stan and offered him a scholarship. Forgetting his ill feelings toward Moran and WVU, Boskovich jumped at the chance to come back East.

“I just wanted to get back closer to home,” Boskovich admitted.

Gardner once remarked of Boskovich, “I saw (Stan) play the two previous years and knew he was a good shooter with very fluid movement. He uses good headwork and plays with minimum wasted movement.”

Put another way, Stan wasn’t going to set the world on fire in practice. “I saved it for the games,” he laughed.

“I guess you could say Stan was kind of a throwback player,” recalled longtime West Virginia athletic trainer John Spiker. “It wasn’t like he was the hardest working guy on the team.”

Boskovich scored 10 points in his very first game against Georgia Southern and had 21 against Pitt four days later. From that point on, he was rarely ever out of the West Virginia lineup.

Later that year, he dropped 31 on Massachusetts in Charleston and nine games after that, scored a career-high 40 points against Davidson on Feb. 1, 1975. More than 25 years later, that is still the last time a West Virginia player has managed 40 points in a basketball game at the WVU Coliseum.

Boskovich also owns the WVU record for consecutive free throws made with 32, tied in 2003 by Patrick Beilein. Boskovich set the record on the very day his grandmother died. He also had a 35-point effort in a 105-99 loss to Illinois State in the regular season finale.

“We were just out to have fun that game,” said Boskovich. “I think we got a technical for dunking in pre-game warmups.”

West Virginia defeated Pitt, 75-73 in the first round of the ECAC tournament before falling to Georgetown, 62-61 on a last-second shot by Derrick Jackson.

“There’s no way we should have lost that game,” said Boskovich.

Despite the loss, West Virginia finished with its first winning record in three years (14-13). Boskovich was marvelous, averaging 17.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game in Gardner’s self-proclaimed "Mountaineer motion offense." Boskovich shot 49.4 percent from the floor, mostly on lefthanded jump shots from the corner and stickback baskets underneath.

“Bosko” could score effortlessly. After his 40-point performance against Davidson, Gardner was astonished when he picked up the box score and realized that Boskovich had that many points.

“I would have never guessed it,” Gardner said after the game.

As good as he was offensively, the same couldn’t be said for his defense. Virginia’s Wonderful Wally Walker lit up Boskovich for 28 points in a Cavalier win in Charlottesville and let him know about it as the two teams shook hands after the game.

“I couldn’t guard him,” said Boskovich. “Walker came up to me and said, ‘I can’t wait until next year.’”

Walker was a native of Millersville, Pa., and had played against Boskovich in the Dapper Dan all-star game in high school. The following year Boskovich begged Gardner to let him guard Walker again.

“I guarantee you he will not beat us up here,” Boskovich told his coach before the game, half-hoping Gardner wouldn’t take him up on the offer.

“Okay you’ve got him,” said Gardner.

“Oh God,” Boskovich laughed. “I thought for sure Joedy wouldn’t let me guard him.”

Boskovich had no other choice. About two minutes into the game, Stan made it a point to send Mr. Walker a little message. Noticing that the two officials were concentrating on the action inside, Boskovich made his move. As Walker drifted back for a fade-away jumper, Boskovich planted a forearm right in Walker’s jaw, driving the Virginia All-America three rows into the seats.

While Boskovich jogged up the court, Walker came running from behind and drilled him in the back of the head. Walker was whistled for a technical foul. Two hours later, a distracted Walker finished just 1 of 7 from the field with three points before fouling out of the game.

Meanwhile, Boskovich scored 19 points, grabbed two rebounds and handed out two assists in 27 minutes. West Virginia won 71-58.

“I got him,” Boskovich smiled, “and Gardner said there was now way we’d hold him under 20.”

That wasn’t the only time Boskovich showed his moxie on the court. It was said that Pitt players had a bounty on him after he ran guard Tom Richards into the basket, breaking his arm. Boskovich also believes he is the only player to ever start a fight in a Fellowship of Christian Athletes exhibition game (actually they were called Athletes in Action back then).

“The whole first half this guy kept doing stuff to me and finally I told him, 'Iif you don’t stop it I’m going to get you,'” Boskovich recalled. “Well he kept it up so I just hauled off and nailed him right in front of their bench. I got hit in the head from behind and when I came to, four other players got thrown out and I stayed in the game. To this day I don’t know how that happened. The thing is I was in the FCA, too!

“I didn’t do this stuff all of the time, but I sure had some fun with it,” he added.

Amazingly, Boskovich scored double figures in 47 out of 52 games. He wound up his two-year career averaging 17.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and shooting 50.3 percent from the field. His 82.7 percent free throw percentage ranks fourth all-time at WVU.

“I averaged 18 points in about 18 minutes per game,” he said. “Every time I tried a behind-the-back pass or something crazy, Joedy would always yank me.”

“Chances are that behind-the-back pass probably went to the other team,” added Spiker.

Boskovich was drafted in the eighth round by Golden State following his senior season in 1976 and lasted two months with the Warriors before being waived in training camp. He stuck around long enough to earn the nickname “Spot” by NBA all-star forward Rick Barry.

“He called me that because I would always spot up and hit the jumper,” said Boskovich.

Boskovich also dabbled in the Pirates organization for a brief time and played some minor league basketball before going back to school and finishing his finance degree at WVU. Since the mid 1980s Boskovich has worked for Tico-Thaxton Investments in Columbus, Ohio. He is remarried and has two children, daughter Stacey and son Jeffrey.

Like most ex-athletes, Boskovich enjoys golf. His team finished second at the WVU Varsity Club scramble at the Pines Country Club a few years ago.

Imagine Boskovich loping up to the first tee, the bill of his ball cap flatter than a skillet. One golf partner winks to the other as the big lefty addresses the ball. They train their eyes off to the left in anticipation for a big shank.

Then all of the sudden Boskovich lets one rip 300 yards down the middle of the fairway. He says he's a three-handicap. Off they go toward their golf balls, Boskovich’s partners shaking their heads in amazement.

Yes, looks can sometimes be deceiving.

Back to Varsity Club Profiles