(Creston) Former standout athlete Randy Long from Creston will be inducted into the Iowa High School Athletic Association Basketball Hall of Fame Friday night.
Long competed in an era of the single-class State Champion and All-State teams. He had a brilliant athletic career with the Panthers. He was All-State in basketball in 1964 and 1965 averaging an impressive 29 points and 14 rebounds per game. As a junior and senior he led Creston and the Hawkeye Eight Conference in scoring and rebounding. With single-game conference highs of 50 and 49 points, he finished his two-year blitz with school records of 1,258 points and 608 rebounds.
Long was tough to stop. He was a great outside shooter, attacked the rim and hit the boards hard.
“We were a competitive team back then and I did whatever it took,” stated Long. “I tried to play hard each and every game.”
As a youngster Long remembers practicing for hours.
“I lived close to an elementary school with a cement court and before that, it was any pole that had a rim on it. I spent a lot of time shooting and dribbling the basketball,” said Long. “It was a sport I could practice on my own.”
Randy earned an all-state honorable mention in football, setting new school marks in passing yards and field goals, and baseball, where he was a pitcher and a shortstop. In addition, he set track school records and was a state qualifier in the high hurdles and high jump.
‘That was my life, I wanted to play any kind of ball and I played all of them.” said Long.
Randy Long played basketball and baseball at Kansas State one season but returned to Southwestern Community College for a year where he averaged 27 points per game and earned a basketball scholarship to Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama where he played two years while earning his degree.
Long has a lot of great memories playing high school and college basketball including the time he played in a senior all-star game at Rupp Arena in a preliminary game before the Kentucky Kernels and the New York Nets. Long recalls it was his first time playing with a three-point line.
“That three-point line is all I could think about prior to the game,” said Long. “And we got the tip and I think I took one dribble and let it go and knocked it down, and ended up having a good night,” said Long. “After the game Coach, Rupp shook my hand and said, “boy where did you learn to shoot like that? Sports provided a lot of memorable things for me.”
After college, Randy Long coached and taught in Alabama guiding a 16-and-under team to the AAU State Championship. Returning to Iowa, he taught and coached at Harmony of Farmington and Bridgewater before moving to schools in Missouri. He served as the athletic director at Savannah and West Nodaway.
Randy and his wife Diane live near Savannah. They have raised sons, Jeremy and Jason, and daughters, Heather and Amy and have six grandchildren.
Randy, along with the new inductees will be honored at around 6:30 p.m. Friday just before the Class 3A championship game.
