Hall of Fame
George “Bucky” Kimmett, Jr., a three-sport letter winner, was the Tigers’ first 1,000-point career scorer in the men’s basketball program. He passed away January 1, 2018, the day of his 89th birthday.
A 1951 graduate of Towson State Teachers College, Bucky was a four-year starter for the Tigers’ basketball team (1947-51). He also played two years of soccer as a goalkeeper and four years of baseball. But basketball is where he earned his way into the Towson record books.
A two-year captain, up until his death he remainrf the only player in program history to have paced the Tigers in scoring all four years. He ended his career with 1,418 points in 97 games for a 14.6 average. His scoring lead held up for 23 years until Larry Witherspoon (1971-74) passed him with 1,546 points.
As a senior he scored 503 points for an 18.6 per game average. He led the Tigers to their first ever Mason-Dixon Conference playoff berths in 1948 and 1950 when Towson recorded a program best 15-9 record.
He was part of the first class inducted into Towson’s newly organized athletics Hall of Fame in 1964. For the next 53 years he attended nearly every annual induction ceremony including this past October.
After graduating Bucky was offered a contract with the Detroit Tigers for $250.00 a month which he turned down, opting instead to serve his country. He spent two years in the Marine Corps before embarking on a 43-year career as an educator and coach. A graduate of Baltimore City College, he taught at McDonogh School and Edmondson High School prior to joining the faculty at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute in 1968 where he would spend the next 31 years as a mathematics teacher and coach.
In 31 seasons, his Engineers piled up a 333-313 basketball record that included the 1995 state championship. He also spent 25 years as Poly’s assistant football coach. In 1995 he received the John W. Voight Award symbolic of an outstanding assistant coach in the State of Maryland with at least 20 years of loyal service.
