When flipping through the pages of men's basketball history at Towson the mid-70's stand out as an exciting era when the Tigers created a stir in the Baltimore metropolitan area with their incredible record, national ranking and plethora of local talent with Brian Matthews right in the thick of it.
Along with Mindy Bean (softball), Stan Eisenhooth (football), Christina Ghani (gymnastics), Christie Landi (soccer) and Reed Sothoron (lacrosse), Brian will be inducted into the Tigers' Hall of Fame Friday, October 21st at the 58th Annual Induction Banquet at the Delta Hotels Baltimore Hunt Valley, 245 Shawan Road, Hunt Valley, MD. The 1971 Men's Lacrosse Team will be honored as well as the Team of Distinction. Tickets are available by visiting https://towsonuniversity.regfox.com/towson-athletics-tiger-honors-hall-of-fame-induction-2022
Unheralded coming out of high school at Baltimore City College, Brian made the short trip to Towson where he found a home with the Tigers. "I wasn't getting a whole lot of attention," Brian recalls, "so I visited Towson and liked it. Besides, Pat McKinley was there and it was a chance to hook up with him again since we'd played together at City."
Brian became a four-year starter for the Tigers. His first two seasons were somewhat inconspicuous when he averaged 10 points and 7.5 rebounds. He exploded in his junior year to lead the Tigers in scoring with a 17.9 clip and a 10.0 rebound average. The Tigers posted their best record in their half-century history of basketball, going 27-3 record, closing out the regular season as the NCAA's Division II poll champion. Two of their losses were to local rivals; defending NAIA national champion Coppin State and the University of Baltimore. The Tigers and 25-4 UB Super Bees met five times in sold-out games during that 1976-77 campaign with the Tigers winning four of those contests, handing their then-arch rival its only losses of the season.
"It was special playing against UB in those games," says Brian. "So many of us had played on the same high school team at City. UB had Ronald Smith, Gerald Watson and George Pinchback. In addition to Pat, we had (point guard) Roger Dickens, who attended City but didn't play high school ball. Roger and I have known each since we were nine-years-old. He's still my closest friend. And there was Pat Britton, another friend from the neighborhood. It all made for a great rivalry."
While growing up Brian was known as "Gumby", a moniker that stayed with him through his playing days. "Someone in the neighborhood started calling me Gumby and it stuck with me. I think the guys on the team really thought it was the name on my birth certificate because that's all they pretty much called me."
In his senior year Brian led the way with an 18.8 scoring average as the Tigers forged a 26-4 record. Towson finished with a number three ranking in the Division II national poll. The accolades piled up for Brian. He became only the second Towson basketball player to earn first team All-American honors when he was selected to the Converse and American Basketball Coaches Association teams. He repeated as a first team All Mason-Dixon Conference selection. He was named for a second time to the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional tournament team in addition to spots on the conference and Baltimore Metro tourney teams. He was Towson's 1978 Male Athlete of the Year.
Brian still ranks 4
th on Towson's all-time scoring list with 1,665 points that we scored before the three-point field goal was instituted. He is one of only two Tigers to grab over 1,000 rebounds as he remains the program's 2
nd all-time leading rebounder with 1,062. He is still the program's career leader in steals with 269.
He later attended the Philadelphia 76ers rookie free agent camp. "I lasted three days," Brian says. "That was really the end of my playing career. I didn't consider playing overseas because in those days it was quite different from what it is now."
