You were lucky if you found a seat for a basketball game one night several years ago at the Oneonta High School gymnasium. It may have been a cold January night in 1987, but the action was warm and toasty inside as Oneonta took on the No. 1 ranked large school in the state at the time, the Binghamton Patriots.

The Yellowjackets weren’t exactly Rodney Dangerfield-like coming into the game. They were ranked third in small schools in the state. Oneonta "got respect" that night, unlike Dangerfield, the late comedian, in upsetting Binghamton, 58-56, in double overtime.

The nearly 1,500 who came out that Saturday night, Jan. 3, didn’t necessarily come for the game alone. The fans were primarily for Oneonta, but they came to see a Binghamton player, a phenom named King Rice.

"The King show came to town tonight," said then-Oneonta varsity coach Bob Zeh. "Heck, even the local paper played it up that way, and that’s why most of the 1,500 people were here; they wanted to see King Rice. No one wanted to see Oneonta play."

Binghamton High’s record was 84-8 with Rice as a varsity point guard. By the end of the night, one of those losses was courtesy of Oneonta.

Rice, in his senior year at Binghamton, had been a standout in the 1985-86 basketball season, helping the Patriots become the overall state Class A champion. Colleges from near and far had their eye on Rice for recruitment.

Jim Boeheim was looking at Rice for Syracuse. So was North Carolina, a basketball team that had been chosen No. 1 in the nation in most 1986-87 preseason tabulations. Rice made his decision in mid-November 1986 and chose North Carolina.

Oneonta had been humiliated by the Patriots in the previous season’s matchups and in the Southern Tier Athletic Conference title game. Oneonta had a 16-game home-court winning streak going in early 1987. Meanwhile, Binghamton came to town with a rare two-game losing streak in tow.

Oneonta quickly established its inside game, with 6’11" senior Steve Downey popping in seven of the Yellowjackets first nine points. Guards Steve Quinones and Frank Microni were shooting well from the floor all night.

Binghamton did just as well, with "the King" scoring 23. The game ended in regulation time tied at 50. One overtime passed. Then came the second.

The frantic finish started with Rice holding the ball at midcourt. Unable to drive, Rice tried to pass the ball to teammate Chris Tolerson, who bobbled the ball. Microni swooped in, gained possession, and then passed to Steve Nesbitt. Nesbitt connected on the lay-up with one second showing on the clock. Time expired, and a wild celebration began for the Yellowjackets and 1,500 spectators.

"This is like a dream," Nesbitt said after the game. "I think they (Binghamton) expected a blowout. We were a little nervous in the beginning, but we stayed with them."

At that time, Zeh had 22 seasons of coaching behind him, with Oneonta and elsewhere. Asked by a Daily Star sportswriter if there were any win more memorable than this Binghamton upset, Zeh said he couldn’t remember any as big.

"You know, I had a feeling," he said. "I told the kids today, I had a feeling. I just knew we were going to do it."

"But it’s only one game," Zeh said. "We have lots of games to go. We didn’t win the championship." Still, it was Oneonta’s night to savor.

As for King Rice, his playing days didn’t last long after he graduated from North Carolina in 1991. He played professionally in England for awhile before returning to the States.

Rice stayed with basketball as an assistant coach at Oregon, Illinois State and Providence. He served as a head coach for the Bahamian National team for three seasons from 2002-2004. Rick Fox, an NBA player for several years, was a teammate of Rice’s at North Carolina. In recent years, the two hooked up to form CarolinaPros Inc.

One of the ventures of their company involves summer basketball camps. In 2006, Rice held these camps at schools in the Johnson City school district.

This weekend: You’ll meet a western frontier explorer from Bainbridge.

___

City Historian Mark Simonson’s column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.