This profile is the first in a series of articles posted on GoBonnies.com throughout this basketball season that will shine a light on some great players from Bonaventure's rich men's basketball history.

Quick – name the two St. Bonaventure men's basketball players who have averaged at least 20 points and at least 10 rebounds a game for each of their varsity seasons. 

The first name should come as no surprise:  Bob Lanier.

The second name…anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller? 

Does the name Glenn Price ring a bell?  If not, it should.   

The Washington, D.C. native may just be the most under-rated player in Bona's basketball history.  All he did was lead the Bonnies in scoring and rebounding all three of his varsity seasons.  He finished 18^th among players at independent colleges in field goal percentage his sophomore season (1971-72) and ranked 13^th in the entire nation in rebounding his senior year (1973-74).   

All while doing battle with numerous All-Americans and future pros much bigger than he such as Bill Walton, who many consider to be the best college player ever.  And, Price was drafted by the old Buffalo Braves, the NBA franchise which is now the Los Angeles Clippers.

Here's another morsel for you:  Price was perhaps the most sought-after recruit Bonaventure has ever landed.  As a student at Calvin Coolidge High School in Washington, D.C., Price received offers from multitudes of high-profile programs across the country, including numerous SEC, Big Ten and ACC schools.  A Washington Post article at the time noted that Howard Garfinkel, the legendary boys' basketball talent evaluator, listed Price among the top 40 high school seniors in the country.  

Price's recruitment was so intense that his high school principal, Dr. William Roundtree, joked that Price should have had a designated seat in the principal's office, given how often he was summoned to the office to speak with visiting college coaches.  

And here's another piece of trivia:  Price actually committed to another college before deciding upon St. Bonaventure.  (more on that later)

The kicker?  Price didn't take up organized basketball until he was in ninth grade! 

Yet, perhaps because none of his Bonaventure teams made it to the post-season, Price's name is seldom mentioned among the more hallowed names in Bona's basketball lore. 

But we digress.

Price came from a family of six boys and two girls who lived in Washington, D.C.   He spent much of his free time at the Metropolitan Police Boys and Girls Club No. 2 in Northwest D.C.  At one time or another, "No. 2" was the recreational home of boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard, college basketball coaching legend John Thompson, basketball Hall of Famer Austin Carr and NFL Hall of Famer Willie Wood, among others.

From The Gridiron to the Basketball Court

Price's first love back then was football – he was a wide receiver and defensive end.  One day, his friends took him to a basketball court and it became immediately clear that Price had no skills.  He couldn't shoot, couldn't dribble, couldn't rebound, couldn't pass. The good-natured ribbing from Price's friends motivated him to begin spending time on the courts to hone his skills. The rest, as they say, is history. 

 

Price grew to 6'2" by the ninth grade, at which point, "Guys asked me to play in a summer league that included both high school and college players," he recalls.  "I felt very honored to play with those guys.  I was playing center.  All they wanted me to do was rebound and pass the ball. They would handle the shooting," he chuckles.  "So I concentrated on rebounding.  In retrospect, it was a blessing."

Price's first taste of top-flight competition from outside the D.C. area came when he was a member of an All-Star team comprised of 15-year olds that travelled to New York City to play in a tournament against teams from all over the country.  Price did well enough to realize he could play with high-caliber talent on a national level. "That gave me confidence going into my sophomore year," he says, when he was a 6'4" starter for the Coolidge varsity squad who led the team in rebounding.  

Things really started to click his junior year after he grew two more inches.  One of his teammates and good friends from Coolidge was Kermit Washington, who later averaged 20 points and 20 rebounds a game at American University before enjoying a nice NBA career.  Just as Price's friends had earlier convinced him to switch from football to basketball, it was Price who convinced Washington to forego football in favor of basketball in high school, and Coolidge's basketball fortunes improved as a result.   

In High Demand

Price was overwhelmed his senior year by the number of schools that came a-courting, and the fervor with which they recruited him.  By then, he was 6'9".  He averaged 28 points and 21 rebounds per game that season.  His father owned a grocery store across the street from their house, and it was not unusual for numerous college coaches to be in the store at the same time, sweet-talking his dad.

Each coach had a unique pitch, too.  Lefty Driesell, then the head coach at Maryland, drew a lineup on a napkin and explained that the Terps had already landed stars Len Elmore and Tom McMillen and that Price was the missing link in Driesell's quest to make the Terps the "UCLA of the East."  "He could out-talk them all," Price says about Driesell.  

Roy Danforth, then Syracuse's head coach, took Price and his high school girlfriend Sheree (now his wife) to dinner in D.C. and started diagramming plays on a napkin.  Michigan wooed him with visions of his playing alongside the great Campy Russell.  Future Hall of Famer Dave DeBusschere sent him a telegram espousing the benefits of the University of Detroit, where he had played college ball.  When Price visited Jacksonville, he was hosted by none other than Artis Gilmore.

Among Price's finalists were Syracuse, American, Maryland, Detroit, Jacksonville and, of course, St. Bonaventure. The fact that Syracuse had a D.C. pipeline made the Orangemen inviting.  Future Hall of Famer Dave Bing, who played at Syracuse in the mid-60s, was from Springarn High School (Bing's Springarn coach was the same Dr. Roundtree who later was Price's principal at Coolidge), while Ernie Austin of fabled DeMatha High School was a senior guard at Syracuse at that time who hosted Price on the latter's official Syracuse visit.   

American? Well, remember our mentioning up top that Price had committed to another school?  That would be American University, in his hometown of Washington, D.C.  The lure there was the opportunity to reunite with his high school teammate Kermit Washington. 

American had actually scheduled a press conference to announce Price's arrival, but he tossed and turned the night before filled with indecision and ended up skipping his own press conference.  College was the biggest decision of his life up to that time, and he simply was not 100% certain that American was the school for him.  

The two things he did know for certain were that he wanted to go away to college, and he also did not want to go to a school in the South.  

 

Bonas had a local pipeline of its own.   Bonnies Hall of Famer Bill Butler, the captain of the 1968 team that finished the regular season undefeated, had starred at D.C. basketball juggernaut Mackin High School.  Vic Thomas, a sophomore on Bonaventure's 1970 Final Four squad, also hailed from Mackin, while Matt Gantt, who started on that Final Four team, hailed from nearby Cheltenham, Maryland.   

It also just so happened that the 1970 Final Four was held at Cole Field House on the campus of the University of Maryland, literally minutes from Price's house.  The Bonnies really grew on him, and head coach Larry Weise sealed the deal during a post-Final Four visit. 

Bringing His Game To Bonaventure

Price made an immediate impact at Bonaventure, averaging around 29 points for the 1970-71 freshmen team coached by former Bonnies star Jim Satalin.   (the NCAA did not allow freshmen to play on the varsity back then)

As a sophomore the next year in his first varsity season, Price was fortunate to play alongside four members of the 1970 Final Four team – Gantt, Thomas, Paul Hoffman and Tom Baldwin.  "They were fairly quiet in the locker room, but when they strapped on the brown and white, they were ready to play," Price says.  His take on Hoffman:   "Hoffy…he was tough.  He was a warrior…hard-nosed.  I'd go into a fight with Paul any day of the week."   Gantt?  "He had local roots.  We had all heard about Matt in high school.  I looked up to him and Vic.  Vic was such a great guy.  He actually gave me a couple of rides home to D.C. my freshman year."

Also on that 1971-72 team was junior Carl Jackson.  "He was the best defensive player to come through Bonaventure, by far," Price recalls.  "He had an all-around game, but defense was his best attribute.  He always took the toughest opponent on the other team." 

Price flourished that season, averaging 20.8 points and 10.6 rebounds a game.  The team's 16-8 record included a 20-point win over Boston College and a 16-point victory over a 12^th-ranked Providence team that featured All-Americans and future pros Marvin Barnes and Ernie DiGregorio.  Among the eight setbacks were a one-point loss to fourteenth-ranked Pennsylvania and a two-point loss to a fifth-ranked South Carolina squad that featured future NBA first-round draftees Tom Riker, Brian Winters and Kevin Joyce. 

In the season finale, Price recalls connecting on 11 consecutive field goals as the visiting Bonnies trounced Fairfield.

"We were 16-8, but we easily could have won 20 or 22 games," he points out.  In fact, seven of their eight losses were by six points or fewer; five losses by three points or fewer.  "The schedule we had that year, bar none, was the toughest schedule Bonaventure ever had.  When Larry (Weise) was recruiting me, he said he was going to beef up the schedule.  Everyone wanted to play us because we had been a Final Four team.  We were on the map."

SBU went 13-13 in 1972-73, Weise's last year as head coach.  Price's leadership role grew, as did his numbers:  he averaged 21.5 points and 11.3 rebounds.  Of note, the squad lost by one to a South Carolina team that had four NBA draftees:  Winters, Joyce and freshmen Alex English and Mike Dunleavy.  

Bona's earned wins against a Phil Sellers-led Rutgers, a Tom Ingelsby-led Villanova and Detroit, fronted by future NBA draftees Owen Wells and Terry Thomas.  Victories over Niagara and Canisius at Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium were additional highlights.   

Price was team captain his senior season, which was also Satalin's first year as head varsity coach.  Price continued to put up sterling numbers, averaging 20.0 points and 14.4 rebounds as the Bonnies finished 17-9, with wins against Georgetown, Xavier, Duquesne, Villanova and Detroit.

"It was great to re-unite with Coach Satalin," says Price.  "My senior year, I really wanted Coach Satalin to be successful.  That was a big motivation.  I really felt I owed him, my senior year.  I wish we had put up better numbers for him."

 

"It was Glenn's team his senior year," recalls Satalin.  "He was instrumental in helping Essie Hollis and Bob Rozyczko (two underclassmen who later starred for Bona's) develop their games. He was always a quiet and unassuming leader who led by example rather than vocally.  He used his quickness and shooting touch to negate the strength of the bigger centers he faced."

Despite his slight frame – he was listed as 6-9 and 210 as a senior, hence his nickname "Slim," Price never backed down when facing taller, bigger opponents.  His senior year, he put up 21 points and 10 rebounds against a #1-ranked UCLA team that boasted eight future NBA draft picks (including five first-round selections!):  Bill Walton, Keith (Jamaal) Wilkes, Marques Johnson, Dave Myers, Richard Washington, Greg Lee, Ralph Drollinger and Andre McCarter.

One of Bona's All-Time Greats

Price's career average of 20.8 points a game puts him fifth all-time at Bona's.  He also sits at #5 in career field goal percentage and he ranks third (trailing only Bob Lanier and Essie Hollis) in career rebounds despite playing only three varsity seasons.  Among the 26 Bona players who have notched 1,000 points and 500 rebounds for their careers, Price is ranked fourth among those who played only three varsity seasons (behind only Bob Lanier, Tom Stith and Fred Crawford). 

Price owns 11 of the top 34 single-game rebound games in Reilly Center history, the same number as Lanier.  He led the team in scoring and rebounding in his sophomore, junior and senior seasons, in free throw percentage his junior and senior seasons and in field goal percentage his sophomore and junior years.

Price graduated in May 1974 with a degree in Economics and was selected by the Buffalo Braves in the ninth round of the NBA Draft later that month.  Those of a certain age may recall that the Braves later became the San Diego Clippers and, ultimately, the current-day Los Angeles Clippers.

Price was inducted into the St. Bonaventure Hall of Fame in 1994 and was named to the St. Bonaventure Basketball All-Time team in 2019.

Remember Price's high school girlfriend, Sheree?  She followed Price to Bona's and they married shortly after he graduated.  In 1975, Price became a born-again Christian, which has had a profound effect on his life.  "That was the most important event in my life," Price says of his conversion.

He and Sheree have four grown children:  daughters Sheree and Stacey and sons Gerren and Sheridan.  His three oldest children (Sheree, Stacey and Gerren) are all married with two children each.   Stacey enjoyed a stellar collegiate basketball career at Fordham; in fact, she was named to Fordham's Atlantic 10 25^th Anniversary team three years ago.

An All-Star in Business, Too

After working at his dad's grocery store upon graduating from Bona's, Price worked at Wonder Bread as a manager from 1975 to 1988.  He later became plant manager and then vice president at the largest independent commercial bakery in D.C. 

From baked goods, Price moved to the automotive industry in 2003, initially working for Capitol Cadillac in Greenbelt, Maryland, at the time one of the premier Cadillac dealerships on the East Coast.  By the time he retired in 2022, Price had been a nine-time member of the Cadillac Crest Club, comprised of the top 20 salespeople in each of Cadillac's five sales regions around the country.   His first two years in the Crest Club, he was actually among the top 20 Cadillac salespeople in the entire country.   

Price is just one of a number of Bonnie basketball players and teams from previous generations whose exploits, although perhaps not well-known, were essential in weaving the fabric that is Bonaventure Basketball.  As we move further into the 21^st century, it is important that their stories are told and remembered. 

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This is one of the objectives of Project Unfurl, a documentary in progress.  Project Unfurl: The Heart of Bona's Basketball will tell the story of the remarkable aura surrounding the St. Bonaventure University men's basketball program over the last eight decades. 

In addition to chronicling the great NCAA and NIT teams, Project Unfurl will also shine a spotlight on many unsung SBU players and teams. 

To learn more about Project Unfurl, visit its official website: https://www.projectunfurl.com.