Running Wild

Clarence Franklin Francis is 6 ft. 9 in. tall, and he was rated such a natural basketball prospect on Ohio's high-school circuit that he was offered athletic scholarships by some 60 colleges. Now 20, married and the father of a five-months-old son, gangling "Bevo"* Francis chose southern Ohio's obscure little (enrollment: about 125) Rio Grande College because 1) it was willing to overlook the fact that Bevo had not graduated from high school, and 2) he wanted to follow his high-school coach. Newt Oliver, to college.

A fortnight ago in the "Hog Pen," Rio Grande's dilapidated gymnasium, Bevo ran wild against Ashland (Ky.) Junior College. During the closing five minutes of the game, Coach Oliver shouted instructions to his players, ordering them to foul their opponents deliberately so that Rio Grande could get the ball and "feed" Bevo. Bevo's final total: 116 points, an intercollegiate scoring record for one game.

Last week, again feeding Bevo the ball at every opportunity. Rio Grande defeated Bliss College (Columbus), 102-53. Big Bevo scored 51 points and ran his season total to 1,072. It gave Bevo, who has just finished two high-school courses on the side, another college record, breaking the single-season mark of 1,051 set by Seattle's little (5 ft. 9 in.) Johnny O'Brien (TIME, Jan. 19), who sets his records in basketball's major leagues.

* From Anheuser-Busch's Prohibition-era near beer of the same name. Clarence's father, a clay miner in Hammondsville, Ohio, drank so much that he was known as "Big Bevo " "Little Bevo" grew so fast that he soon appropriated his father's nickname.

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