GENE RUBLE
Basketball, 1946-50
Inducted October 18, 1975
Gene Ruble was the first prolific scorer in SMS basketball annals and remains today as the only SMS cager ever to gain all-MIAA conference first team honors four consecutive seasons. Ruble came to SMS from Lebanon in 1946 and in four years as a guard and forward, he saw action in every SMS contest; a total of 100 varsity games. He led the league in scoring in 1947 and was as SMS co-captain his last two years. In addition, he was named the outstanding player in the conference in both 1949 and 1950 as he led SMS to two straight conference titles. At the time of his graduation, he owned SMS records for most points by a freshman (215), most points in one season (451 in 1948-49), most field goals in one season (164 in 1948-49), most free throws in one season (123 in 1948-49), most field goals in a career (532), most free throws in a career (342), most games played (100), and most points. At the time he was also the leading career scorer in the history of the MIAA conference. Now, a quarter of the century later, the 1406 points he scored in an era of comparatively low-scoring basketball, still rank him fifth on the all-time SMS list and tenth in the history of the MIAA conference.