UCF Hall Of Fame

On April 10, 2009, Coach Bennie Shaw was inducted into the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the J. Rolfe Davis Recruiting Room at Bright House Networks Stadium.

Shaw played for the Knights and head coach Torchy Clark from 1974-76. He scored 1,238 points in only two campaigns in Orlando. His career scoring average of 25.4 points ranks second in program history. In 1976, Shaw the shooting guard became the first UCF player to be selected in the National Basketball Association Draft when Milwaukee picked him in the ninth round.

Shaw describes his experience wearing Black and Gold and bonding with his teammates as a memorable one. “The relationships I made are still fresh in my mind. It has been 30 years and I think and talk about them every day,” he said.

Shaw credits much of his success in life to Clark, who is also a member of the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame. Shaw believes that Clark was ahead of his time.

“Coaches are now just doing what we were doing back then. All of the things that I have accomplished as a coach go to coach Clark because I still use his system today.”

As the first UCF player to be drafted by an NBA franchise, Shaw describes the feeling of carrying that legacy, “At the time, I really wasn’t thinking about being drafted. During my senior year, I was really having fun and coach Clark said to me, `You might be drafted to play in the NBA.’ Wayne Embry, who was general manager at the time of the Milwaukee Bucks, came to a game, saw me play. I had a beautiful game. Then he wanted to see if I could do that in consecutive nights. So he came back and saw me play, and I had another great game. That’s when they told me, yes you are going to be drafted and it was then that I actually started believing, `Wow, I might actually be good enough to play at that level… it really was an honor.”