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Honors and Awards
Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame: Class of 2014
MVC All-Century Team
Bradley Basketball Team of the Century
Converse Yearbook All-American: 1978 (2nd Team)
Helms Foundation All-American: 1978
UPI All-American: 1978 (3rd Team)
NABC All-District: 1977 (1st Team), 1978 (1st Team)
Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year: 1977
All-Missouri Valley Conference: 1977 (1st Team), 1978 (1st Team)
MVC Player of the Week (5): Dec. 29, 1976; Jan. 12, 1977; Feb. 2, 1977; Dec. 21, 1977; Jan. 11, 1978
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A graduate of nearby East Peoria High School, Phegley intended to begin his Bradley career as a pitcher for the Braves baseball team, but his performance in preseason open gyms quickly led him to Joe Stowell’s basketball squad. After averaging 8.1 points as a freshman in 1974-75, Phegley more than doubled his scoring production to 17.3 ppg as a sophomore in 1975-76, before lighting up the scoreboard in his last two seasons by averaging 27.4 ppg in 1976-77 and 27.6 ppg in 1977-78. He followed Wichita State’s Cleo Littleton (2,164 points from 1951-55) and Cincinnati’s Oscar Robertson (2,973 points from 1957-60) as the third member of The Valley’s 2,000-Points Club and his career total of 2,064 points remains 13th in league history today, third in Bradley history.
A two-time, first-team All-MVC selection (1977, 1978) to go along with his 1977 league player-of-the-year award, Phegley also collected 1978 All-America honors from Converse Yearbook (second team), Helms Foundation and United Press International (third team). In addition to his accomplishments on the hardwood, Phegley did pitch for the Bradley Baseball team during the 1975 and 1977 seasons, compiling a 4-5 record with three complete games included among his 13 career starts.
One of seven Bradley Basketball players to have his uniform number (45) retired, Phegley was a first-round NBA Draft selection by the Washington Bullets in 1978 and he played six seasons (1978-84) in the NBA for five teams: Washington, New Jersey, Cleveland, San Antonio and Dallas. He played in 345 career NBA games, totaling 3,011 points to average 8.7 points per game. A member of Washington’s 1978-79 NBA Finals team, Phegley enjoyed his best individual season with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1980-81 by averaging a career-best 14.4 points per game.
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