Former UPEI Panthers basketball great Andy Packard was honoured in a special ceremony at the Chi-Wan Sports Centre Saturday night.
His number 42 was unfurled on a brand-new banner high in the gymnasium's rafters as the inaugural member in the school's extended recognition program to the Sports Hall of Fame.
Both the Panthers and the Memorial Sea-Hawks lined up on their respective foul lines for the presentation made prior to the men's game.
The 59-year-old Packard was treated to a round of applause from fans and congratulatory handshakes from current Panther players.
"It means quite a lot to me really," Packard told The Guardian. "I feel honoured. They were four good years."
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Packard grew up in Maine.
He was recruited to the University of Prince Edward Island by basketball coach Ed Hilton, and went on to star as the team's centre from 1971 to 1974.
"Like most teenagers, I came here to get away from home," Packard admitted. "It was a small school back then. We didn't win a lot of games."
The camaraderie between the players was Packard's fondest memory, who added that his four years as a Panther were some of the best of his life.
Games versus Saint Mary's and Acadia always brought out the best in Packard. His most memorable opponent was Huskies' legend Mickey Fox.
"He was a good scorer," Packard said. "We always had good battles."
Former teammate Bob Gray, now a sports columnist with the Journal-Pioneer, said Packard was a "phenomenal talent."
"He was the most intense player any of us had ever seen," Gray said Saturday. "He would be under the basket and there would be monsters all around him because they didn't bother guarding any of the rest of us ... but he always got the shots off."
Standing a modest 6-foot-1, Packard often battled opponents listed at 6-foot-6 or taller.
He wasn't the biggest player the Panthers had at the time, "but he was the toughest," Gray said.
Packard is remembered as a top rebounder with "spectacular fundamentals, amazing hands and footwork." He scored the majority of his points from under the basket.
In 1971-1972, Packard was named an AUAA all-star and MVP of the Panthers.
The following year, he was again named MVP after finishing in the top-five of the Maritime Intercollegiate League. He was also named UPEI's male athlete of the year.
"He was probably the best player in the league for a team that didn't really have much around him," said Gray.
One memory that stands out above the rest is the night Packard shot 18-for-21 against the national champion Saint Mary's Huskies.
"They were just beside themselves," Gray remembers. "They couldn't do anything with him."
"He's an unbelievably special ball player. He was the one that started things where you had to go to the girls' game in order to get a seat for the men's game because people loved just coming to see him play."
Gray said Packard asserted himself quickly as a quiet, pure leader.
"You felt awful good about having UPEI on your shirt when he had it on his," Gray said. "If he's working that hard, you better be working at least half that hard."
Packard is currently retired and lives with his wife Linda in Brackley Beach. The couple has two daughters - Alix, 31, and Morgan, 27.
"I spend my days doing nothing," Packard joked.
Following his graduation from UPEI, where he studied chemistry, he stayed on the island to work in maintenance and as a tradesman.
He coached basketball at Colonel Gray, and continued playing in the Charlottetown senior league until 36.
"I was just getting old," he said of his early exit from the sport he loved. "It's a young man's game now."
Packard continues to follow both the UPEI Panthers program and the newest Island ball club, the Summerside Storm.
Athletics director Ron Annear said the next recognition night will come during the 2012-2013 season.
