Legendary Trenton, TCNJ star Grant heading for Mercer Hoops Hall
Over the years there have been many men and women deserving of induction into the newly-formed Mercer County Basketball Hall of Fame and certainly two of those are Greg Grant and Norman Van Arsdalen.
Both will be inducted with the initial class on March 18 at 4 p.m. at Mercer Oaks. Tickets for the event can be purchased by contacting Linda Wiese at lindaleighweise@ hotmai.com and the tickets are $50.
Tickets should be ordered before the event as no tickets will be sold at the door.
Greg Grant is a worthy inductee for several reasons as he will forever be associated with a great high school career and a collegiate career at The College of New Jersey that will go down as the greatest in Trenton State/TCNJ history.
An All-County selection by The Trentonian and the Trenton Times, Grant averaged 24.6 points for the Tornadoes.
Once his playing career was over, Grant gave back to the Trenton area with the formation of GGRANT94FT Academic Sports Academy that operates seven after school programs and gives out yearly scholarships to Trenton High students.
Grant also served as the head basketball coach at Trenton.
After leaving Trenton High, Grant has one of the greatest college careers of all-time.
He averaged a national best 30.6 points over his 85 games at Trenton State, he was a two-time first team All-America player, he holds the scoring mark at the college with 2,611 and he is the all-time steals leader with 301.
He led the Lions to the 1988-89 Division III Final Four and he was named the Most Valuable Player of the event.
Grant played with the Phoenix Suns, the New York Knicks and his beloved Philadelphia 76ers totaling eight years in the NBA. He completed his career playing overseas for three years.
Few officials have had a more respected and successful career than Van Arsdalen.
Both as a high school and college referee Van Arsdalen was sought by many coaches, administrators and other officials when it came to rules interpretations.
A longtime member of the NCAA Rules Committee and an official that worked games around the country and was a constant at all officiating and rules clinics.
Over his time on the court Van Arsdalen has served as the President of IAABO Board 193, he served on the Executive Committee, he was cadet supervisor and he was the recipient of the Board 193 Leadership Award.
Grant and Van Arsdalen will be joined by these other deserving inductees at the March 18th event:
» Father Clarence O’Shea, the legendary Trenton Catholic coach.
» Tal Brody, the great Trenton High player and Mr. Basketball in Israel
» Kate Larkin, the St. Anthony’s and county’s alltime leading scorer
» Dahntay Jones, from Steinert High and NBA fame
» Emil Wandishin, the highly successful Ewing High coach.
» Nick Werkman, one of the most prolific scorers ever at Trenton Catholic
» Valerie Ackerman, the former Hopewell Valley standout and current Big East Commissioner.
» Hollis Copeland, the Ewing High star that also played at Rutgers and with the New York Knicks.
» Vicky Picott, one of the greatest athletes to come out of Hightstown High and later played at Rutgers. » George O’Gorman few had chronicled the history of Mercer County basketball greater than the legendary Trentonian reporter.