HISTORY

James "Snake" Silas

James "Snake" Silas is perhaps the most famous of the former Lumberjack basketball players.  James played eight years in the ABA and the NBA.  His number is one of only two numbers retired by the San Antonio Spurs.  James was also named to the All-Time NBA and ABA teams.

While at SFA, James made All Lone Star Conference First Team in both 1970 and the 1971 seasons as well as NAIA All American First Team in the same seasons.  James is a member of the SFA Athletic Hall of Fame.

SFA basketball enjoys a rich tradition.  That tradition includes a pereios of dominance in the late 1960's and early 1970's when the Lumberjacks competed in the NAIA.  From 1968-70, the Lumberjacks made it ot the National Tournament three our of four years.  During that span the Lumberjacks averaged 26 wins a season.

Following the 1969-70 season, a year in which the Lumberjacks were 29-1 and advanced to the NAIA National Tournament in Kansas CIty, the NBA took notice of the SFA program.  In the March 1970 NBA draft, Stephen F. Austin had five players chosen in the first seven rounds of the NBA draft.  The players:

First Round - George Johnson (Baltimoe Bullets)

Third Round - Surrey Oliver (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Fourth Round - Ervin Polnick (Buffalo Braves)

Sixth Round - Marvin Polnick (Baltimore Bullets)

Seventh Round - Narvis Anderson (Cleveland Cavaliers)

George Johnson made All Lone Star Conference First Team in both the 1968 and 1969 seasons and First Team NAIA All American following the 1968 season.

Surry Oliver was a First Team All Lone Star Conference player in 1967 and 1968.  Surry also made First Team NAIA All American after the 1969 season.

Ervin Polnick made NAIA First Team All American team in 1969.

George Johnson, Surry Oliver and the Polnick twins were all four year starters during their careers at SFA.  All four men are members of the SFA Athletic Hall of Fame.

Dominance from the beginning

During the six year period beginning in the fall of 1931 and continuing through the spring of 1937, the Lumberjacks won six consecutive Lone Star Conference Men's Basketball Championships.  Seventeen (17) of the thirty (30) players selected to the Lone Star Conference First Team during that period were selected from the SFA squads.  S. A. Kerr, Bailey Hawkins and Ellis Stagner were the first Lumberjacks to be selected first team All Lone Star Conference following the 1931-1932 season.  Other All Conference players from SFA during that period included: Paul Street, C. C. Williams, Emil Hanicak, J. H. Crenshaw, Alton Clayton, Guy Massey and Stacy Colwell.  Many of these men were representatives on the All Lone Star Conference First Team more than once.