WELLSVILLE – Bevo Francis was idolized at Wellsville High School before he was around the nation.

“A lot of places he is,” said Bud Ceneviva, a 1954 graduate of Wellsville High School who played one season with Francis for the Tigers. “When you hear the name Bevo, everyone’s ears perk up.”

Clarence “Bevo” Francis, one of the greatest scorers in basketball history, died Wednesday at the age of 82.

“The younger generation probably doesn’t know who I was,” said Francis in December 2000 before ESPN Classic aired a one-hour documentary on him. “Someone over 50 probably could tell you all the stories.”

The stories from the 1950s about how he scored 116 points in one game and 113 in another to set the NCAA scoring record that stood for six decades.

The stories about how he led a tiny unknown Ohio college, Rio Grande, to national prominence.

“I’ve seen many a basketball player, including LeBron,” said Ceneviva, who was a basketball official for 50 years, “and Bevo was the most pure shooter I’ve seen. When you’ve got 50 points, with three guys hanging on you, that’s doing something.”

Francis – who was nicknamed Bevo after a prohibition near-beer his father liked – perfected his shot in a barn while growing up in Hammondsville. The 6-foot-9 Francis became a national celebrity after scoring 116 points against Ashland (Ky.) Junior College as a Rio Grande freshman in January 1953.

“He was one of the greatest shooters who ever lived,” said then-NBA Scouting Director Mary Blake, who saw Francis play in his prime, in the ESPN Classic documentary. “He could not only shoot but shoot with range.”

Ceneviva said the last time he saw Francis was a couple of months ago at the SOI fish fry in Wellsville.

“He was a super nice guy,” Ceneviva said. “He was pretty well bent over. He wasn’t no 6-9.”

Francis started his freshman year of high school at Irondale and later transferred to Wellsville.

“They said he was paid to come to Wellsville and he had to sit out two years,” Ceneviva said. “He only got to play one year.”

Francis played his only high school season in 1951-52, averaging 31 points in leading Wellsville to a 23-2 record. He set a state record with 57 points in a 79-50 win over Alliance at Beacom Memorial Gymnasium.

“We had football players playing basketball, our tallest guy was slightly over 6 feet, and he could shoot, so the only way we could have stopped him was hack him,” said Alliance star and future NFL Hall of Famer Len Dawson in a 2012 interview. “If that happened, everybody would have fouled out. We actually played them well the first half. If we could have stayed close and even won the game in the end, we would have been lucky to escape.”

Ceneviva said Francis returned to Wellsville after rising to national prominence at Rio Grande and they played on a team that won the popular Tri-State Basketball Tournament in 1954. Ceneviva said the team was sponsored by bar owners Pete Surace in Wellsville and Bob Freed in East Liverpool.

“There were about 80 teams and we played at Memorial Auditorium, where East Liverpool used to play,” Ceneviva said. “A lot of college teams came in to play and there was money and trophies in those days. It started on Wednesday. We played Akron Goodyear in the semifinals on Saturday night and Bevo scored 76 points. In the finals, he had 54.”

Before Francis arrived at Rio Grande, the Redmen had gate receipts of $18.75. The season after Francis averaged 50.1 points a game as he led Rio Grande to a 39-0 record, the Redmen were playing at Madison Square Garden and Boston Garden.

Rio Grande was getting guarantees of $4,000 a game that helped the college pay for teachers’ salaries.

In the 1953-54 season, little Rio Grande was playing some of the top teams in the country. The Redmen were 21-7 as Francis averaged 47.1 points a game.

Francis left Rio Grande in 1954 and in those days, the NBA wouldn’t touch you until your college class had graduated.

“He was one of those drum-beat stories,” said former Georgetown coach John Thompson in the ESPN Classic documentary. “You sit by the tree, you hear people talking about the great legends of the game, then you hear people talk about Bevo, yeah.”

Francis played two years with the Boston Whirlwinds, a team that traveled with the Harlem Globetrotters.

“He enjoyed the limelight for a while, but he didn’t like the limelight,” Ceneviva said. “He wanted come back home and that’s what he and Jean did.”

Francis retired as steelworker and still lived in the house in Highlandtown he purchased when he signed with the Globetrotters.

“Bevo was a down-to-earth country boy,” Ceneviva said. “But he would rather be out hunting with his hounds or fishing. That’s the kind of guy he was.”