Danny Heater
Danny Heater
This is the ballad of Danny Heater. He did it 31 seasons ago. He was 17 then and built like a boneyard. He had a father who was out of work in the mines and a mama named Beulah who sang beautifully in the Methodist church, and on one improbable howling cold January night, in a little bandbox country gym that was so small it didn't even have seats, he vaulted up out of his West Virginia destinies to set-in 32 minutes and four quarters of high-school basketball-what the Basketball Hall of Fame says is the all time single-game scoring record on any level of organized play.
At one point they say he scored six points before they could move five seconds from the clock. In the final 10 minutes, he reached 55. He made three left-handed hooks. This is the legend anyway. Nobody could remember Danny Heater even trying a left-handed hook before, at least not in a game. By midway in the second quarter they thought he might break the state record. The state record was 74. He blew 74 like an 18-wheeler with its hammer down. He even got 32 rebounds and seven assists. There are West Virginians who'll tell you that in those final few minutes in that old rocking hotbox basement arena, that was about 17 feet shorter than a standard court, hysteria began to feel like an inferior emotion.
Burnsville led 41-4 at the end of the first quarter and 75-17 at halftime. Heater had 50 points in the first 16 minutes of the game. He stayed in and scored 55 points in the final 10 minutes as Burnsville continued its fast breaks and full-court press--"the only defense we knew," Coach Stalnaker said.
Burnsville outclassed Widen by an overwhelming 137-43 in action at the small Burnsville gymnasium. But it was the one-man scoring performance of Heater, a 6-1 guard, that stood out in what, today, over 36 years later, is a basketball statistic that many hardwood observers feel is "unbeatable."
Each basketball season, Danny Heater prepares for the end of his reign as the world's all-time single-game scoring leader, but it never comes. "I say every year, Yes, it will, but it never does."
Braxton County's most famous former resident will once again take center court as his life will be presented in a documentary film. The film will look at the life of an athlete before and after his moment of fame.
According to Danny, Kevin Down, a professor at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, is producing the documentary on Heater's life. The filming has taken approximately two years and brought Downs to Braxton County four or five times. Downs recently completed filming Heater when he spent a whole day with him at work.
Heater is a ticket agent for Delta Airlines at National Airport in Washington, DC. He completed his 30th year working at the airport on the day following the filming, Nov. 6, 1996.
Heater has been married 32 years and has raised three children. Danny's sister, Deloris stated that her brother felt that his life was too boring for a documentary, but she knew better.
One day, while working at National Airport, he discovered a woman with a baby sitting there crying. Danny asked her what was the matter and found her six month old baby had cancer. She had only enough money for the plane ticket to get her from Florida to Washington, DC, to the National Institute of Health Center and therefore, didn't know what to do. Danny took her home with him and then proceeded to take up a collection from fellow employees and secured a ticket for her husband to come from Florida, too. Sadly, the baby later died, but Danny Heater had once again shown how big a heart he has for others.
The "Danny Heater" story was compiled by Brittany Stewart, fourth grade student at
Burnsville Elementary School and her teacher, Ms. Sandy Post.
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