University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame
Eddie Benton 1996 - Basketball
The Catamounts all-time leading scorer in men's basketball and 2006 UVM Hall of Fame inductee, Eddie Benton was the winner of the 1996 Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award given to the nation's top basketball player less than six feet tall. The award, arguably the most prestigious individual honor any Catamount basketball player has ever received, was the most prominent in a string of honors that accompanied Benton's record-shattering four-year career at Vermont. He also was the 1996 winner of the J. Edward Donnelly Award as UVM's top senior male athlete.
Benton scored 2,474 points, tops at Vermont and second all-time in the America East (then named the North Atlantic Conference). He graduated as the school's career leader in 15 different offensive categories including career field goals, career free throws, career three-pointers and career scoring average (23.8 points per game). Often overlooked is that Benton also had 458 assists, third best in school history upon graduation.
Third all-time among New England Division I scorers, Benton is one of three players to earn America East All-Conference First Team honors for four consecutive seasons. Twice he led the conference in scoring and in three of his four years he was among the top-12 in the nation. He also holds the UVM and America East single-game scoring record pouring in 54 points against Drexel on January 29, 1994.
In 1998, he was named to the America East 20th Anniversary All-Star Team. On January 29, 2000, prior to the Catamounts game with Hartford, Benton's number 10 was raised to the rafters at the Patrick Gym.
After playing professionally for several years at the international level, Benton joined the coaching ranks as a men's basketball assistant coach at Robert Morris. After two seasons with the Colonials, he was named the head women's coach at Division III LaRoche College in his native Pittsburgh in 2003.
