Former Cape basketball star John Bishop headed to Legends Hall of Fame
John Bishop, a Cape basketball player of the 1970s, will be inducted into the Delaware Basketball Legends Hall of Fame Saturday, March 19.
Bishop was already inducted into the Delaware Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Delaware Afro-American Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.
Bishop attended Cape Henlopen High School from 1974 to 1976 and helped lead the team to a 20-2 in 1974. In 1975, John led Cape to its first state championship in school history with an undefeated 25-0 record. That same year, he was selected to the first-team all-tournament team for Delaware high school basketball.
For Bishop, 1976 was a year of many accomplishments. Coached by Ralph Baird at Cape, he helped lead Cape to its second straight championship. Bishop averaged 22 points per game that season and was selected first-team all-conference, first-team all-state, first-team all-tournament and selected to the Top 100 Prep All American Team.
He broke two state records in 1976, including the record for most points in a single state tournament game (40 points vs. Newark High) and the record for most tournament points with 104 points in four tournament games. He was also selected to play in the Blue and Gold All-Star Game.
Bishop was able to score a total of 1,032 points during his high school career, he was selected as one of the Top 15 players in the state of Delaware, given the Best Sportsmanship Award at the Delaware vs. Baltimore All-Star Tournament and selected to be a Philadelphia Inquirer Newspaper Athlete of the Week.
Bishop attended Durham Junior College in Durham, N.C., from 1977 to 1979, where he was coached by Ralph Hawkins. He averaged 22 points per game and helped lead the team to the National Junior College Tournament in Norfolk, Neb., in 1977 and 1978. He was selected to the all-tournament team at the Smokey Invitational Basketball Tournament. John led the team in scoring and free throw shooting percentage and he was selected Most Valuable Player of the team 1977 and 1978. He was selected MVP of the Asheville North Carolina Tournament in 1978.
Bishop scored more than 1,000 points from 1977 to 1979. From 1978 to 1979, he averaged 26.5 points per game and was one of the Top 10 scorers in the nation in junior college basketball. He was was selected as a Junior College All-American.
Bishop then attended North Carolina Central University from 1979 to 1981, where his accomplishments only continued. He was selected All-CIAA Conference Team 1979 to 1981 and led the team in scoring with an average of 24.0 points per game during that stretch. John has one of the highest single-season scoring averages in school history and holds the title of seventh best single-game scoring in school history with 35 points scored versus Livingston College Feb. 14, 1981. He also holds 10th best single-game points record in school history with 32 points versus University of North Carolina, Wilmington Feb. 18, 1981.
Bishop set the free-throw shooting school record at North Carolina Central University when he went 17-of-22 from the foul line versus Livingstone College Feb. 14, 1981, and held the record for 33 years until it was finally broken Feb. 11, 2013. To top all of that, John was selected CIAA Conference Rookie of the Year for the 1979-1980 season.
Bishop was co-Rookie of the Year in 1981 for the Charles Baker League in Philadelphia.
He had a professional career in the Class A League in Argentina from 1985 to 1987, where he averaged 22 points per game during the regular season and 33 points per game in the playoffs. Bishop averaged 37 points per game in 1986 during the regular season and scored a personal career-high 65 points in the same year.
Bishop's professional career extended into the Continental Basketball Association league, where he played for the Atlantic City High Rollers in 1988.
