Michael C. Bright is an American former

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

player. He played at

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...

between 1989 and 1993, where he set numerous school records and was the 1993 Patriot League Player of the Year.

College career

A native of

Monessen, Pennsylvania Monessen is a city in southwestern Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, located along the Monongahela River. The population was 6,876 at the 2020 census. Steel-making was a prominent industry in Monessen, and it became a third-class ...

, Bright led

Monessen High School Monessen High School is a high school located in Monessen, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Monessen City School District and is the only high school within the city of Monessen. The school colors are black and white. The official high school masc ...

to a state championship before he enrolled at

Fork Union Military Academy Fork Union Military Academy (abbreviated as FUMA) is a private school, private, all-male, college preparatory Christian school, Christian Military school, military boarding school located in Fork Union, Virginia. Founded in 1898, Fork Union is co ...

Fork Union, Virginia Fork Union is an unincorporated community in southern Fluvanna County, Virginia, along U.S. Highway 15. Its ZIP code is 23055; the population within that ZIP code was 1148 according to the 2000 Census. It is known mainly as the home of Fork ...

, for a

postgraduate year A postgraduate (PG) year is an extra year of secondary coursework at a boarding school following high school graduation, but before entering college. It is a gap year option intended for students who either have not applied or were not admitt ...

prior to enrolling in college. Bright chose to play basketball at Bucknell, a

Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising primarily leading Private university, private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United ...

school in his home state. During his four seasons he scored 1,670 points (third highest in school history at the time of his graduation) and recorded 834 rebounds – just one of two Bucknell players in the 1,500-point, 800-rebound club at the time. During his

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

season in 1990–91, Bright earned an All-Patriot League second-team honor after averaging 14.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Then, during his

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

and

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

seasons, he was a key player that saw Bucknell win back-to-back regular season conference championships. In 1992–93, Bright's final collegiate season, he averaged 16.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game, was a first-team All-Patriot League selection, and was named the league's player of the year. He was also the winner of the Christy Mathewson Award as the top senior-athlete at Bucknell. In 2013, Bright was inducted into Bucknell's Hall of Fame. In 2015, Bright was named to the Patriot League 25th Anniversary team. He was one of six Bucknell player to be honored.

Professional career and later life

Bright went undrafted in the

1993 NBA draft The 1993–94 NBA season, 1993 NBA draft took place on June 30, 1993, at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The draft had some talented players at the top, but injuries and personal problems hurt many of them. Chris Webber, Pen ...

. He instead competed in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

's top professional league and played for the Sea Power. He was also selected in the third round of the 1993

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA), originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association, was a men's professional basketball m ...

draft by the

Rockford Lightning The Rockford Lightning was a basketball team that played in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA). They were based in Rockford, Illinois. History The Lightning were the oldest team in the CBA, originally existing as the Lancaster Red R ...

. Since 2011 he has served as the President/CEO of the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

References

External links

College statistics
@ sports-reference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Bright, Mike Living people American expatriate basketball people in Hong Kong American men's basketball players Basketball players from Pennsylvania Bucknell Bison men's basketball players Fork Union Military Academy alumni Sportspeople from Monessen, Pennsylvania Small forwards Year of birth missing (living people)