A native of Newark Valley, N.Y., Gene Kobylarz played basketball at Triple Cities/Harpur College from 1948-52. He earned his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts in 1952, and received his master’s degree in education from SUNY Cortland in 1956.
The youngest of 15 children who grew up in the nearby rural community, Kobylarz was a three-sport athlete who also competed in baseball and ran track.
It was his basketball acumen, however, that drew the most attention. Kobylarz played 87 games in four years, and became the school’s first 1,000-point scorer with 1,079 points. That scoring output stood atop the all-time list for 10 years.
Early in his freshman year of 1948-49, Kobylarz earned a starting role and helped TCC win eight games in only the program’s third-ever season. He averaged 10.5 points per game and TCC ended its season by winning six of its final nine games.
In 1949-50, the Kobylarz-led Colonials went 14-8, finishing the season with victories in nine of the team’s final 11 games. He averaged 11.2 points per contest.
A 10-win season followed in 1950-51 — thanks in part to Kobylarz, who scored 307 points for a team-high average of 13.9 per game.
As a senior, he was named team MVP after eclipsing the 1,000-point scoring plateau with 315 points. At the spring athletic banquet, Kobylarz was named the school’s lone “Athlete of the Year.”
He also played four years of baseball primarily as an infielder and pitcher, and ran sprints two years for the track team.
