(Budd Bailey and Greg D. Tranter have written a book called "Buffalo Braves From A to Z," published by St. Johann Press. Early in the writing process, they wrote good-sized biographies of all 71 men who played a regular-season game for the Braves during their time in Buffalo from 1970 to 1978. Publishers weren't so enthusiastic about all of that material, so most (59) of the biographies were shortened to about 500 words. However, the authors hated to waste all of that material ... so they are presenting it here. It will appear three times a week. A bibliography is available upon request.)
Any examination from a distance of the life of Fred Hilton starts with a mystery. Some portions of his story will never be known, probably even to him. But finding a big clue adds some insight to what turned out to be a rather remarkable life.
Fred Hilton was born on January 15, 1948, and the puzzle begins there. His place of birth is not listed in the NBA records or in the Buffalo Braves’ media guide for 1971-72. That is extremely rare. It is rather obvious through research that he grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The first dated reference to his life centers on basketball, naturally. The Blundon Orphanage was a breeding ground for basketball talent in Baton Rouge. The facility had its own lighted basketball court outside, and the best players in the region took part in games there. Even white players from LSU turned up for a good run against top competition.
One of the best basketball players in that era was Leslie Scott, who led McKinley to a state championship in 1962. Scott was considered one of the best players in the country and set a bunch of records there. Hilton was about five years younger, and according to one person on the scene, he idolized Scott. Along the way, Fred picked up the nickname of “Dirty Red.”
Hilton went to McKinley High School in Baton Rouge, a place that has developed a good pedigree for talent – especially at guard. Don Chaney went on to play at the University of Houston in the Sixties and won two NBA titles with the Boston Celtics, while Keith Smart was a big part of Indiana’s NCAA championship team in 1987. Hilton led the Panthers to a state title in 1967, his graduation year. Fred played well enough to be picked for the Parade All-American team, ranking him with such players as Austin Carr, Spencer Haywood and Artis Gilmore as the best in the nation. Hilton was a second-team selection.
Reports said Hilton narrowed down his choices to two schools: Grambling and Louisiana State. Fred might have heard that the LSU team had a guard on its roster who was a year older and something of a phenomenon: Pete Maravich. There’s only one basketball in a game, and Pete usually had it when he was playing. Hilton made the decision to go to Grambling; perhaps he was influenced by the fact that legendary football coach Eddie Robinson also attended McKinley High School. Hilton’s signing of a letter of intent was big news in Baton Rouge.
Keep in mind that African Americans still weren’t welcome in some schools in the Southeastern Conference in 1967. Perhaps that was part of the reason why Hilton opted to attend a historically black university in Northern Louisiana. While Robinson is well remembered for his great work for the Tigers, basketball coach Fred Hobdy is well-known too. He had a 30-year run at Grambling; his best player during that span probably was Willis Reed, later of the New York Knicks.
The local newspaper published a photograph of that event, and Hobdy was in a group shot. The caption reads that he signed the document next to Marion Wells, the director of the Blundon Orphanage in Baton Rouge and his guardian.
Bingo. That’s why we don’t know where Hilton was born, and perhaps why he didn’t have a middle name. Fred had been playing catch-up ball ever since the day he was born.
Statistics from this era of Grambling basketball are scarce. Hilton moved right into the lineup with the Tigers as a freshman in NAIA play (it was a classification for smaller schools than the ones in the NCAA). He needed no time adjusting to college ball, as he was averaging 26 points per game early in his freshman year. He finished at 21 points per game. Hilton only played in 11 games the following season, averaging 18.1 points per game. That team reached the first round of the NAIA tournament. As a junior, Hilton’s field goal accuracy slipped to .402 and his scoring average fell to 14.8.
But everything improved in 1970-71. Hilton and his team finished 16-8 in winning the conference title. Hilton scored 44 points in a February 1971 win over Alcorn State; he had an overall scoring average of 28 points per game with a field-goal percentage of .500. He led Grambling to the NAIA tournament. A highlight came when Hilton hit a tying 20-footer with five seconds left, and the Tigers went on beat Glassboro State, 77-75 in overtime. Eventually Grambling lost to Kentucky State, 93-81, in the national quarterfinals. That’s when Hilton got a look at center Elmore Smith, who soon would become his teammate in Buffalo. Smith had 21 points, while Hilton poured in 24.
Hilton made the NAIA all-tournament team in ’71 despite the slightly early exit, and was a second-team Little All-American in the classification as a senior. Hobdy called Fred the best defensive player he ever coached.
It was time for the next step. The 6-foot-2 Hilton was drafted in the second round of the 1971 NBA Draft, by the Buffalo Braves. The Memphis Pros of the ABA took him in the sixth round, so it must have been obvious that Hilton was headed for the more established league. He signed with the Braves on May 20 for a reported $200,000 over three years. Fred no doubt appreciated the money, since he already was married and a father of two according to the news story that day. Hodby predicted that Hilton would become as good a player in the pros as Reed. Hilton impressed Braves general manager Eddie Donovan immediately by asking for an NBA rule book. Donovan said that Reed was the only other player coming out of college to ask him that question.
The Braves had a mixture of the new and the old. Veterans such as Bob Kauffman, Dick Garrett, Em Bryant and Walt Hazzard were already around. They were joined by rookies such as top draft pick Elmore Smith, Randy Smith and Hilton. It was a strange season in some ways, highlighted by opening night. The Braves lost to Seattle by 33 points, although Hilton scored nine points in 17 minutes in his pro debut. After the game, Dolph Schayes was fired by owner Paul Snyder and replaced by John McCarthy.
One thing that became quite obvious in a hurry was that Hilton wasn’t afraid to shoot the ball in the pros – especially from long range. If you were on a high school team in the Buffalo area and shot the ball frequently, you soon picked up the nickname of “Freddy.” Hilton quickly earned a reputation as a streak shooter, someone who could win or lose the game in a hurry depending on his accuracy on a given night.
In his second NBA game, Fred scored 18 points in 19 minutes on 9 of 17 shooting. Hilton started on October 29 at Portland and led the team in scoring with 27 points. Fred set another career high with 30 points in a loss to the Bucks on February 8, 1972. Then he topped it with 31 points in only 29 minutes as the Braves astonished the powerful Knicks, 105-97. “I tried to change the tempo and make it faster,” Hilton said after the game. “I’m a running ballplayer, and when I get in there, Randy and I like to start running.”
But a game later, he was 3 for 10 from the field in a loss in Phoenix. Hilton finished the season with a .389 field goal percentage, the worst on the team. He might have been more valuable in an age with a three-point line, since his shots frequently came from that distance. Fred finished with an average of 11.6 points per game. It was good enough to earn an invitation back with the team for 1972-73.
The Braves did more shuffling to their roster in Year Three. It started with the drafting of Bob McAdoo from North Carolina, who was an immense talent but needed to find a niche on the roster. Randy Smith, who made the Braves as a small forward despite his 6-3 size, shifted to guard. Buffalo also added veterans Howard Komives and Dave Wohl to the roster along the way that season, and the team’s backcourt had gotten crowded.
That meant less time on the floor for Hilton, who saw his minutes per game drop from 22.1 to 12.4. Fred set a career high for points on October 14, 1972, scoring 36 to shoot down the Houston Rockets. But a few nights later, Hilton was 1 for 5 from the field to finish with 3 points. New coach Jack Ramsey seemed to give the guard some playing time when he thought the team needed a spark, but quickly pulled him when Hilton failed to ignite the team. By the last month of the season, it was rare for the second-year guard to play for even 10 minutes a game.
Hilton’s scoring average went down to 7.2 points per game, and his field goal percentage was virtually the same at .387. It was no surprise when the guard was let go by the Braves on September 15. Garrett also was cut at that time. Hilton did get a look with the New York Knicks in training camp in 1974, but was cut on September 29 and never played in a regular season game. Thus his statistics were finalized at 1,131 points in 120 games.
Hilton went back to the Baton Rouge area after finishing basketball, and settled into a business career. One of his jobs was working as an insurance agent for New York Life. Along the way, Fred was saluted by his alma mater in 2014 as he was inducted into the Grambling Hall of Fame. He has a wife, Sheila, and six children. It turns out that the mystery has a happy ending.
(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB.)
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