PEORIA — It had been 20 years since Hersey Hawkins had set foot in Carver Arena. That night the Braves were hosting Illinois and, like every one of Hawkins’ home games as a Brave in the 1980s, the arena was full and rocking.
The half-full arena that Hawkins returned to Friday for Bradley’s 70-61 victory over Radford was so atypical from those days. But the ever-gracious Bradley all-time leading scorer didn’t focus on the empty seats in his comments to the media after the game.
He spoke of walking around the arena with BU athletics director Chris Reynolds and seeing things he’d never seen during his playing days.