Before the Wolfpack, before social media, there was Bobby Sura at GAR
By: Matt Flanagan | SportzWire | June 7, 2026 | Photo courtesy Matt Bufano
If you grew up around here in the late ’80s and early ’90s, you probably don’t need somebody to explain who Bobby Sura is.
You already know.
You remember hearing the stories.
You remember older kids talking about him.
You remember people saying, “You’ve got to go watch G.A.R.”
This week, Sura came back home and visited Wilkes-Barre Area High School ahead of his induction into the Luzerne County Sports Hall of Fame, and for a lot of people in Northeast Pennsylvania, it felt like a piece of local sports history walked back into the gym.
Today it’s Wilkes-Barre Area.
Back then, it was G.A.R.
And if you know local basketball, you know G.A.R. basketball in the Bobby Sura era wasn’t normal.
Sura grew up in Wilkes-Barre and starred at G.A.R. Memorial, where he helped lead one of the most dominant runs this area has ever seen. During his time there, G.A.R. won 86 consecutive league games. Eighty-six! A number that still sounds impossible today.
And then there’s the stat people still bring up decades later.
Sixty-nine.
That was Sura’s career high in a single high school game.
Even now, when somebody tells the story, there’s usually a pause afterward, because people almost expect you not to believe it.
But around here, those stories became local legend.
The cool part about this week wasn’t just that an NBA player came back.
It was that younger kids got to see that Northeast PA has produced athletes who made it all the way.
Sura left G.A.R., went to Florida State, became the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,130 career points, earned ACC Rookie of the Year honors, and eventually became a first-round NBA Draft pick before putting together a 10-year NBA career.
But for people who grew up here?
That’s not the first thing you think about.
You think about packed gyms.
You think about hearing his name before highlights lived on your phone.
You think about local pride.
And now with G.A.R., Meyers and Coughlin all carrying forward into Wilkes-Barre Area, there was something fitting about seeing Bobby Sura walk those halls.
For a day, it felt like old Wilkes-Barre basketball met the next generation.
And everybody got to remember.
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