Purdue star Terry Dischinger 'incredibly underrated among our state’s all-time greats.'

Purdue men’s basketball legend Terry Dischinger still stands as the only Boilermaker alum to win NBA Rookie of the Year. But what’s even more impressive is how he did it.

Dischinger only played 57 games of the 80-game season in his first year of professional basketball in 1962. Playing for the Chicago Zephyrs, who would end the season having Slick Leonard as a player-coach, Dischinger missed those 23 games because of a simple reason: He needed to finish his degree at Purdue.

Although he left school to join the NBA, the chemical engineering major had one more semester of classes in West Lafayette to officially obtain his degree. So, he frequented the two-hour drive between Chicago and West Lafayette on I-65 in the 1962 fall semester, taking the final classes he needed to be a Purdue graduate.

It was, undeniably, a busy schedule. He had a two-hour commute, schoolwork to finish, and a grueling NBA schedule — some of which he was already missing.

But he still found time to help coach the Purdue freshman team along with Bob King.

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“Every day, we got to go one-on-one against Terry Dischinger, or he would jump in the scrimmage,” former Purdue star and NBA player Dave Schellhase said. “The guys on the team, we were all just in awe. He’d come (to practice) on Monday and we’d say, ‘How did you do this weekend, Terry?’ And he’d say, ‘Oh, I got 24 against Detroit’ or ‘I got 21 against San Francisco.’ It was a very unique situation.”

Dischinger’s humble, helpful nature was something that defined him throughout his life more than his basketball prowess. The Purdue legend and nine-year NBA star died Oct. 10 at the age of 82, following another fruitful career in orthodontics.

“His statistics speak for itself, an All-American in college, an NBA All-Star,” said Chris May, former executive director of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. “And he just seemed like the kind of guy that if you passed him walking down the street, you would think he’s any other person. He treated you respectfully, and just the way he carried himself, how cordial, how engaging he was, just, this guy is a fantastic person.”

Dischinger was an Indiana basketball legend at the high school and college level. He was born on Nov. 21, 1940, in Terre Haute. The James Garfield High School graduate was a three-year letterman in basketball, football and track. He was a two-time MVP of his high school team, as well as a 1958 Parade high school All-American.

At Purdue, he was a three-time All-American in three varsity seasons (freshmen weren't eligible back then). He averaged 28.3 points per game, finishing with a then-school record of 1,979 points.

Dischinger sits sixth now in the Boilermakers record book. Still today, he holds the school record for 40-point games (9), free throws made (713), and rebounds per game (14.3).

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Dischinger also became an Olympic gold medalist while he was still a teenager. In the era before the U.S. Olympic Team used NBA players, Dischinger, along with basketball legends Oscar Robertson, Jerry West and Jerry Lucas, won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Dischinger had just finished his sophomore year at Purdue, and he scored 90 points in eight games played.

Dischinger was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame for his high school and collegiate prowess in 1989. He got into the Purdue Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2019, he was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

“He is incredibly underrated among our state’s all-time greats,” May said. “I think part of it is probably the age, the years in which he played in. … He was a three-time All-American back when you could only play three seasons, that’s huge.”

Throughout his time at Purdue, Dischinger quickly became a walking legend — enough so that the program would use him as recruiting leverage for potential prospects.

Schellhase, who was born and raised in Evansville, saw Dischinger as one of his idols.

“Purdue went a long time without a championship, or without All-Americans,” Schellhase said. “... He got the ball rolling again. When I went to Purdue, there was a lot of interest in basketball because of Terry.”

Partly thanks to Dischinger’s help coaching the freshman team, Schellhase became a phenom for the Boilermakers. He passed Dischinger’s career points mark, registering 2,074 in his three-year career.

“His fundamentals were excellent,” Schellhase said. “He was ahead of his time as far as doing things correctly. In those days, the coaching wasn’t near what it is now. Even little kids know how to shoot now. You kind of learned on your own in my era, but he was ahead of other players.”

Dischinger and Schellhase went on to have relatively short, but successful, NBA careers. Schellhase played two years for the Chicago Bulls from 1966-68, and Dischinger had a nine-year career with the Chicago Zephyrs, Baltimore Bullets, Detroit Pistons, and Portland Trail Blazers, becoming a three-time NBA All-Star.

Dischinger also took a two-year hiatus from basketball to fulfill his military service commitment — he was part of the National Guard ROTC in college, which requires military time after graduation.

It was there, he said on the Renowned Radio Show in 2013, that he decided he wanted to be a dentist after his NBA career. He started dental school at the University of Tennessee while he was still in the NBA, spending the summer offseasons going to school.

“I love kids, I love, actually, setting teeth and dentures,” Dischinger said. “... I went three years part-time and then finished a year and a half, and then I spent two years in orthodontic training. It’s really wonderful. I had a career in basketball with great enjoyment, I loved it a lot, and I got into another career that I love just as much.”

Dischinger’s last stop in the NBA was Portland and he opened a dental practice, Dischinger Orthodontics, in the suburb of Lake Oswego.

“It speaks to the type of guy that Terry was,” May said. “He went to dental school and got into dentistry after he had an accomplished basketball career. I mean, wouldn’t you sit around and look at your trophy, look at your gold medal, and be like, ‘Gosh, how good was I?’ And this guy is going back to school and finding a second career.”

His practice eventually became a family business, as his son, Bill, became an orthodontist and joined his father's practice.

“I think it’s love for one another, caring about one another,” Terry Dischinger said on the podcast. “It’s a great experience for me, the greatest I’ve had in my entire life. It’s very special when you have a profession that you love, and then you have a son that comes into that same profession and loves it like you do, cares for people the way you do, and has abilities. You don’t often get that opportunity.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue icon Terry Dischinger left lasting legacy on basketball, more