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ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 3 29 f BY ALAN KARPICK AKarpick@GoldandBlack.com H e played hard. And he was hard on himself. Almost in equal proportion. As a collegian at Purdue, Dave Schellhase put up points in record numbers. He is the only Boilermaker basketball player to lead the nation in scoring in the modern era, a feat he accomplished in his senior year of 1965-66, when he averaged 32.5 points per game. But the team finished with an 8-16 record. He set the school's all-time single-game scoring record with 57 points against Michigan on Feb. 19, 1966. But it wasn't enough as the team lost by 34 points, giving up a still-standing Big Ten record 128 points to the Cazzie Rus- sell-led Wolverines. "The ball was going in that day, but we were in catch up mode the whole game," Schellhase said, almost minimiz- ing the accomplishment. Schellhase was a first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bulls, in an era when there were only 10 NBA teams, earn- ing $12,000 per year. But he was out of a job in basketball as a player just two years later, unable to convert his 6-foot-4 frame from a hard-charging forward in college who earned his living by scoring both inside and outside into a guard in pros. "I beat myself up for a long time because I didn't last longer in the NBA, but as it turns out it was one of the best learning experiences I could have had," Schellhase said in December. "And people used to tease me because I shot so much in college, but I came to know that it was sometimes better for our team for me to shoot it than someone else." Make no mistake, Schellhase was a heck of a college basketball player. And he did what he could to win, but he didn't do it as a pure shooter, but as a scorer, which is a sometimes not-so-subtle difference. His game was self- made, crafted on the playgrounds and in his backyard in Evansville. He spent hours honing his individual talent. These were traits that endeared him to the coaches and to his teammates. "He was like a bull in a china shop the way he played," recalled Billy Keller, who was a freshman in Schellhase's senior season. "He had a strong work ethic that you could not only see, but could feel, and he motivated us as rookies to get better." Schellhase's scorer's mentality was omnipresent. If the shot didn't go in, Schellhase chased down the rebound and put the ball back in the basket. He scored in transition as the fastbreak was en vogue in those days. Schellhase experienced a transition of a different kind as a player. Ray Eddy, the coach who brought him to Pur- due, resigned after his junior season. Eddy was replaced by George King, who brought with him more of a modern approach. King was just 37-years-old when he was hired away from West Virginia while Eddy had been a teammate of John Wooden back in the 1930s. "To me, George King brought Purdue basketball into the modern age," Schellhase said. "Coach Eddy was great to me, but at the end of his career, he lost his patience with the process and George coming in was like a breath of fresh air." But the best two teams Schellhase played on at Purdue were his sophomore and junior years under Eddy when the Boilermakers were 12-12 each season. The biggest win he was a part of was in the final game of the 1964 season, when Purdue defeated No. 2 Michigan 81-79 in Ann Arbor. "I was lucky to play with a couple of great guards in Mel P R E S E N T S L A F A Y E T T E L E G E N D : D A V E S C H E L L H A S E Hard Charger From Evansville Schellhase left mark on Purdue hoops Tom Campbell Dave Schellhase (right) loves to make the trip from his home in Logansport to watch his beloved Boilermakers. He has been a season-ticket holder for three years.