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on the team once they found out we could play. We had respect for the seniors and upperclassmen. "For us freshmen, I think ig- norance in the moment was a good thing, but served us well because we didn't know enough to be scared." One of those upperclassmen, junior Bruce Parkinson, knew what the four rookies were going through. The NCAA made fresh- men eligible to play varsi- ty just two years earlier in Parkinson's freshman sea- son of 1972-73. Parkinson had experienced some hard feelings from the juniors and senior in his rookie campaign when he became a starter just a couple weeks before the season. "It wasn't easy for me," said Parkinson, who was determined to treat the newcom- ers differently than he had been treated two years earlier. "I didn't forget that when dealing with the four freshmen. They had earned their playing times, especially because of their ability to get up and down the court offensively." Parkinson remains Purdue's all-time assists leader — he had 16 games with double-digit as- sists, achieving that feat twice as many times as any other Boil- ermaker in history — and he credits Walls, Jordan and Parker for helping him. "I always said had it not been for the guys on the Soul Patrol, I would have never set that assists record," said Parkin- son, who now lives in Colum- bus, Ind., and works as an exec- utive for Cummins. "They were great players from the moment they stepped on the court, and they loved to score." Walter Jordan Dick Satterfield Wayne Walls Michael White Eugene Parker GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 19 • 10