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52 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED wearing Indiana and Notre Dame garb at events while removed from the Purdue program, because we all know what a Boilermaker he is." Kendrick had a reason for wearing the sportswear, as Mimi attended Notre Dame and Emiel went to IU. But that still made it hard for Parkinson and others to digest. "I am thrilled that he is in Purdue's Hall of Fame be- cause he was a great, great player and I know he never stopped loving Purdue," said Parkinson, who could be the next player from the mid-'70s to earn a spot in Purdue's Hall. "And I know there will be a day very soon when we hash it all out and get back completely on the same page as friends. I know that will happen. "Why? Because if you know Frank, you know he has never met a stranger, and he has a big heart." But what kind of college player was Kendrick? "He was the kind of player who wanted the ball at crunch time," said Randy Shields, who has known Ken- drick since they both attended FCA camp in high school. The two were recruited by long-time assistant coach Bob King and happened to be on the Boilermaker cam- pus at the same time. King was like a second father to Kendrick, and that says something because Kendrick came from a strong family background. "I remember how strong a family influence Frank had then," Shields said. "To this day Frank doesn't smoke or drink, and he was the seventh of nine kids and might have been babied a bit growing up since he was near the youngest." Shields believed Kendrick's strong family upbringing helped him be "selfishly unselfish" as a player. And Ken- drick produced often when the lights shined the bright- est. He made several clutch shots as a Boilermaker, usu- ally drawing the other team's best defender. As a junior, his last-second baseline jumper beat nationally ranked Michigan on the road and helped the Boilermakers, un- der first-year coach Fred Schaus, establish credibility in the Big Ten. It had the effect of kicking the program into higher gear. "Frank would be in the locker room at halftime and he would yell at us, 'Give me the ball,'" Satterfield said. "It wasn't because he was selfish, it was because he wanted to win. Frank knew that with the ball in his hands, we had the best chance of winning, and he was right." Parkinson, a native of rural Yorktown, Ind., also re- membered Kendrick's sense of fashion and style. "When we went to New York for the '74 NIT, Frank was in his element," Parkinson said. "He had the man purse (first en vogue in the early '70s), the fancy clothes and the '70s hair, but the best thing was he treated guys like me from small towns with great respect. He made it so easy to be a teammate, and that was so important to me." It bears explaining why Purdue was in the Big Apple instead of the Big Dance. In '74, only one representative from the Big Ten made the 25-team NCAA Tournament. Purdue finished third in the conference and was a con- troversial late-season loss at Indiana away from making the Big Dance. Indiana and Michigan tied for the title and the Wolverines beat the Hoosiers in a playoff game to determine the Big Ten's NCAA rep. The Boilermakers ended up the season ranked No. 11. They beat North Carolina, a top-10 team coached by legendary Dean Smith and featuring All-American Bobby Jones, thanks to a come-from-behind win in the opening round of the NIT. "We would have been the equivalent of a No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament by today's standards," Kendrick said. "Our team had it all, with great guards in Parkinson and David Luke, a shutdown defender in Jerry Nichols, and a tough guy that could score in Bruce Rose. And (center) John (Garrett) was a scorer like few oth- ers. At 6-foot-11 he could put up points in big numbers because he could shoot it like few his size. "We had it all." After Carolina, Hawaii, Jacksonville and Utah each fell victim to Kendrick and Co., allowing Purdue to become the first Big Ten team to win the NIT. But Kendrick proved to be much more than a scorer. He was also a tremendous rebounder for his 6-6 frame "Frank would be in the locker room at halftime and he would yell at us, 'Give me the ball.' It wasn't because he was selfish, it was because he wanted to win." — Teammate Dick Satterfield