High school career

Dischinger attended Terre Haute's James A. Garfield High, the son of the football coach, Dischinger was a 3-year letter winner in basketball and was twice being named the Purple Eagles' MVP. During his senior season (1957-58), he was selected as Captain and was the MVP of the 1958 Indiana All-Star team; he was also a Parade Magazine All-American.

During his high school career, Dischinger earned All-State honors in basketball, while being coached by Willard Kehrt, and in football and track, being coached by his father, Donas Dischinger. As a High School Freshman, he was a member of Terre Haute's 1955 Babe Ruth League world championship baseball team. He was also a member of Garfield High's 1955 IHSAA Sectional Championship team; this was the deepest run Garfield would make during his high school career. City rival, Terre Haute Gerstmeyer Tech, was the main opposition to Garfield during Dischinger's career.

College career

Terry Dischinger attended Purdue University where he played basketball under head coach, Ray Eddy. In his first varsity season as a sophomore, the 6'7", 190 lb guard/forward was named a Second Team All-American, leading the Boilermakers by averaging 26.3 points and 14.3 rebounds a game. On January 9, 1960, Terry pulled down 26 rebounds against Wisconsin, the second most in a game behind Carl McNulty's school record of 27 in 1951.

During his junior season, Dischinger was named a First Team All-American and led the conference in scoring with 28.2 points and 13.4 rebounds a game. He made a single-game school record 21 free throws against Iowa on February 27, 1961.

On Christmas Day in 1961, Terry scored a career high 52 points against Michigan State, which included 19 field goals and 14 free throws. It broke Jerry Lucas' prior Big Ten Conference record of 48. In his last college game against Michigan on March 12, Terry, who was playing with a sprained ankle, scored 30 points. His 459 total points in his senior year led the conference in scoring for a third consecutive season. He was named a second straight First Team All-American while leading the Big Ten in scoring, averaging 30.3 points, and in rebounds, with 13.4 rebounds a game. He attempted a single-season school record 350 free throws in his senior season.

At the end of his college career, Dischinger held almost every Purdue scoring record, but many were broken by the likes of Dave Schellhase and Rick Mount within that next decade. He was named All-Big Ten each season and selected as the Purdue MVP for each season. He currently holds school records for nine 40+ point games, 713 made free throws with 871 attempted, 14.3 rebounds a game and the second most in a career with 958 behind Joe Barry Carroll's 1,148 mark. Terry averaged 28.3 points a game in his three varsity seasons, in which he led the conference. He's currently the sixth highest scorer in Boilermaker history with a total of 1,979 points. Dischinger was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1997 was named to the Purdue Centennial Basketball Team along with Dave Charters, (1909-11) Charles "Stretch" Murphy (1928-30), John Wooden (1930-32), Jewell Young (1936-38), Paul Hoffman (1944-47), Joe Sexson (1954-56), Dave Schellhase (1964-66), Rick Mount (1968-70), Joe Barry Carroll (1977-80), Troy Lewis (1985-88) and Glenn Robinson (1993-94).

1960 Olympics

Dischinger was selected to the USA men's basketball team that won the gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics under head coach Pete Newell; at age 19, he was the youngest member of the team. As a starting guard/forward, he was teamed with future Basketball Hall of Famers Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Jerry Lucas. The team was named to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. He started all 8 games, scoring 94 totals points, with an 11.8 avg. He was the #4 scorer on the team.

Professional career

Dischinger was the first pick of the second round of the NBA Draft in 1962 by the Chicago Zephyrs. He won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in the 1962-1963 season after averaging 25.5 points and eight rebounds per game. After his rookie season, Dischinger and the Zephrys moved to Baltimore and changed their name to the Baltimore Bullets. In his second season, Dischinger averaged 20.8 points and 8.3 rebounds a game. In his third season in the NBA, he was traded to the Detroit Pistons and averaged 18.2 points a game, and Dischinger was chosen as an NBA All-Star for the third consecutive season.

Following his third NBA season, Dischinger spent the next two years serving in the United States Army, where he continued to play basketball and was named MVP for the Army all-Pacific team, served as a coach of the all-Army basketball team, and coached a State Department team on a tour of Central America in 1966.

After returning to the NBA in 1967, he returned to the Pistons, where he played for the next five seasons. During the 1971-72 season, he coached in two games as a player-coach at the age of 31. Terry played for the Portland Trail Blazers during the 1972-73 seasons before retiring after nine seasons playing in the NBA. He holds career averages of 13.8 points, 5.6 rebounds a game, and a .506 field goal percentage.

After basketball

Following his retirement from basketball in 1973, Dischinger completed dental school in Memphis, Tennessee and with his wife Mary, returned to Portland, where he had ended his NBA career to begin an orthodontic practice in the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego.

Family

Dischinger and his wife Mary have been married more than fifty years and have three kids and nine grandchildren. His grandson Michael Loomis currently plays basketball at Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Ore.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]