When "The White Shadow" debuted we saw the opening credit sequence & knew the protagonist was modeled after Jerry Sloan. Sloan was an All-America at Evansville when it was a power, & a backcourt mate of Norm Van Lier when they were the league& #39;s most fierce.

To understand & appreciate Jerry Sloan you have to realize he was a 6& #39;5" guard in the NBA of the mid-1960& #39;s. He& #39;s as big as John Havlicek. In his two years @ Evansville he avg. 13 rebounds a game. The Aces won back-to-back national titles when he was there

Though Sloan began as a Baltimore Bullet, his temperament was ideally suited to The City Of Big Shoulders. He & Van Lier patrolled the hardwood like Butkus roamed a gridiron

An SI feature on the 1964-65 Evansville Aces. They finished 29-0, Larry Humes & Jerry Sloan made All-American. Sloan had 25 boards in the championship game: https://vault.si.com/vault/1965/02/15/aces-are-high-in-evansville">https://vault.si.com/vault/196...

Sloan hauled down 75 rebounds in the Elite Eight. A transfer fr. U. Illinois, he was the 19th overall pick in the & #39;65 NBA Draft. Inspired by Jerry Sloan = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2-b0MidBjU">https://www.youtube.com/watch...