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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's most fierce.
To understand & appreciate Jerry Sloan you have to realize he was a 6'5" guard in the NBA of the mid-1960's. He'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
Sloan hauled down 75 rebounds in the Elite Eight. A transfer fr. U. Illinois, he was the 19th overall pick in the '65 NBA Draft. Inspired by Jerry Sloan =
