Ball State University, Volleyball

I was attending Ball State University, in Muncie, Indiana in 1969.  I had graduated from International Business College with an Associates Degree in Accounting and had hoped to finish my Bachelor's Degree at Ball State.

I had always paid my own way in college and worked at various jobs (Gas Stations, Kresge Warehouse, General Electric, etc), mostly night jobs.  My friend Dave Mulligan and I were dating two girls who were friends and to be honest, they were tutoring Dave and I...... in Geometry.  That is where we met them, Geometry Class.

I was broke.  Trying to pay for a dorm room, tuition, food and miscellaneous was a strain.  Working 25-30 hours a week and selling my blood at Ball Memorial Hospital was not paying the bills.

Dave was on the Volleyball Team and they were really good.   Always one of the top teams in the nation.  Coach Shondell was from Fort Wayne, Indiana and he recruited heavy from two tiny rural schools near Ft. Wayne.  Hoagland and Monroeville high schools had provided Ball State with about 9 players in recent years.  Dave talked to coach Shondell about me trying to make the team as a walk on.  Coach agreed to meet me a few days later.  My meeting with Don was short and sweet.  He told me he didn't care what I knew about volleyball (both Hoagland and Monroeville always had excellent volleyball teams) and that he would teach me his way of playing the game.....if I made the team. 

I was told to come back and see him in about three weeks.  IF I could run a mile in under six minutes he would give me a tryout.  I was a sprinter, hated distance running and seldom did run long.   Three weeks later, I met coach at the new indoor field house.  It was a terrible winter day as I recall but the field house (had a regulation football field and surrounding track) was a perfect 60-65 degrees inside.  Coach clicked his stop watch and off I went.  I had trained hard for that day.  I honestly didn't think I could do a 6 minute mile.  But I did.

I got my tryout.  I made one of the top 4 volleyball teams in the nation, as a walk-on Freshman.  Coach could not give me any scholarship but he did something that meant the world to me at the time:  he gave me access to the College Varsity Dining Room.  I ate with all the football, basketball, etc varsity players and coach also got me a job with the athletic department, refereeing intramural basketball and volleyball games.  I quit my night job, ate good meals and trained, traveled and played against Big Ten, and various other colleges in about a 200 mile radius of Muncie.  We played the Olympic girls team, gave demonstrations at various events, prisons, etc.  I was on the team for two years.

Oh, and we made the final four at the 1969 and 1970 Volleyball Team Tournament. 

I never got my Bachelors Degree but later, at the age of 34, graduated from Indiana University on the GI Bill.