Dwight Eddleman

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Dwight Eddleman
Fort Wayne Pistons
Career highlights and awards
Career statistics
Points
3,221 (12.1 ppg)
Rebounds913 (4.5 rpg)
Assists550 (2.1 apg)
Stats Edit this at Wikidata at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Dwight Eddleman
No. 40
Position:
Punter, Punt returner
Career information
NFL draft:1947 / Round: 9 / Pick: 75
Career highlights and awards
  • University of Illinois records
    • Punt return average in a single game
      - 10/8/1947 (51.0 yards)
    • Punt return average in a season
      - 1947 (32.8 yards)
    • Longest punt
      - 11/6/1948 (88 yards)
    • Longest punt return
      - 11/8/1947 (92 yards)
    • Career punt return average
      - 1946–48 (21.5 yards)
    • Season punt return average
      - 1948 (32.8 yards)
    • Single game punt return average
      - 10/18/1947 (51.0 yards)
Dwight Eddleman
Sport
Sport
Track & field
EventHigh jump
Achievements and titles
Personal bestHJ – 2.04 m (1948) =
Medal record
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
1948 London

Thomas Dwight "Dike" Eddleman (December 27, 1922 – August 1, 2001) was an American athlete who was generally considered the greatest athlete in the history of athletics at the

football teams between the years of 1942 and 1949. Eddleman earned a combined 11 varsity letters in his career at the university, during which he also became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Eddleman was born in Centralia, Illinois, and attended Centralia High School. On October 24, 2008, Eddleman was named a Distinguished Alumni of Centralia High school. He, along with five others, including James Brady
, were the first to be named Distinguished Alumni. His wife, Teddy Eddleman, accepted his award.

Beginning in 1969, Eddleman served the University of Illinois as a fundraiser for the

Memorial Stadium
between Peabody Drive and Kirby Street was designated Honorary Dike Eddleman Way (a street in his hometown of Centralia, Third Street, which runs past the old high school, is also designated Dike Eddleman Way).

In 1983, Eddleman was inducted into the

Hall of Fame
.

Sports accomplishments

High school

As a

high school player, Eddleman is considered one of the finest players in the history of high school basketball in the state of Illinois. Eddleman played four years at Centralia High School, from 1939 to 1942. Eddleman led the Centralia Orphans to the 1942 Illinois state basketball championship, after finishing fourth in 1939 and third in 1941. In the 1942 title game, Eddleman single-handedly led a comeback as the Orphans were 13 points down with five minutes to go. As a junior and senior, Eddleman led the state in scoring with 969 and 834 points, respectively. His 969 points as a junior broke the previous state record of 751 points. During his high school career, Eddleman scored 2702 career points, which was at the time of his graduation from high school a state record for most points in a career. Eddleman was the first high school player in Illinois to average at least 20 points per game. In 2007, the Illinois High School Association named Eddleman one of the 100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament.[2]

University of Illinois

Basketball

In the fall of 1942, Eddleman enrolled at the

Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, where he played basketball for the Kittyhawks, a military service "all-star" team regarded as one of the greatest in the nation. While playing for the Kittyhawks, he was named to the College All-Star team composed of the best college players in the country. The team played games around the country, but one particularly memorable game was when the Kittyhawks beat the Harlem Globetrotters
in 1945. Eddleman would close out his military service in the fall of 1946, transitioning back to the life of a college student athlete.

Upon returning to the University of Illinois, as a second semester freshman in the spring of 1947, Eddleman was immediately issued his

Big Ten
record of 8–4, second place in the conference.

In his second season of varsity basketball, Eddleman would lead the team in scoring and be named to the Associated Press 2nd team All-American, Converse 3rd team All-American, as well as True Magazine 3rd team All-American. The team would be led by new head coach, Harry Combes to an overall record of 15 wins and 5 losses and a 7 and 5 conference record, third place in the Big Ten. After the season, Eddleman would be named First-team All-Big Ten as well as the University of Illinois Athlete of the Year.

In the

MVP. He was named a Converse 1st team All-American, Big Ten Player of the Year and earned the Big Ten Medal of Honor. Eddleman served as the team captain in 1949 and was named the team MVP that year and the University of Illinois Athlete of the Year for the second straight season. In his military shortened tenure at Illinois, Eddleman scored 618 points in 55 games for an average of 11.2 points per game, but 606 of those points were scored in his final two seasons for an average of 13.5 points per game. The Fighting Illini's record over Eddleman's three season was 50 wins and 15 losses overall and 25 wins and 11 losses in the conference.[3]

Football

Eddleman was a member of three football teams while attending Illinois, however, the

punt returning
, seven of which still stand at Illinois.

Eddleman was drafted by the

1948 AAFC Draft
.

Track & field

As a high school athlete, Eddleman won three Illinois state

NCAA championship
in 1947.

On July 10, 1948, the summer of his junior year, Eddleman became eligible to participate in the

Dyche Stadium at Northwestern University. After qualifying, Eddleman traveled to London in good company with Illini teammate Bob Richards as well as other Olympic notables including Harrison Dillard, Herb McKenley, Clyde "Smackover" Scott, and Bill Porter. After qualifying in their respective events, the two Illinois athletes made a quick trip back to Champaign-Urbana on the train, leaving the next day to join the other American Olympic hopefuls in New York in order to board the SS America with a final destination of England
.

The high jump took place on the first day of competition, July 30, 1948, and

Memorial Stadium
.

Professional basketball

After leaving the University of Illinois, Eddleman played professionally for four seasons in the

Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons which resulted in a move to Indiana. While playing for the Pistons, he cultivated a friendship with Fred Schaus, who would later become coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Eddleman played in the NBA All-Star Game in both 1951 and 1952. Over his NBA career, Eddleman scored 3221 points in 266 games, for a scoring average of 12.1 points per game.[6]

During the off-season of the two years that he played in Indiana, Eddleman utilized his physical education degree by working as the recreational director for

Baltimore Bullets, a team that dropped out of the NBA and folded after playing 14 games in 1954, Eddleman decided to retire from professional basketball and work full-time for Central Soya. In 1956, Eddleman was transferred to a new plant in Gibson City, Illinois
, a town located just 30 miles north of Champaign.

Personal life and death

Eddleman married Teddy Georgia Townsley, his high school sweetheart, on December 25, 1945, as the couple exchanged wedding vows in a Christmas ceremony while Eddleman was home on leave from the Army Air Corps. Their marriage resulted in the birth of four children, three daughters and one son. Diana, Nancy, Kristy, and Tom, all of whom attended the University of Illinois.

In 1969 Eddleman left Central Soya and accepted the executive director of Grants-In-Aid position with the University of Illinois Foundation, a fundraising entity working with Fighting Illini Alumni to provide financial aid for student athletes. In 1990, the Grants-In-Aid program was renamed the Fighting Illini Scholarship Fund. Eddleman retired from his position with the University of Illinois on January 1, 1993.

In 1993, the University of Illinois renamed its male and female Athlete of the Year awards the Dike Eddleman Athlete of the Year.

Eddleman died from a heart ailment at Champaign's Carle Foundation Hospital, on August 1, 2001, at the age of 78.

Honors

Basketball

Track & field

Football

Athletics

  • 1948 & 1949 – University of Illinois Athlete of the Year
  • 1961 – Inducted into the Illinois Sports Hall of Fame
  • 1993 – University of Illinois renamed their male and female Athlete of the Year awards to the Dike Eddleman Athlete of the Year.[13]
  • 2017 – Inducted into the University of Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame[14]

Statistics

College basketball

Season Games
Points
 PPG Big Ten
Record 		Overall
Record 		Highlight
1946–47
10
12
1.2
8–4
14–6
-
1947–48
20
277
13.9
7–5
15–5
 First-team All-Big Ten
1948–49
25
329
13.1
10–2
21–4
 Big Ten Player of the Year
Totals
55
618
11.2
25–11
50–15

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP MPG FG% FT% RPG APG PPG
1949–50 Tri-Cities 64 – .366 .623 – 2.2 12.9
1950–51 Tri-Cities 68 – .355 .699 6.0 2.5 15.3
1951–52 Milwaukee 50 32.3 .324 .631 4.6 2.2 12.8
1951–52 Fort Wayne 16 18.0 .381 .462 2.3 1.4 6.5
1952–53 Fort Wayne 69 22.8 .351 .561 3.4 1.5 8.9
Career 267 25.7 .352 .630 4.5 2.1 12.1
All-Star 2 26.0 .250 .600 1.0 2.5 4.5

Playoffs

Year Team GP MPG FG% FT% RPG APG PPG
1950
 Tri-Cities 3 – .378 .600 – 2.3 16.3
1952
 Fort Wayne 2 18.5 .375 .571 3.5 2.0 8.0
1953
 Fort Wayne 7 9.0 .391 .267 0.7 0.3 3.1
Career 12 11.1 .381 .489 1.3 1.1 7.3

References

  • Dike Eddleman: Illinois' Greatest Athlete by Diana Eddleman Lenzi, Sports Publishing, Inc., 1997
  1. ^ State of Illinois 92nd General Assembly Legislation House Resolution
  2. ^ Legends of the IHSA
  3. ISBN 1-58261-793-7
  4. ^ IHSA.org
  5. ^ Olympic.org
  6. ^ 1949 NBA draft Archived May 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "FightingIllini.com" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 24, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  8. ^ "IBCA Hall of Fame". Archived from the original on April 21, 2019. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  9. ^ IHSA.org
  10. ^ 100 Legends of the IHSA Boys Basketball Tournament
  11. ^ GoDrakeBulldogs.com
  12. ^ "FightingIllini.com" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 23, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  13. ^ FightingIllini.com
  14. ^ Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dwight_Eddleman&oldid=1220488796"