Terry Dischinger, an All-American at Purdue and a three time NBA All-Star, was the keynote speaker at the 2010 PLNU Athletic Worship and Awards Luncheon held in Golden Gymnasium on Sunday, September 19. The annual event is a fellowship opportunity for the entire athletic department, teams and parents. Additionally, one outstanding athlete per team is recognized and awarded a scholarship (Meguiar for the men, McNeilly for the women).
This year's speaker, Terry Dischinger, is the son of a football coach who earned All-State honors in football, track and basketball while attending Garfield High School in Terre Haute. He was also a member of Terre Haute's 1955 Babe Ruth League world championship baseball team.
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.
In the summer of 1960, Dischinger was selected to the USA men's basketball team that won a gold
medal in the Rome Olympics under head coach Pete Newell. As a starting guard/forward, Dischinger was teamed with future NBA Hall of Famers Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Jerry Lucas.
Returning to Purdue, Dischinger was named a first team All-American as a junior and led the Big Ten Conference in scoring with 28.2 points and 13.4 rebounds a game. On Christmas Day in 1961, Terry scored a career-high 52 points against Michigan State, which included 19 field goals and 14 free throws. His 52 points broke Jerry Lucas' prior conference record of 48. He was named a second straight first team All-American after his senior season, leading the Big Ten in total points (459), scoring average (30.3 points), and in rebound average (13.4).
At the end of his college career Dischinger held almost every Purdue scoring record and still 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. He averaged 28.3 points a game in his three varsity seasons, in which he led the conference. He's currently the fifth highest scorer in Boilermaker history with a total of 1,979 points. Dischinger was named to Purdue's Centennial All-Time Men's Basketball Team and inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989. He was recently inducted to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 as part of the 1960 United States Olympic team.
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 for 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, he 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 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 then played for the Portland Trail Blazers during the 1972-73 seasons before retiring after a nine year NBA career. His career averages were 13.8 points and 5.6 rebounds a game, and he had a .506 field goal percentage.
Following his retirement from basketball in 1973, Dischinger, who earned a BS in chemical engineering from Purdue in 1963, attended the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry in Nashville, where he received both the Faculty Award and the Sidney Friedman Award for Excellence in Periodontology. He earned his DDS in 1974 and was class Valedictorian. Combining his love of engineering and dentistry, he continued his education earning his MSD from the University of Oregon Health Science Center in 1977.
Dr. Dischinger established his practice in Portland suburb of Lake Oswego in 1977. He is considered nationally as a leader in both functional jaw orthopedics and orthodontic technology and has lectured extensively throughout the United States. Terry and his wife, Mary, have three children and nine grandchildren. Their son, Bill, practices orthodontics with Terry. The Dischingers enjoy a wide range of activities together including reading, sports, golf, boogie boarding, snorkeling, dinners out and church activities, where they lead a Bible study group. Above all, the couple enjoys spending time with family and grandchildren.
