Terry Dischinger was a College Basketball Hall of Fame player, three-time NBA All Star, and Olympic gold medal winner who became a patent-holding orthodontist.
- Died: October 10, 2023 (Who else died on October 10?)
- Details of death: Died in Oregon after fighting Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 82.
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Terry Dischinger’s legacy
Dischinger won basketball accolades starting in high school, where he was an all-state player, three-year letter winner, and two-time MVP. Parade Magazine named him an All-American player in 1958. His success continued at Purdue University in 1959, where he became one of the most accomplished players in school history. Though many of his records were later broken, he left Purdue holding almost every school scoring record and was a Big Ten Conference player and team MVP in three consecutive seasons. He led the conference in scoring for three straight seasons and is still the sixth highest scorer in Purdue history.
Dischinger’s talents landed him on the 1960 Olympic basketball team, where at age 19 he helped the team win the gold medal in Rome. He was the first pick in the second round of the 1962 NBA draft, joining the Chicago Zephyrs and winning Rookie of the Year. That same year, he continued his education at Purdue and earned a degree in chemical engineering while playing in the NBA. He played for the Zephyrs, Baltimore Bullets, and Detroit Pistons until 1965, when he left basketball to serve two years in the U.S. Army. While serving, he was introduced to dentistry, a field to which he eventually returned after retiring from professional sports.
Dischinger returned to the NBA in 1967, first playing with the Pistons, then with the Portland Trailblazers in 1972 and 1973. Over his nine seasons in the NBA, he was a three-time All-Star. He went to dental school immediately upon retirement and was valedictorian of his class. Dischinger’s second career was as successful as his first. He practiced for decades in Lake Oswego, Oregon, holding several patents and often traveling to teach orthodontics.
Dischinger’s numerous honors include inductions into the Indiana Basketball, Purdue Intercollegiate Athletics, NFHS, Indiana High School Athletic Association, Naismith Memorial Basketball, and College Basketball Halls of Fame.
Tributes to Terry Dischinger
Full obituary: Journal & Courier
