One To Remember

SMU Basketball Great Ira Terrell ‘Had It All’

DALLAS – Ira Terrell, a dominant force in 1970s Southwest Conference basketball, earned first-team all-conference honors each of the three seasons he roamed the paint for SMU.

A svelte 6-8, 205-pound center, Terrell (I.T., as he’s known) averaged 24 points and 13.5 rebounds per game. He’s the only player in school history to average a season double-double three times.

Terrell’s 1,715 career points rank sixth at SMU, behind three players who played four years. Just two Mustangs scored more points in three seasons than Terrell: Gene Phillips (1968-71) and Jim Krebs (1954-57).

Terrell’s 1,077 rebounds rank second all-time at SMU behind Jon Koncak (1981-85), who played four years.

No. 32, Ira Terrell, led SMU for three seasons.

“I was lucky to inherit a player like him,” said former SMU coach Sonny Allen by phone from Reno, Nev. Allen arrived at SMU in 1975, just in time for Terrell’s senior season. “He had a great feel for the game, but his quickness around the basket was just unbelievable.”

“He’s one of the best to ever play [at SMU], that’s for sure.”

Said teammate Mike Jaccar, also by phone, “[Terrell] had the best set of hands you’ll ever see on anybody. It was a shame we couldn’t dunk back then because he would have set the Southwest Conference on fire.”

Or if he’d just played four seasons ….

Terrell was ruled ineligible for his junior year due to an NCAA violation involving a small amount of money. It undoubtedly cost him the title today of SMU’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder – maybe even top honors in SWC history.

At SMU home games now, when Terrell looks into Moody Coliseum’s venerable rafters and doesn’t see his No. 32 jersey enshrined next to Krebs’ No. 32 and Koncak’s No. 53, that fact is never clearer.

Looking Back

“My thing was, I tried to stay consistent, every night,” Terrell said of his SMU career last week at a North Dallas coffee spot. “I wasn’t one of those guys that might go for 20 one night and eight the next night.”

“And when I hear of this ‘double-double thing,’ that was no big deal to me. It’s not hard to get ten rebounds. … Two or three rebounds should fall in your hands. If you’re working, you should be able to get seven or eight. … I just went after it.”

Today, Terrell lives in Irving and is Executive Director of Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., specializing in employee benefits. He’s also very involved with numerous local charities and enjoys playing golf.

“And, of course, I follow the Mustangs,” he said.

Terrell is on the Board of Directors of SMU’s Lettermen’s Association, a devoted regular at Mustangs sporting events and a loyal ambassador for the school. He’s also worked play-by-play and color for SMU basketball games on radio and television.

Terrell said he still thinks about what might have been had he accepted a scholarship from John Wooden at UCLA, Guy Lewis at Houston, Jerry Tarkanian at Long Beach State or myriad other big-time programs across the country.

“I sat and talked with John Wooden like we’re sitting here talking right now, face to face, in his office,” Terrell said. One entire wall was covered with plaques, each with a different Sports Illustrated cover featuring the Bruins. “[Wooden] just said, ‘You know how good we are.’ He wasn’t boasting. He was just being real. ‘You know you’re going to win.’”

“But my goals,” Terrell said, “were to go where I could play - because that was the first year freshmen could play - get an education, play pro ball and hopefully win a championship.”

“I did three of the four.”

Ira Terrell remains an ardent SMU supporter today.

‘Fan Mail’

Terrell said he was feeling like a rock star his senior year at Dallas Roosevelt High, as the wave of recruiting letters grew. “It was like fan mail coming, something I just wasn’t familiar with. … I didn’t let it go to my head even though I enjoyed it.”

How’d SMU win out? Terrell credits Mustangs assistant coach Mike Pinkham, who never missed his games or practices and often dropped by Terrell’s home. “He literally almost moved in with me, he was around so much,” Terrell said. “We just developed a bond.”

“And of course, it makes it kind of difficult when Mom and Dad, who you see every night, are saying, ‘We really want you to go school at SMU.’”

Another factor was Sammy Hervey, a junior college All-American who was headed to SMU in the fall. Hervey, out of Dallas Booker T. Washington High, had been Terrell’s hero growing up. “I wanted to walk like him and talk like him,” Terrell said. “I couldn’t play like him, because he just had crazy skills.”

Plus SMU was coming off a SWC co-championship and all-conference guard Ruben Triplett was back.

Bob Prewitt, in his sixth year as head coach at SMU, played Terrell right away. “He was an outstanding player,” Prewitt said by phone from Dallas. “He had it all.”

Terrell went up against top talent that first year, including NBA first-round draft picks Dwight Jones of Houston and Mike Green of Louisiana Tech. “I always tell people I had great games against them and they had greater games against me,” Terrell said. “I get 28 [points], they get 40. … But they were all seniors. I was a freshman.”

Tigers Lose?

The Mustangs, though talented, finished 10-15, 7-7 that year. Terrell said player egos were the problem, and laughed that maybe Prewitt should have been “meaner.”

A six-game SWC win streak highlighted the season. That, and No. 4 Missouri coming to Moody - and perhaps losing. Terrell hit the potential game-winner in that one with scant seconds left and time ran out after the Tigers inbounded the ball. But two seconds were put back on the clock after it was ruled a timeout had been called.

Missouri All-American John Brown then scored as time expired for the one-point win. Terrell says the shot came too late. Making the call tougher, Terrell said, was that SMU’s stat crew hadn’t turned on the automatic horn, signifying game’s end.

The next season, after starting 0-3 in league play, Prewitt and the Mustangs raced to a 10-1 regular season finish, including eight in a row, for second place in the SWC.

Terrell credits senior Oscar Roan, SMU’s All-SWC tight end who played one year of hoops, as being the catalyst. “He just kind of solidified everything,” Terrell said. “I didn’t have to always guard the best post man or the big-time scorer. He could do that.”

“He was one of those guys that didn’t need the ball. Most guys need the ball.”

“Ira was a great offensive player,” Roan said from Ft. Lauderdale. “My forte was defense and rebounding, so when we got together it was a good match. … He was smooth as silk.”

The Lost Season

Terrell was initially ruled ineligible for both his junior and senior seasons for accepting two payments of fifty dollars each. Upon appeal, his senior year was reinstated.

Without Terrell in 1974-75, SMU’s record fell to 8-18, 4-10 and Prewitt retired after 30 seasons on The Hilltop as a player, assistant coach and head coach.

“It was so minor,” Terrell said of the infraction.

“I guess the NCAA wanted to make an example out of me. Now, the thing that’s most disappointing, if you want to say it was wrong, it was wrong. You can’t tell me it doesn’t go on at every major university, number one. And number two, it wasn’t that I demanded money. This was, like, I needed to pay a phone bill. I got the money, I paid the phone bill.”

Terrell said that when he was ruled ineligible, about 25 SMU football players were also ruled ineligible for accepting “big-hit” payments. SMU appealed the football players’ case separately from Terrell’s and they were reinstated, he said.

“I had to go to Washington, DC and sit in front of about 25 men at the NCAA council just to get one year back. And we’re talking about $100.”

“Was it devastating? Yes. Was I grateful for one year back? Yes. But I wanted to play two years.” … “Why not appeal everything at the same time?” Terrell asked. “You reinstate 20-plus players. You kick one to the curb. … I just used it as motivation and continued to work.”

Terrell went to practice every day, where he and the subs whipped up on the first team. “Every day we would smoke ‘em,” he said. “And I kept my grades up. Then I came back for my senior year, strong as ever, made [SWC] Player of the Year, graduated and went to the NBA.”

When asked if he still held any bitterness Terrell replied, “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t rub me the wrong way.” Toward SMU or the NCAA? “A little of both,” he said. “The NCAA first, because I’d have had so many records.”

The Comeback

Allen took the reins at SMU in 1975 and installed a running-style offense. With Terrell’s return, the Mustangs bounced back with a 16-12, 10-6 mark and third-place regular season finish.

Before Allen’s first SWC opener he made a bold statement. Terrell was tardy for the team bus to TCU and Allen left without him. “Now, I’m the best player,” Terrell laughed, “but I was late. … I drove to Ft. Worth. I had plenty of time when I got there to get dressed, to get taped. [But] I didn’t start. Now, I didn’t sit long but I didn’t start.”

The Mustangs lost, 79-75.

“Rules are rules,” Terrell said. “Was I happy? No. Did I still play hard? Yes.”

SMU traveled to Fayetteville next to face Arkansas. The Razorbacks were loaded for the future with sophomores Ron Brewer and Marvin Delph, and freshman Sidney Moncrief. “ Arkansas had just beaten Houston, with Otis Birdsong, by like forty,” Terrell said.

“Both teams played well. I think we shot close to 60-percent from the field. They probably shot 50. There were very few rebounds.”

T.J. Robinson’s close-range bucket at the buzzer gave SMU the heart-stopping 82-81 win. “[The ball] came in to me,” Terrell said. “I turned to go up and it just slipped straight out of my hand, went straight in the air. T.J. was right on the other side of the rim and caught it.”

“That place got as quiet as a church when that shot went in.”

Sensing trouble, Allen got the team off the court quickly. Said Jaccar, “They were throwing things, spitting at you, yelling at you. We took a quick shower and got the heck out of there.”

One of Terrell’s favorite memories from that year is the Texas A&M game in Dallas. Late in a back-and-forth contest, Terrell blocked a shot by Sonny Parker and the whistle blew. “I’m thinking it’s a foul on me,” Terrell said. “I didn’t complain. Referee Paul Galvan says, ‘No basket. Offensive foul on Sonny.’”

“And [A&M coach] Shelby Metcalf went berserk.”

“He threw a chair,” Terrell said. “He threw a chair before Bobby Knight threw a chair. The tie went off. The coat went off. I think somebody sent me a picture from the New York Times or the New York Post the next day. It was crazy. We ended up winning the game.”

SMU knocked off No. 17 Auburn in OT that season at a Christmas tournament in El Paso. Texas fell to the Mustangs three times in ‘76, including a first-round match-up in the inaugural SWC Tournament, held at Moody.

Arkansas, also losers of two regular-season games to SMU, got revenge in the tournament, ending Terrell’s collegiate

career in the second round.

“I think I had like 28 points and 16 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough,” Terrell said. “It was a tough time, walking up that tunnel for the last time and knowing that there was going to be two more days of basketball at my house.”

Terrell was drafted 45 th overall by the Phoenix Suns in the third round of the 1976 NBA draft. He played nearly 30 minutes a game as a rookie, with Suns’ play-by-play man Al McCoy crooning “I.T. for two!” when Terrell scored.

In the Suns’ ’77 opener Terrell suffered a season-ending knee injury and was waived the next year. He split his third and final NBA season at New Orleans and Portland.

Short List

As far as future enshrined SMU jerseys, Terrell said, “There are not that many that need to go up. You have to look at [No. 2 scorer] Gene Phillips, then eventually, probably, [leading scorer] Jeryl Sasser and [No. 4 scorer] Quinton Ross - and myself.”

“I just like to be around the athletes,” Terrell said of his ardent support of the Mustangs. “There are a lot of people [at SMU] that really admire me. I’m not there to make friends, but I make friends easily. I can sit and talk to people forever.”

“I want what everybody else wants [for SMU]. That’s to put butts in the seats. Win – so that we’re not having this conversation like they’ve had for the last 25 years with the football team. … We’re at 17 [years since SMU’s last NCAA tournament appearance] and I’d like for that to change.”

“I’d like for [SMU] to be a hotbed, be it local players coming in here, I don’t care where players come from. I want to be part of it, where people are talking about SMU like they talk about Texas basketball or Kentucky basketball around here. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be.”

And high above that hotbed one day, snug in the warm rafters, should be Terrell’s No. 32 jersey.

Gerry York of SMU’s Heritage Hall contributed to this report.

Notes:

SMU’s Top Five Rebounders

1. Jon Koncak - 1,169, 123 games, 9.5 avg.

2. Ira Terrell - 1,077, 80 games, 13.5 avg.

3. Jeryl Sasser - 976, 117 games, 8.3 avg.

4. Larry Davis - 889, 122 games, 7.3 avg.

5. Jim Krebs - 840, 82 games, 10.2 avg.

SMU’s Top Six Scorers

1. Jeryl Sasser - 1,992, 117 games, 17 avg.

2. Gene Phillips - 1,932, 74 games, 26.1 avg.

3. Jon Koncak - 1,784, 123 games, 14.5 avg.

4. Quinton Ross - 1,761, 119 games, 14.8 avg.

5. Jim Krebs - 1,753, 82 games, 21.4 avg.

6. Ira Terrell - 1,715, 80 games, 21.4 avg.