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Shumate Takes His Place Among the Greats

Shumate reflects back on his time at ND

Written by John Brice

John Shumate, whose name adorns a number of categories in Notre Dame men’s basketball record books and who quite likely corralled the most iconic rebound in Fighting Irish history – the one that sealed the program’s halting of John Wooden’s and UCLA’s record-setting 88-game winning streak in January 1974 – saw his No. 34 raised to the rafters Sunday inside Purcell Pavilion, as Shumate became Notre Dame’s 10th former player elevated into the program’s prestigious Ring of Honor.

“Well, it exceeded all the expectations that I had,” Shumate told a small gathering of reporters prior to Notre Dame’s Sunday tilt against Marquette. “To come back to this environment, with all the love that I’ve received, from top to bottom, is far greater than I ever imagined it could be. I’ve never been a part of anything like this.

“I’m glad the young guys came to watch, to see that when you pay the price and do things the right way, take care of yourself, body and mind, stay true to yourself, good things can happen for you and to you.

“I appreciate that, and I thank God for all He’s done for me and the mindset He gave me to focus. All credit and praise to Him.”

One of just a handful of players to ever score 40 or more points in a game for the Irish, and a two-time captain at Notre Dame in his final two seasons, Shumate averaged a career double-double of 22.6 points per game and 11.6 rebounds.

As Shumate was feted throughout the Irish’s matinee game, tributes poured in from around the basketball world.

“He’s one of the great players in Notre Dame history,” Shumate’s legendary coach, Digger Phelps, said in a video tribute.

Added basketball legend Bob McAdoo, a former NBA MVP and a Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, via video “Congrats on making the Notre Dame ‘Ring of Honor.’ I remember it like yesterday when Notre Dame ended UCLA’s 88-game winning streak and Notre Dame students were rushing the court.”

McAdoo, who spent his final year of college as a star at North Carolina, wasn’t done.

“I remember you taking Hall of Famer Bill Walton to school that day,” he said. “I never would’ve known we would eventually be teammates in Buffalo and Detroit in the NBA.”

Shumate matched Walton point-for-point on that late-January day against reigning champion UCLA; both players closed with 24 points. But Shumate’s closing-seconds-defense, as well as his snaring of the final loose ball off the rim, stand the test of time in Irish lore.

“You know, that game obviously was huge, and I remember calling my dad the night before, because I couldn’t sleep,” said Shumate, noting his late father was a Pentecostal preacher and that his parents initially had resisted his playing basketball in his native Elizabeth, N.J., for fear of crime and drugs. “I called my dad and he said, ‘What’s wrong?’. It was 4, 5 in the morning. I said, ‘If I don’t play well, we’re not going to be able to win it.’ He said, ‘So are you taking credit for the win?’

“And I said, ‘No. We all have to contribute, but my load is probably a little heavier.’ And he said, ‘Let’s pray.’ So my dad prayed for me over the phone. When he was finished, I felt like I could go and compete against the world. When we went to the gym, Dwight Clay and myself and my teammates, and this is so stupid, but I said, ‘Hey, y’all I had a dream last night.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, Brother Shu, what kind of dream was it? And I said I had dream about a Bruin and the Bruin came and he didn’t like the leprechaun and the leprechaun worked magic on him and kicked his butt.”

Shumate, who noted he grew up under strict rules inside the family household and also had no air conditioning in his South Jersey family home, likewise did not have a gilded path at Notre Dame.

Stricken with a blood-clot in his calf and an infection near his heart, Shumate was hospitalized for several days, initially could not be treated with antibiotics and eventually lost some 45 pounds before his arduous road back to excellent.

Even fifty years later, the painful memories left Shumate at an emotional loss of words.

“It was tough, it was tough because I worked so hard to be a good citizen, to always be a hard worker, basketball, I loved basketball and now all of the sudden the doctor says you may never play basketball again,” Shumate said. “And it was a devastation reality, potential reality for me. I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

Shumate recovered, and the rest is history – among the most significant in the decades of Notre Dame basketball.

“People feared him,” Brey said. “Especially a guy by the name of Bill Walton.”

— ND —