Great Rebound

The defining moment of Steve Stielper's JMU basketball career came Jan. 27, 1979. Playing at Godwin Hall before 3,700 fans, the 6-foot-7 1/2 inch junior from suburban Baltimore made his first nine shots from the field and had 20 points at halftime. It got better.

Displaying a range of outside jumpers and twisting bank shots off the glass, Stielper torched Robert Morris of Pittsburgh for 31 points in the second half. That's right: 51 points in one game, a school record that still stands nearly a quarter of a century later. He made 22 of 25 shots from the field, while playing all but two minutes in a 98-73 win.

"There was a streak, even in practice, for four weeks where everything was going in," Stielper recalls. "My comfort level was high. Every shot, you think, it's going in."

"He got in the zone," recalls Madison coach Lou Campanelli. "Everything he threw up went in."

Certainly Stielper had many more memorable moments for the Dukes. No. 44 ended his junior season as one of the top scorers in the nation (a school-best 25.7 points per game). Not bad for a player on a team that had joined the ranks of Division I less than three years earlier.

Stielper concluded his college career with 2,126 points and 917 rebounds -- still school records. He broke the scoring mark (2,065) that had been held by his former teammate, Sherman Dillard, who recently finished his fifth season as the JMU head coach.

Stielper left Harrisonburg with a truckload of awards: honorable mention All-American in 1979 by the Associated Press, second-team all-state by the Richmond Times-
Dispatch and first-team all-ECAC South.

What he didn't take with him was something more important: a college diploma. But that was something Stielper did not realize at the time. "I blew it off because I thought I was going to be a professional basketball player," says Stielper, who played overseas for three seasons but not in the NBA. "I really didn't think of the future at that time."

Making up for lost time, Stielper ('01) received his Bachelor of Individualized Study degree last December with a concentration in communications.

"I was overjoyed, thrilled. It was a culmination of something that started in 1976 and should have been completed by 1980," says Stielper, who was joined by his two daughters, other family members and friends at the graduation ceremony. "Personally, my children know their father has a college degree."

His daughters, Lindsay, 13, and Stephanie, 7, live with their mothers in two Maryland towns.

To Stielper, college -- the first time -- meant basketball and fun. "I was a partyer, you could call me," he says. But Campanelli says Stielper was on track to graduate until his last semester in 1980.

"Just because you don't have a degree doesn't mean you are not smart. But that piece of paper carries a lot of weight in our society," Stielper says. He received his degree through JMU's Adult Degree Program, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. JMU and Mary Baldwin College were the first two schools in Virginia to establish the program after a state mandate in the 1970s.

"That is one of the prize moments, that he was able to graduate," says Vickie Lilley, who worked with Stielper in the Adult Degree Program. "He was a joy to work with."

"It was quite exciting. He had a fan club that remembered his accomplishments," says Charles Curry, director of continuing education at JMU.

Lilley says that someone must have gone at least three years without being a full-time student to be eligible for the program. She says the average age is about 40, and the majority of returning students has been out of school five to 10 years. "It is designed and tailored to meet the special needs and lifestyles of working adults," Curry says. He adds that more than 300 people have taken advantage of the program. Curry says students must have 30 credit hours to join the program.

Stielper's path to finishing his degree began about two years ago, when he started working as a half-time project manager and half-time project superintendent for Jim Griffith, president of JGM Construction in Glen Burnie, Md. Griffith and his wife, Mary, employ about 15 people.

Griffith and Stielper went to the same high school, old Andover High in Maryland's Anne Arundel County. Griffith's brother, Michael, was in the same graduating class with the former prep star in 1976.

Stielper had left JMU when he was drafted in the eighth round by the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association in 1980, but did not make the team. After returning from Europe in 1983 after three seasons of pro ball, Stielper held several jobs near his hometown of Linthicum, just south of Baltimore. He even delivered pizzas at one point in order to make child-support payments.

"He had jobs, but not proper jobs," says David Shiplett, a longtime friend from Harrisonburg. "I think he wanted that [degree] pretty bad." Shiplett says that Stielper has called him once a month for the past 20 years. Shiplett would bring up the unfinished course work at times. "I told him, 'You don't have much to finish.' It really upset me. He was that close. He is a very bright person. I hated to see him waste it," Shiplett says. "Steve is an honorable person. He made some mistakes when he was young."

When Griffith, a University of Maryland graduate, learned that Stielper was 15 credits shy of his degree, he said: "Why don't you call the university and see exactly what you need to graduate?" But Griffith did more than encourage. He also footed the bill for the remaining course work, and allowed Stielper to take time off from the construction business when needed.

"The motivation was Jim Griffith. He thought it would be good for the company image. It was up to me to follow it up," Stielper says. He did, receiving credit by taking a CLEP exam for Spanish, doing a senior project for communications in the construction industry, a 10-page paper on how the Americans with Disabilities Act influenced the construction sector and testing out on a three-credit course on meteorology.

"It is good for the company to have a college graduate," Griffith says. "More importantly, beside the company, the interest to do it was for him."

Stielper was already putting his real-world education to use with JGM Construction.

On a chilly morning in January, Stielper is speaking Spanish with some workers on his job site on the second floor of a 10-story office building about five blocks from the White House in Washington. Stielper learned Spanish while playing pro ball in Spain in the early 1980s. He also played pro ball in Australia. Until recently, he still played hoops in an adult recreation league.

Stielper is sitting at a makeshift desk, wearing a blue company shirt and brown pants, with a watch on his left wrist and a cell phone that goes off often. His company is putting the finishing touches on offices for George Washington University lawyers, and Stielper is coordinating the work of JGM employees and outside specialists. He normally leaves his home around 6 a.m. and is at the job site from about 7 a.m. until 2 p.m., then he heads to the company office to work a few hours until calling it a day around 5:30 p.m.

His new college degree has not landed Stielper a promotion, but company president Griffith says he hopes the former hoop star can become his right-hand man.

The news of Stielper's graduation swept quickly among current and former JMU athletics personnel. Stielper says that his former Madison coach, Campanelli, called to congratulate him. Stielper says the two had not spoken since 1980, though not because of any falling out. "I lost track of him," says Campanelli, now the director of basketball officials in the California-based Pacific 10 conference. Stielper also says he received notes from former athletics director Dean Ehlers and former baseball coach Brad Babcock, now the executive associate athletics director at JMU.

"I was so excited. I am happy for him," Campanelli says. "It kind of made me feel, 'Mission accomplished for Steve.'" Campanelli says that of the 42 four-year players he had at Madison, Stielper was the only one who did not graduate at the time. "Only because he lost interest his senior year," Campanelli says. "I always felt bad. Maybe I didn't say the right thing. We always made academics a priority. At that time it wasn't important to him."

Campanelli remembers another memorable game, which came on Jan. 14, 1978, during Stielper's sophomore year. Before a long road trip, Stielper cut open his left elbow during a rebounding drill the day before playing at Utah State.

"He blew it open pretty good," says athletics trainer Ron Stefancin, who is still at JMU. Stielper made the point to Campanelli and Stefancin that since he shot right-handed, he could play with his left elbow wrapped. After getting several stitches to close the wound, he did, and had 25 points and 15 rebounds against an imposing Utah State front line. The Dukes still lost by 36 points; it was their worst setback ever. It would have been even worse without Stielper.

That kind of perseverance has paid off for Stielper more than 20 years later -- this time, off the court. As a graduate, he was finally eligible for JMU's athletics Hall of Fame. He was inducted last month.

"Steve should stay a part of James Madison. He helped build a foundation. Without the Steve Stielpers, we would not have been able to build the program," Campanelli says.

In the end, Stielper actually went beyond the school's academic requirements. He now has 124 college credits, four more than he needed for his degree.

"He deserves it," Shiplett says. "He has grown up now. He has his head on straight. I am real proud of him."

David Driver

Photo: Tyler Mallory