Twenty-five years after taking his last shot at Stout, after pulling down his final rebound, Mel Coleman is still a major presence in the Stout basketball record book - and the WSUC record book.
Coleman holds the conference record for most boards in a season - 306 in 1968 for an average of 19.1 per game.
For the Stout record book, he holds the record for most points in a single season - 571 - most rebounds in a single game - 38 against UW-Whitewater in 1968 - and most in a season - 451 for a 19.3 per game average. But surprisingly, the Cleveland, Ohio, native doesn't hold the Stout career record. That is held by his teammate, Jerry Kissman, who played from 1963-67, has 1408. Coleman is a distant third with 1069. Not bad for a guy who, as a high school junior, was cut on his first varsity tryout at John Adams High in Cleveland.
Coleman was told he was cut because of his inability to jump. His legs weren't developed enough, an assistant coach said.
"I knew I could jump," Coleman said. "I just had to prove that man wrong."
After graduation, Coleman took a job in a machine shop and resigned himself to being a laborer for life. Coleman continued to play basketball in a league similar to the YMCA programs.
Coleman learned of Stout Coach Dwain Mintz's desire to find tall players who would be willing to work hard.
"When Coleman arrived, he knew so little about basketball, we had to show him the free throw line," Mintz said. "But he turned out to be one of the hardest working ball players I ever coached."
Coleman, at 6-7, was taken under the wing by Blue Devil guard Willie White. The pair would talk, eat and sleep basketball. White taught him to shoot and how to develop confidence in himself. The very raw Coleman saw very little playing time his freshman year.
During the summer, Coleman worked on the outdoor blacktopped courts of Cleveland.
"He worked on his shooting game," Mintz said, "and his moves under the basket. Although he was still clumsy, he broke into the starting line-up his sophomore year."
Actually, Coleman fell into the starting role, as all-conference center Jim Conley was ineligible for the first semester. Coleman went back to the bench halfway through the season.
Once he earned the starting role at the beginning of his junior year, he was only back to the bench for a breather. Coleman dominated the boards his junior and senior years. It was as a junior he set the season rebounding record.
But the year 1969 is the year remembered by most as Coleman's - and the entire squad's - most glorious year.
Coleman led the Blue Devils to a conference title and the NAIA National Tournament in Kansas City in 1969. That same year, he led the conference in scoring with 338 points, dominated the conference backboards, and was named the WSUC's most valuable player as well as to the NAIA first team, the only Blue Devil ever named a first team All-American.
He finished his career with 1130 points - fourth on the all-time list - 921 field goals attempted, 449 field goals made, a shooting percentage of .487, and 410 free throws attempted, 230 made for a .560 shooting percentage.
Coleman was drafted by the American Basketball Association's Carolina Cougars and the National Basketball Association's Cincinnati Royals. He chose to go with Cinncinati and survived with the team until the final cut.
Nowadays, Coleman helps other people rebound. With a bachelor's and master's degree in psychology from Stout, Coleman is a licensed psychologist in Minneapolis and is working in psycho and behavior therapy and career development. He owns a private publishing company called Gestalt Publishing.