Year graduated
1968
Major accomplishments
Still holds six Carmel scoring records, including most career points (2,465) and most points in a game (70); Mr. Basketball; Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer.
Billy Shepherd of Carmel had a remarkable and rewarding career. The Indiana Mr. Basketball turned down a chance to play for fabled coach John Wooden at UCLA in order to accept a scholarship from legendary Butler University coach Tony Hinkle. Hinkle’s winning recruiting message was that the Bulldogs just happened to have a pair of size nine basketball shoes—- Shepherd’s size.
It happened this way for the eldest son of Bill Shepherd, who not only was an Indiana All-Star himself in 1945, but also had two sons who became Indiana All-Stars—Billy in 1968 and David in 1970, who was also voted Indiana Mr. Basketball that year—as well as a grandson, Scott, in 1992.
In the fall of 1967, Bill Shepherd, who at the time was the basketball coach Carmel, invited his son, Billy, to a Greyhound football game. Hinkle was the high school football official assigned to the Carmel game. Bill Shepherd wanted his son to meet his college basketball coach.
“I had met Coach Hinkle a number of times, because I grew up going to Butler games,” said Shepherd. “Here’s what was funny. He said, ‘Kid, what size shoe do you wear, anyway?’ I said, Oh, I think size nine.’ He said, ‘That’s great. We’ve got that size out there at Butler,5 That was his way of saying he wanted me to come to Butler. That’s the way Mr. Hinkle was, it was either kid or Carmel or that type of thing.”
Shepherd, who says he could have gone to any school in the country, chose Butler over UCLA for three reasons: (1) he wanted to stay close enough to home so his parents could see him play; (2) he wanted to play in a city (Indianapolis) with an ABA team (the Indiana Pacers were an original ABA franchise in 1967), because one of the best parts of Shepherd’s game was his shooting range—he figured if he was ever going to be able to play pro ball, it was in the ABA, which was the only place at the time that used the three-point shot, and (3) he thought his dad might have a chance to get the job at Butler when Hinkle retired.
“I knew that question would come up at the end of my sophomore year at Butler, because Hinkle was going to turn 65,” said Shepherd. However, Bill Shepherd did not succeed Hinkle.
Shepherd laughs when he recalls the time his son, Scott, and some of his cousins had lunch with Wooden.
“Scott was working in Los Angeles,” said Shepherd. “I told my kids years later that Coach Wooden did not recruit Henry Bibby until after I called him and told him I wasn’t coming to UCLA. My dad had kept a relationship with Coach Wooden over the years. Wooden showed Scott and the cousins his memorabilia, which was a neat deal for all those grandchildren of grandpa Shepherd.
“When Scott was getting ready to leave, he said, Oh, by the way, Coach, I’ve got to ask you a question. My dad always told me you did not recruit Henry Bibby until he called you and said he wasn’t coming to UCLA.’ Coach Wooden put his hand on Scott’s shoulder and said, ‘Scott, just let your dad believe what he wants to.’ He didn’t verify it. I guess it was his way of saying he had other things in the works. Yeah, UCLA was hot and heavy after me.”
Shepherd could always score. He still holds six individual Carmel records: most points for a career, 2,465 (1964-68); most points for a game, 70 (against Brownsburg on January 6,1968); most field goals in a game (31 vs. Brownsburg in ‘68); most field goals in a career, 917; most free throws made in a career, 631; and best free-throw percentage in a season, .840 (1966-67).
For his three-year career at Butler (freshmen weren’t eligible in the 1968-69 season), Shepherd set five individual scoring records that still stand: best scoring average for a season, 27.8 (1969-70); best career average, 24.1 (1969-72); most points as a sophomore, 724 (1969-70); most field goal attempts for a game, 36 (vs. Indiana State, January 7 and February 7,1970); and most field goal attempts for a career, 652 (1969-72). He also is the Bulldogs’ fifth-leading all-time scorer with 1,733 points,
Did Shepherd’s arm ever get tired from taking so many shots? “Heck no,” he said. “In high school that was normal. I shouldn’t say normal. But on any given night I was capable of getting up 30 shots. It was a little bit of a different era back then. It was the era of the Mounts, the Maraviches, the Murphys, the Issels, who scored a lot of points.”
Shepherd’s most memorable Butler game came on February 23, 1970. It was Hinkle’s farewell appearance at the fieldhouse named after him.
“They were standing six deep, up above and down below,” said Shepherd. “There were probably 17,000 fans in a place that held 15,000 (capacity is now 11,043). We played Notre Dame that game and Austin Carr was on that team. He had 50 and I had 38.1 might have had 50 if they had the three-point line. They beat us, 121-114.
“You don’t realize at the time all the emotion that runs through something like that night. But it being Coach Hinkle’s last game, it was a special occasion. Those four years at Butler were great. You meet lifelong friends in college, and having the opportunity to play for Coach Hinkle, and play on his last team, was something I’ll never forget.”
Shepherd played three years in the ABA after leaving Butler. While on the Virginia Squires he played with Julius Erving and George Gervin. He played point guard for the San Diego Conquistadores and coach Wilt Chamberlain. When Shepherd was on the Memphis Tarns, his teammates included former Pacers Roger Brown, Mel Daniels, Rick Mount, and Tom Owens.
Shepherd chuckled while recalling his season with the Squires. “I was our 20-point man,” he said. “I got in when we were 20 ahead or 20 behind. But what it taught me was respect for a lot of teammates I’d played with in the past. Now all of a sudden I’m sitting on the bench supporting players that are playing the game, and that made me realize some of the good relationships I had with kids over a period of years that maybe didn’t get the minutes, yet still remained my friends in high school and college.”
After being released by the Squires, Shepherd tried out with the Conquistadores and made the team, which surprised him because Chamberlain became the coach a week before the season was to begin.
“I said, ‘Man, Fm 5-10 and Chamberlain is 7-1 or 7-2; he’s not going to like me,’” Shepherd recalls. “But we had a big scrimmage in Chamberlain’s second practice. My passing and ball handling were really shining that day. Chamberlain called me and said, ‘Hey, Shepherd, I want you to know I really like your game. You’re going to be a part of this team this season.’ Knowing the coach had confidence in me set me up for a much better season as a starter.”
Shepherd, who calls himself a journeyman player, took a job with Converse following his three-year pro stint and remained with the company eight years. After he left, he started his own business, Billy Shepherd SPORTS (Speaking Publicly On Raising Talented Student-Athletes). He also writes a weekly column that helps parents with issues concerning conflicts with their kids’ athletics. It appears in several newspapers around the country. In addition, Shepherd has a high school basketball publication and a recruiting Web site aimed at helping kids figure out where they might want to go to college. Shepherd put his AAU coaching experience to good use during the 2003-2004 high school season when he coached Muncie Central to a 20-4 record after the late Bill Harrell was dismissed. Shepherd was not retained by the Bearcats, but that didn’t keep him from his favorite sport. “Billy the Kid” visits close to 100 college, high school, and junior high basketball games every season.