When Don Carlos was drafted in the eighth round of the 1967 NBA draft out of Otterbein College, the world’s premier basketball league looked much different then it does today. In 2015, the draft is a nationally televised event that showcases years of hard work and is the harbinger of multi-million dollar contracts. When the Los Angles Lakers called Carlos’ name in 1967, it was a different story.
“You know I don’t remember,” said Carlos reflecting on how he recalls being informed that L.A. had drafted him. “I think someone gave me a call and told me. I certainly wasn’t expecting it. I knew there had been some scouts from various NBA teams but I didn’t know where I would fit and it certainly wasn’t in my plans.”
Over fifty years after his last game at Otterbein, Don can still be found all over the record books. He was an all-American all four years and is still the only player to lead the Ohio Athletic Conference in scoring four straight seasons. However, Don’s path almost didn’t lead him to Westerville.
Don had been all-City League at Eastmoor High School but after graduation had no college offers. Without a place to play, he begin working in the electrical field, but after he was passed up for a promotion at work because his lack of college experience, he decided to do something about it.
“I was watching Ohio State play on TV that night and thought that I was easily as good as those guys and they go to school for free,” said Don. “So I picked up the phone the next morning and called Ohio State. And they said they would offer me a scholarship but that they can’t do it in 1963, I’d have to wait a year. I told them I can’t do that I wanted to get on with my life.”
That’s when Don’s path to Otterbein began. The freshman coach at OSU, Frank Truitt, told Don that while he would have to wait to play at OSU, he could put a call in at Otterbein and get him in there. The next day, long time Otterbein athletic director Moe Agler called the 20-year old Carlos and told him to come to Westerville to start his college career.
When Don arrived on campus in the fall of 1963 the basketball team was in bad shape. They had suffered through nine losing seasons and hadn’t finished in the top half of the conference since 1949. Don changed all of that. In his four years at Otterbein, the Cardinals went 75-21 and the 1966 team became the school’s first to win twenty games. With the success on the court, the campus and the media began to take notice.
“The first game we had a few hundred people,” said Don about the crowds at old Alumni Gym. “By the second game it was a wild place. They had people lined up from Alumni Gym down to State Street to get in. Ohio State didn’t have a good team that year so the Columbus media followed us and we really took off.”
After college Don held every school record imaginable and his 2,500 career points was an OAC record. The university even retired his number 45, the only athlete to receive that honor. Yet, even in the 1960s playing professional basketball coming out of a small school like Otterbein seemed like a stretch. However, the Lakers took a chance on the two-time OAC player of the year and drafted him with the fourth pick in the eighth round. Don spent the summer of 1967 working out at their camp but realized that the Jerry West lead Lakers were looking for something else.
“They were looking for a point guard and that just wasn’t me,” said Don looking back at his summer in California. “The more I think about it I was a two-guard before they invented the position because I was a scorer, not a ball handler. So I didn’t work out with LA. But Houston had drafted me in the ABA (the NBA’s biggest rival league in the 60s) so I went down to Houston and played a year there.
Don played in 56 games for the Houston Mavericks and averaged 11.2 points per game and then moved on from professional basketball to start his own business back in Westerville, where he still resides today. Even after it all, Don still thanks his alma mater every day for getting him where he is.
“Otterbein changed [my life]. I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t been here. But I’m grateful I did go here every single day.”
