One & Done: Dave Scholz took the fast break to success with the Philadelphia 76ers

In the world of sports, athletes often dedicate their entire lives to reaching the pinnacle of their profession, but for many, life at the top can be short-lived. Sometimes all a player gets to experience at the highest level is one minute on the court, one trip to the plate, one shot on goal or one checkered flag, but more often than not, that fleeting moment in the spotlight is a story all its own. This is One and Done, a FOX Sports series profiling athletes, their paths to success and the stories behind some of sports' most ephemeral brushes with glory.

If nothing else, Dave Scholz's 59-second NBA career was worth it for the beer money.

A 6-foot-8 forward out of Illinois, Scholz appeared in one minute of one career game at basketball's highest level and made the only shot he took for the Philadelphia 76ers in 1969. He retired with a perfect field-goal percentage -- a title only a dozen or so players can claim -- but after his playing days were long since over, Scholz continued to reap the benefits of his role as an NBA extra.

"At the time that I was there, Oscar Robertson had an antitrust suit going against the NBA," Scholz explained in a recent interview with FOX Sports. "That subsequently was settled out of court and the settlement was shared among players according to the number of games they played. My one minute put me in the category of having played, I believe, one to 28 games, and so for seven or eight years after I retired, I got $200 of beer money every May as a result of being part of that class action.

"On an hourly basis," Scholz added with a laugh, "there have been very few players who have made more than I did."

Dave Scholz had a strong career at Illinois.

Originally from Decatur, Illinois, Scholz grew up in nearby Mt. Zion, where his general practitioner father opened a practice. Then before his junior year of high school, Scholz returned to Decatur and starred at Stephen Decatur High, leading the team to a 33-2 record and third-place finish at states in 1964, followed by a 29-3 record and a state quarterfinal appearance in '65.

Scholz's efforts for the Reds as a junior and senior got the attention of several major programs around the country, including Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats. But after visiting Kentucky, Northwestern, Davidson and Georgia Tech, Scholz decided to play at nearby Illinois, an hour drive from his childhood home.

"I was impressed with (Kentucky)," Scholz said of his visit to Lexington. "Pat Riley was there, Louie Dampier -- these were top-notch people and it was a good program, so I considered it very seriously. I was impressed with the team, but I think the desire to be close to my family and to continue to have an influence on my brothers was part of the motivation (to go to Illinois)."

Once in Champaign, Scholz didn't necessarily expect to develop into a star, but after not playing with the varsity team during his freshman year, as NCAA rules dictated at the time, Scholz was immediately thrust into a prominent role as a sophomore, thanks largely to a so-called "slush fund" scandal that gutted the Illini team.

By today's standards the offenses Illinois committed seem benign -- the school was found to have improperly distributed $21,000 to athletes over a five-year period -- but it was enough to get three top basketball players suspended. So without future pros Rich Jones, Steve Kuberski and Ron Dunlap to lean on, the team turned to Scholz, who quickly became the team's go-to player.

As a sophomore, Scholz led the Illini with 10.9 rebounds per game, and during his junior and senior years, after Harv Schmidt took over for Harry Combes as head coach, Scholz led the team in scoring and rebounding. For his career, Scholz averaged 20.5 points and 9.7 rebounds and left Illinois as the program's all-time leading scorer. (To this day, he's still No. 2 all-time in scoring average.)

"I wasn't a standout," Scholz insisted. "I got thrust into the role of scorer, and that was my designated role. Because in terms of people who could go one-on-one and jump out of the gym, we didn't have anybody like that. We had good, sound, team-oriented people who accepted the plan from Harv and his assistants and were willing to subject themselves to that."

Teams in the NBA and ABA still took notice, however, especially once a 10-0 start to Scholz's senior season put the Illini in the AP top five -- the team was on probation in the wake of the scandal so Scholz never played in the NCAA tournament -- and in 1969, Scholz was drafted by both the Kentucky Colonels of the ABA and the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA.

Eventually, Scholz signed a three-year deal with the 76ers and second-year coach Jack Ramsay, and while he wasn't sure how much he'd figure into the rotation for a stacked team just three years removed from its last championship, he was eager for the opportunity to prove he belonged in the league.

"After you're signed, you envision only positive things," Scholz said. "You envision being a player that gets some time and makes a contribution, and there's no end at that point. It's all forward-looking."

Then in the fifth game of the regular season, Scholz finally got to check into his first professional game, in the waning moments of a 129-105 road win over the Baltimore Bullets.

"I remember being at the game and, at that point, Earl Monroe was there, Gus Johnson, Wes Unseld, Fred 'Mad Dog' Carter was on that team, so you're seeing guys who you've watched on TV, and yeah, there's a certain sense of surrealism," Scholz said.

"Bud Ogden was our first-round draft pick that year and he and I are sitting on the bench and the 76ers happened to be up 15 or 18 points most of the fourth quarter," Scholz continued. "So we were saying to each other, 'Hey, you ought to get in,' and, 'Hey, you ought to get in, too.' Turns out we both get in with 59 seconds to go, and as fate would have it, there was a fast break toward the very end and it happens to come to me and I made a layup."

That layup turned out to be the only shot Scholz ever took in the NBA. A short time later, Scholz was optioned to the Eastern League's Hamden Bics -- so named for the pen company, whose U.S. headquarters were located in nearby Milford, Conn., at the time.

"I guess I was disappointed, but at the same time, Philadelphia was a strong team," Scholz said of his demotion. "It wasn't a case of feeling like I should be playing. They had just traded Chet Walker to Chicago for Jimmy Washington, Billy Cunningham was back, Luke Jackson was coming off Achilles' surgery, Hal Greer was still there, Archie Clark was there from the trade for Wilt (Chamberlain) a year or two before, and Fred Hetzel is there. So there are significant players in front of me.

"So there's disappointment associated with that," Scholz continued. "But there's still the hope that my playing with Hamden will improve my skills, and hope springs eternal -- for a while anyway."

Unfortunately, Scholz never appeared in another game for the Sixers and after an early season trade for Connie Dierking and Fred Foster in 1970 made it clear that Scholz would likely be out of the long-term equation, Scholz was released by the team.

"When you're optioned out, you start to question, 'Do I have the ability to play? Would I have been better off doing something else?'" Scholz said. "You never know, and ultimately you look at your skill set versus the skill set of other players and reality sets in."

Following his release, Scholz considered signing with the Pittsburgh Condors of the ABA, but ultimately he decided to finish out the '70-'71 season with the Eastern League's Scranton Apollos before leaving pro basketball for good in favor of a master's degree in accounting -- a fitting path for an Illinois graduate.

After several career stops from his hometown of Decatur to Saudi Arabia, Scholz eventually settled in Nashville, where he's swapped out his high tops for dancing shoes as an accomplished ballroom performer. And to this day -- even in the unlikeliest of places -- his brief but perfect NBA cameo finds a way to come up.

"Probably 15 years ago, I was working with a dance instructor who happened to be from the Boston area, and he'd gone home and he was on a train in transit and happened to be sitting with a guy who viewed himself as a sports trivia expert," Scholz said. "And he said the guy actually asked him (to name a player who made his only NBA shot attempt). My instructor responds, 'Dave Scholz' and the guy was left dumbfounded.

"It's good cocktail conversation," Scholz continued of his career. "Who is one of the only players -- because there are a few -- who retired with a perfect field goal percentage? People always go, 'Well, I have no idea,' and then I say, 'You're looking at him.'"

PREVIOUS ONE & DONES:

May 5: Mario Andretti

May 12: Dean Morton

May 19: Ross Browner

May 26: Dave Salvian

June 2: Mine That Bird

June 9: Kerwin Bell

June 16: MIchael Campbell

June 23: Tyson Wheeler

June 30: Roe Skidmore

July 7: Steven Hill

July 14: LaMarr Hoyt