Garland Mel

American basketball coach and player who first emerged as a star dual-sport athlete in basketball and baseball at Arsenal Technical High School. Garland attended Purdue University and played for the Boilermakers on the basketball and baseball teams. He was a member of all-conference teams in both sports but excelled at basketball, where he was an Honorable Mention All-American during his junior season. Garland turned to coaching after his graduation and began his career at Greenfield-Central High School as the coach of the basketball, baseball and cross country teams. He joined the Indiana State Sycamores mens basketball team as an assistant coach in 1967. Garland also served as the head coach of the Sycamores golf team for four seasons until his resignation from the university in 1975. He returned to high school coaching when he served as head basketball coach at Evansville Harrison High School for four seasons. Garland was hired as the head coach and athletic director of the IUPUI Jaguars mens basketball team in 1979. He led the team to its first winning season in school history during the 1980–1981 season but his career was prematurely ended when he stepped down due to health issues midway through the 1981–1982 season. Garland continued to serve as athletic director until his death from leukemia on 5 March 1983 at age 40 in Indianapolis. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less