By Ted Schultz
Grinnell College Sports Information Director

GRINNELL, Iowa - As this weekend drew closer, you perhaps saw stories and videos celebrating the 10th anniversary of Jack Taylor's world-famous accomplishment.

On Nov. 20, 2012, Jack scored 138 points - that's right, 138 points - in Grinnell College's basketball game against Faith Baptist Bible College. That set a new standard that most likely will never be broken.

The story has been told and retold by the participating parties since then. Having been along for quite a bit of the ride, I figured I'd give the story from my angle. Please forgive me because as I read it, it feels very long-winded (probably a trait I picked up from some of my college professors), but it was fun to put down in writing what I recalled from that time frame. So here goes …

Hard to believe it's been 10 years since Jack set the world on fire. Some details are fresh in my mind, just as if they'd happened this morning. Others are a little foggy, but overall I think I remember it pretty accurately.
 
In the months leading up to the season, I'd been told by both Coach A and Dave (aka head coach David Arseneault Sr. and his son, then-assistant coach and current head coach David Arseneault Jr.) that they were bringing in this kid who was simply amazing … very quick and a phenomenal shooter. He was also great at creating his own shots, which later led me to jokingly give him the nickname "assist killer."

By his own admission, Jack struggled in the season's first two games at the Wartburg Tournament. So the coaching staff worked up a plan to get him on track in our home opener against Faith Baptist. While we'd continue to shuffle players in and out, Jack would remain on court and be given the green light throughout. He'd be encouraged to shoot, shoot, shoot and then, shoot some more.

The year before, we'd had a player set the NCAA Division III record for points in a game when Griffin Lentsch went for 89 at Principia College.

Having never seen Jack play in person, I had no idea what to expect entering the Faith Baptist game. If things went right, maybe he'd break Griffin's record? How cool would it be to see somebody score 90 points, I thought.

Things began normally for those of us on the outside looking in … I was on the stat computer atop the north stands of Darby Gymnasium with my trusty spotter, Chris Marsho. To our right, the "Voice of the Pioneers" Rob Storrick was calling the action on the webcast with his play-by-play partner, Daniel Nellis (their webcast can be found here). 

A little-known fact is Jack missed his first four shots that night before making a layup with just over 18 minutes remaining in the first half. The scoring pace quickened and the Pioneers led 85-46 at intermission, with Jack accounting for 58 of Grinnell's points.

Simple math says a 100-point game was possible, but still, a lot of things had to go right … and indeed, they did. He broke Griffin's record with 11:14 left in the game with a 25-foot bucket, and eclipsed the century mark just a few minutes later on a layup.

The overall NCAA record was 113 points, which Jack broke with a 3-pointer at the 4:42 mark to give him 115 points. After a missed 3-pointer, Jack made seven consecutive 3's and a pair of free throws before exiting the game with 1:33 left to a gym full of cheers.

The call by Rob and Daniel on the webcast is legendary … their love for the team and knowing they were witnessing history is evident in their tone and commentary. My spotter, Chris, was also cheering wildly while successfully calling the action (you know a spotter is good when he can do both at the same time!).

While Jack was going crazy scoring for us, David Larson was doing the same for Faith Baptist. He finished with 70 points, surely a school record for the Eagles. I later read an article referring to Larson's feat as "the quietest 70 points in history." I guess timing is everything.

As the game finished up and I printed stats, Jack was ushered up to do an interview with Chris Varney, who had broadcast the game on KGRN radio. At about that same time, I got either a call or text (I can't remember which) from Tommy Birch at The Des Moines Register. Having been in such a stat-keeping zone the entire game, the contact with Tommy was the first time I realized the impact of what just happened.

I quickly summoned a team manager, asking her to have Jack report to my office ASAP since there would be a lot of interest in this. Boy, talk about the understatement of the decade … 

Though I've grown to be great friends with Jack in the years since, at the time of the 138-point game I didn't know him from Adam (I've often wondered what you say in that situation if the person to whom you're referring is actually named Adam … but I digress). I met him at a soccer game that fall where he was perhaps serving as a ball shagger, but that's the only time we'd crossed paths.

Once he reached my office, the phone was ringing off the hook and my email box was filling up by the minute. It seems every time I'd check, there were another dozen emails in my inbox.

I realize at the big D-I schools, with sports information offices consisting of a dozen or so people, things like this are pretty easy to handle. But as a one-person shop, I was lucky to get help from several parties.

Dave and I went down to the equipment room to retrieve this incredibly heavy vinyl backdrop that had both the Grinnell athletics and NCAA logos on it. This monstrosity was held in place by an even more clunky - and heavy - stand consisting of two vertical poles and one horizontal crossbar.

We set that backdrop up in Coach A and Dave's office where we could do video/Skype interviews while reserving my office for interviews over the phone. From 9 p.m. for the next four hours, Jack shuffled back and forth between the offices, which are down the hall from each other, conducting several interviews.

In the meantime, via email and phone I was also setting up an interview schedule for the next day. It was going to be a busy one.

Also during that time, two of Jack's teammates, Aaron Levin and Jack Adams, were in my office. Jack was "cutting up" video to make a much-sought after highlight video the TV stations wanted, and Aaron lent his support (highlight video can be see here).

Also during that night, somebody wrote on the white board in my office, "Jack Taylor was here … 11/20/12 … I got 138 problems but passing ain't one" in reference to his point total while also having no assists in the game. Ten years later that message remains on the board, though to this day I have no idea who wrote it. I've asked several people, and nobody has taken credit. The mystery will probably never be solved.

We decided to call it a night at 1 a.m. (yes, phone calls and emails were still pouring in for interviews) with the plan to return about five hours later for a Skype call with Good Morning America.

When I got home, I realized I'd forgotten to call Marsha to tell her I'd be late. She said she figured it out when she saw the story on the USA Today website and that I was quoted in the story (as both were Gannett publications, Tommy Birch's work for The Des Moines Register was also being used for USA Today).

I didn't get to bed until 2:30 a.m., marveling at how quickly a feat from just a few hours earlier had become world-wide news.

I awoke a few hours later to shower and was drinking coffee at home when somebody from The Today Show called at about 5:20 a.m. Asked about interviewing Jack, I told the person I was going to meet Jack at 6:05 a.m. for a Skype with Good Morning America. In order to beat GMA to the punch, this person asked if The Today Show could do an interview at 5:50 a.m. I said, yes, if Jack was there by 5:50, we could make that happen.

Apparently the person didn't trust I'd follow through, as he called me again as I was driving into work at about 5:40 a.m. to verify everything. 

When I arrived at the Bear Center (home of our athletic offices and Darby Gymnasium, among other things), a custodian told me a news truck from a Des Moines TV station was out front, waiting for anybody associated with the game to arrive for a potential interview.

This is where things get kind of fuzzy in my mind. I know between the time I arrived and 5 p.m., other than Jack attending two hours of classes and a half-hour lunch, he was in our building going here and there for this interview or that. I can't remember exactly who all conducted interviews because there were so many of them, whether they were on the phone, Skype or in-person at Darby Gymnasium. I do know every TV station that came wanted him to shoot baskets … this not more than 24 hours after he took 108 shots while playing 36 minutes in a game. He had to be dead tired, but never let on.

I was told sometime during the day from the folks at SIDEARM, our athletics website provider, that my story on Jack's feat had the second-most hits in the company's history, right behind a story on Davidson College's site when the Steph Curry-led Wildcats made their magical run in the 2008 NCAA Basketball Tournament.

Late that afternoon, I began corresponding with someone from Jimmy Kimmel Live! about Jack appearing via Skype that night. After everything was confirmed, the final words this person emailed were "this is going to be so much fun."

I had no idea how to read that statement, and I thought about it a lot as I approached Dave and Jack outside of Darby Gymnasium prior to an interview with The Des Moines Register (I still remember their photographer had him shoot baskets with a small camera strapped to his head).

I repeated what the person from the show told me, and a joke was made that Kimmel "was going to eat Jack alive" with his scathing wit. I assured Jack that wouldn't happen, but as I left, I thought … "shoot, Kimmel is going to eat him alive."

A few hours later, Jack and teammate Aamir Walton met me back in the office suites around 7 or 8 p.m. to prepare for the taping of Kimmel's show. We talked with the producer on Skype and were told we'd be able to follow along with the show. He had Jack do many, many sound checks, prepared us what to do if we lost connection, etc. He also told Jack that if Kimmel made a funny comment, not to respond right away since the audience had to be given a chance to laugh.

The producer then said Jack would be part of the monologue (page 5, if I recall), right after the Mitt Romney joke. From there, it was just a matter of waiting. Jack told Aamir and me that this was the first interview that made him a bit nervous. I asked why, and he said it was the first time he had to sit around and think about what he might be asked.

As it turned out, the Kimmel interview turned out great and was generally pretty harmless (the Wilt Chamberlain question was a little unexpected, though!). Though Jack was still relatively new to his superstar status, he handled it like a seasoned pro. I was impressed.

The following day was Thanksgiving, and as we traveled to my mom's in western Iowa I was on the phone with ESPN. They were coming in that weekend to do a feature on Jack.

Things remained crazy for the next week or two, but then got back to (somewhat) normal, at least from my angle. 

As the weeks went on, I had more time to reflect and realize just what a special thing I witnessed that November night. I know I'll never see anything like that again.

One benefit I received from all of this is the tremendous friendship I built with Jack over the next few weeks and months. We traveled to Omaha where he spoke to a church youth group, enjoyed numerous Subway lunches in my office and the following summer Marsha and I went to Milwaukee to see him throw out a first pitch at a Brewers' game. The next summer, we were in Black River Falls, Wis., for his wedding.

That's about it from my angle. Now, if only somebody can help me solve the mystery of the message on my white board …