On Nov. 20, 2012, former Grinnell College star Jack Taylor put together a stat sheet that would make Steph Curry gasp. He shot 71 3-pointers and made 27 of them.
He had 58 points. At halftime. In all, Taylor recorded 108 field goal attempts. (Wilt Chamberlain, when setting the NBA record with 100 points on March 2, 1962, recorded 63.) An opposing player, David Larson, scored 70 points.
Nobody remembers that, though.
That’s because the 5-foot-10 guard finished the game, against Faith Baptist Bible College, with an NCAA-record 138 points.
Taylor’s mother had traveled to the game — in the middle of Iowa — which took place two days before Thanksgiving. But as her son’s numbers ticked up, and the media requests went from a trickle to a surge after Grinnell won 179-104, she realized they wouldn’t be going home that night. Appearances on “SportsCenter,” “The Today Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” among many others, would follow. LeBron James would call him “Sir Jack” and compare him to Chamberlain. Kobe Bryant would praise his “Mamba” mentality.
“To be mentioned by him, that was just icing on the cake,” said Taylor, who also scored 109 points in a different game the following season. “That was incredible.”
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On Nov. 20, 2012, Grinnell’s Jack Taylor sets an NCAA scoring record with 138 points.
A decade later, Taylor has settled into a life outside basketball in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. He is married with two daughters. He owns a video production company and is a local TV personality.
And he’s still going viral, albeit on a smaller scale. A few years ago, he built a 40-foot-tall snowman, which he claims is the tallest in Wisconsin’s history, with his family. He has more than 15,000 subscribers on a YouTube channel that mostly features clips about life in his hometown, where he returned after college. Last week, he dropped a rap video for his song “Girl Dad.”
After scoring 138 points in a single game, however — a record that is still standing — Taylor couldn’t duplicate the rush he enjoyed that night. Who could? He attempted to go pro, trying out for a G League squad and even considering going overseas, but when those opportunities didn’t work out, he ended the basketball chapter of his life. No, Taylor didn’t play a bunch of rec league ball or search for a coaching gig. He just moved on. It was easier that way. He’d achieved all he believed he could and experienced a moment in scoring 138 points that no other college basketball player had ever enjoyed. That…
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