Neil Bemenderfer, a key role player on Purdue’s Big Ten title team in 1979, celebrates his 68th birthday with us. The 6-foot-10-inch forward/center from Rochester, Ind., was a backup to All-American center Joe Barry Carroll and played for coaches Fred Schaus and Lee Rose after transferring to Purdue from Vanderbilt.
Bemenderfer went on to have a long career in the legal community, most recently as a civil mediator with a company he founded, The Mediation Group, in Indianapolis. From its website:
Bemenderfer began full-time dispute resolution in 2000. Neil has mediated thousands of cases and has been consistently named one of the top mediators in Indiana. He mediates all types of civil cases, including serious injury and death, complex commercial disputes and workouts, product liability, employment, construction, real estate, and land use.
Besides mediating, Neil also chairs medical panel review proceedings under Indiana’s medical malpractice laws and is a regular speaker at seminars and training sessions. He is a Fellow of the American College of Civil Mediators, is consistently recognized as an Indiana Super Lawyer (Top 50), and is listed in Best Lawyers in America and The International Who’s Who of Commercial Mediation.
Born and raised in Rochester, Indiana, Neil attended Purdue University, where he majored in English and played basketball. He was twice awarded the Red Mackey Award for Academic and Athletic Excellence. In 1999, he was named to the Indiana High School Basketball Hall of Fame Silver Anniversary Team and is a Sagamore of the Wabash. He is also an instrument-rated pilot.
From his personal collection, Bemenderfer shared his image from a November 1978 exhibition game of the 6-10 Purdue center with Soviet star Vladimir Tkachenko, who was listed as 7-3 and may be the biggest player ever to play in Mackey (though officially one inch shorter than Zach Edey.
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