Chariot Auto Group's Monday Night Memories: Purdue hoops legend Jim Rowinski

Purdue football and basketball has produced some notable walk-ons that played significant roles on their over the years. 

But it is rare. Darn rare.

Aidan O’Connell and Devin Mockobee are two recent gridiron standouts. In basketball, Grady Eifert secured the rebound that almost led Purdue to the 2019 Final Four as a full-time starter in his senior year for coach Matt Painter. 

But back in the day, defined as 1979-84, there was no greater walk-on in Purdue history than Jim Rowinski.  The Syosset, New York native’s improbable rise from practice squad player to Big Ten MVP is one of the great stories in Big Ten annals. 

Rowinski re-told his story during his recent interview for our Chariot Auto Group Monday Night Memories series, Rowinski, who now lives in Florida and is in the medical human resources business was in town for the Jan. 22 Maryland game. 

It’s a story that long-time Purdue fans, dating back to the early days of the Gene Keady Era, know by heart. Rowinski came to Purdue from Long Island, standing 6-foot-4 and weighing 190 pounds. Two years earlier, as a 6-foot guard, he was cut from his high school team. When he concluded his time at Purdue, he became just the second of three Boilermakers (Rick Mount and Glenn Robinson, the others) to be awarded the Chicago Tribune Silver Basketball as the Big Ten’s Most Valuable Player.

“That still means a lot to me,” Rowinski said. “If I step back and look at things, it is an amazing story that many people contributed. I got my share of breaks in the process.”

Rowinski started his two inches per-year late growth spurt that would eventually conclude with him being 6-8 and weighing 235 pounds. His college decision was aided by the fact that his dad was a Purdue graduate and his sister had attended Purdue. Coach Lee Rose had a practice squad called “The Renegades,” that Rowinski was invited to try out.

“I owe coach Rose (and his staff) for two things: picking me for  “The Renegades” and then recommending me to coach (Gene) Keady after he left for South Florida,” said Rowinski. His practice duties included playing a behind-the-scenes role in helping Joe Barry Carroll and company to the school’s most recent Final Four appearance in 1980. Rowinski could jump and was nicknamed “Dr. Leap” by the student managers. Yet, Rowinski also took his share of ribbing from a couple of Boilermaker teammates as he had a hard time keeping his wardrobe current while navigating the growth support.

“A couple of the guys weren’t too nice, but most of my teammates were the best and remained great friends to this day,” Rowinski said.

When Keady arrived the following season for the 1980-81 campaign, Rowinski continued to improve (and grow). He dressed for games in Keady’s first season but didn’t play much. The following season, Rowinski had shot up nearly 6-8 and weighed 220 pounds. As a player, he progressed enough to earn his first college start in the Sugar Bowl Tournament in New Orleans against Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon, a future NBA Hall of Fame member. Rowinski, who scored nine points and grabbed 10 boards while Olajuwon had just four and four,suffered a stress fracture in the Crescent City and was out for the season. 

“As it turned out, that was a blessing for me, though it didn’t seem like it at the time,” said Rowinski, who put on another 15 pounds of muscle after the injury. “It allowed me to work on my strength to physically compete in the Big Ten.”

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And Rowinski competed as a reserve on the 1982-83 team, a squad known as the “Cardiac Kids’ because it won several games on buzzer-beaters or last-minute heroics. None of those comebacks, however, were more memorable than the greatest rally in Purdue men’s basketball history. 

In a late February contest at Illinois with Purdue trying to earn a spot in the 52-team NCAA Tournament, the Boilermakers found themselves down 49-29 midway in the second half. That’s when Keady had seen enough from four of his regulars, and benched them. The replacements were Rowinski, seldom used Mack Gadis (guard) Herb Robinson (wing) and Ted Benson (center). Gadis and Robinson were freshmen, who had promise but wouldn’t play a major role with Keady’s team for a couple of years.

But on that could night they did. Gadis ignited the comeback with eight points, and Robinson hit a key three-pointer (it was an experimental rule in 1982-83) to tie the score at 54 late in the game. Keady did insert junior standout, and future NBA lottery pick Russell Cross for Benson, but let Gadis, Robinson and Rowinski remain in the game until the game’s final play. There was no shot clock then, and Illinois coach Lou Henson decided to stall for the last shot with four minutes to go. But Ricky Hall, the only starter that wasn’t benched, made a key steal in the closing seconds to allow Purdue three seconds to secure the game-winner in regulation.

“Give Coach Keady credit for not replacing us when the game got close,” Rowinski said. “That took guts but also told you the kind of guy Coach was.

On the game’s final three ticks, Hall’s inbounds pass came into Rowinski, who had to quickly shoot instead of pound the ball inside to Cross.

“I wasn’t the first option,” Rowinski said with a laugh. 

With Cross covered, Rowinski took two steps to his right and launched a jumper. 

That is all the time Rowinski needed. Despite being a straight on shot, the ball caromed off the Assembly Hall backboard and went through the hoops. It marked the greatest comeback in Purdue basketball history, 39 years later.

To this day, Rowinski tells folks he called ‘bank,” on the game-winner.

With Cross departed for the Golden State Warriors as Purdue’s first “hardship” case as they called it on those days for leaving early for the NBA, the Boilermakers were tabbed by the ‘experts’ to finish ninth in the Big Ten. Yet, like the 2022-23 season, Purdue came out of nowhere to be ranked in the top 10 to start the season and eventually share Keady’s first of six Big Ten titles with Illinois. No, Keady’s fourth Boilermaker team never made it to No. 1, but it was a huge surprise still the same.

“Coach Painter’s team this year, reminds me of my senior year,” Rowinski said. “We played and won a lot of close games as the team, and like this year there was always someone different stepping up.

“it was magical. And my situation really stemmed from things falling into place.

Watch the entire 1983 Purdue-Illinois game here (LINK).