When Scott Patterson was filling it up from long range in Mallory Gym, there was no three point line. Scott didn’t need a 20 foot line to set his feet for his high-arching jumper. Sometimes it looked like he was shooting from the third row of bleachers. If Scott had received three points every time he drilled a shot from 20 feet, then there’s no telling how many points he would have scored.
An outstanding player at Memphis University School, Scott immediately began to light up the Mallory Gym scoreboard with his picture-perfect jump shot. During his freshman and sophomore years he led the team in scoring, averaging 20.5 points per game, and he also led the team in rebounding during the 82-83 season with 7.4 rebounds per game.
When asked about Scott’s scoring abilities, veteran Lynx coach Herb Hilgeman said, “Scott is the best pure shooter I’ve ever coached. He’s as good as anyone I’ve ever watched in college basketball.” Named All College Athletic Conference in his freshman, junior and senior years, Scott didn’t sit on his laurels after his first two seasons. During his junior he averaged 24.8 points per game and ranked 9th in scoring in NCAA Division III. He kept up his torrid scoring pace during his senior season by averaging over twenty-five points per game, again ranking in the top ten in the country in scoring.
The College Athletic Conference basketball coaches selected Scott as the conference Most Valuable Player during his junior and senior seasons. He scored 39 points against Knox College during the 84-85 season, which set a single-game scoring record. Against arch-rival Sewanee that same year, he broke the career scoring record and finished his career with 1989 points, a mark that still ranks Scott as the all-time leading men’s basketball scorer at Rhodes.
For the legacy he has provided future Lynx basketball players and his love of teammates, coaches and his alma mater, Rhodes is honored to induct SCOTT DOUGLAS PATTERSON into the Rhodes Athletic Hall of Fame, this 25th day of October, 2002.
