Phil Wendel '86 Reflects on His Good Friend, Chicago Bulls Coach Scott Skiles

April 21, 2006

April 21, 2006, Greencastle, Ind. - A Chicago Tribune article on Chicago Bulls head coach Scott Skiles includes comments from a 1986 graduate of DePauw University. "The type of loyalty Scott has is something you don't see in people every day," Phil Wendel tells the newspaper. "It's who he is." The story identifies Wendel as "one of Skiles' best friends since they played Little League together in Plymouth, Ind."

The story by David Haugh later notes, "Wendel, Skiles' backcourt mate on the 1982 Indiana state championship basketball team, remembers playing for DePauw University in the Division III Final Four in Grand Rapids, Mich., when he noticed a familiar face in the stands. Skiles, then a star player for Michigan State, had driven over from East Lansing to support his buddy. 'That's just the way he is with his friends,' said Wendel, now a middle-school principal in Atlanta who spoke to Skiles last week when the Bulls were in town. The two have met for dinner when the Bulls have visited the Hawks and vacationed together in Las Vegas last summer. It never takes long for their conversations to stray away from the NBA and back to northern Indiana."

Read the complete story, headlined "Scott Skiles, bullfighter: Loyalty to people, principles drives coach to the pinnacle," at the Tribune's Web site.

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