The Wildcat's Amry Shelby and the Peacocks' Sam
Elgin have been friends off the court for years, but remain rivals on the
hardwood. They meet again this Friday night in Dorman Gym at 6 PM.
Upper Iowa, at 5-2 overall and 3-0 in the NSIC, is off to its best start in school history since moving to Division II play before the 2007-08 season thanks to a pair of wins over top-25 opponents. But the Peacocks have no room for a let-down any time soon. UIU will face two tough NSIC opponents at home this weekend in 6-2 Wayne State on Friday and 7-0 Augustana on Saturday.
For senior wing Sam Elgin, playing against the Wildcats brings added significance.
“I was originally going to go to Wayne State,” Elgin admits. “I was offered a scholarship there, but the head coach was fired not long after I went for my official visit.”
That’s when Upper Iowa and Peacock Head Coach Brian Dolan pounced on the 6-foot-6 perimeter-shooter out of Center Point-Urbana High School.
“I still had some games left and Upper Iowa started getting on me,” Elgin said. “I had a couple big games when Coach Dolan was there. That’s how I got affiliated with Upper Iowa.”
In high school, Elgin was friends with his teammates, but his closest friend – Amry Shelby – went to school 18 miles away at Marion High School.
“They were rivals on the floor, but they were very good friends and their parents became good friends,” said KC Tupa, Sam’s high school coach. “They went to open gyms together in Marion and up here. They just became really good friends and good competitors.”
By the time Sam was a senior, the rivalry between the two friend’s schools had heated up.
“When we joined the WaMaC, Sam’s class made Marion a huge rival for us,” Tupa said. “That was the team they wanted to beat because a lot of their friends played for the Indians. It didn’t matter the record of either team because everyone knew it was going to be a battle.”
Despite Sam’s decision to pass up WSC, Shelby committed to play for the Wildcats after high school. His decision did not force the two apart as friends, but rather heightened the rivalry between them on the hardwood.
No one fan knew more about this rivalry and friendship than Sam’s grandpa.
“[He] was our number one fan,” Tupa said.
Bob Elgin never missed a game, even when Sam was young.
“Ever since Sam was a little kid, no matter if it was soccer or basketball, if there was an athletic event then Dad was there,” Sam’s dad Don said. “In high school, he’d have his tablet with him in the stands and he’d keep track of his fouls, points and everything else. He’d then go to the coffee shop the next morning and everyone knew what Sam had done the night before.”
Grandpa Elgin always seemed to make his presence from the stands felt, one way or another.
“My grandpa was actually a really big inspiration for me,” Sam said. “He came to every single one of my high school games. I always knew he was there because he’d be heckling the refs. That was good to always have him in the crowd.”
Bob understood the importance of basketball for his grandson. That’s why when Bob was diagnosed with cancer in Sam’s senior year of high school he refused to change the status quo.
“We knew Dad wasn’t going to be around for a whole lot longer, but he wanted Sam to continue to play basketball,” Don said. “I think Sam wanted to stay around the Center Point area, but he wouldn’t allow it. He wanted things to remain the same and not for Sam to worry about him, which was awfully hard to do.”
That proved most difficult one weekend in early 2011 – two years after the diagnosis. Sam was traveling with the team on a weekend conference road trip. The team had just lost a close fought game at Augustana and on the horizon waited Wayne State and Sam’s best friend. That Saturday night during the shoot-around in Nebraska Sam received life-changing news.
“My dad called me during the shoot-around and said, ‘I don’t think grandpa is going to live past Monday,’” Sam relived. “I just thought, ‘Man, I have a game in two hours and I can’t believe I’m hearing this.”
Sam was so overcome with emotion he failed to finish the shoot-around with his teammates.
“Thankfully, Coach Dolan and Coach Bradley sat down and talked to me saying, ‘we’ll get through this game together and as soon as we get back, you can get home.’”
That night, the team rallied around Sam and earned a 60-57 upset victory. Elgin finished with 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting and added two blocks and a steal.
Elgin returned to Fayette late Saturday night and made the journey home the next morning, just one day before his grandpa passed away.
“I’m pretty thankful I got to see him,” he said. “I think that’s kind of why I still play the way I do, because I know he would want to be here right now. I don’t want to short myself because he would do anything to still be watching me.”
Despite having difficulty talking, Bob cherished the final moments with his grandson by his side.
“The thing we always did was give fist-pounds,” Sam said. “The night before – Sunday night – I gave him a fist-pound and I knew that was probably the last time I would talk to him.”
The loss of Bob Elgin was devastating to all who knew him.
“When grandpa Elgin passed away it wasn’t just Sam’s grandpa passing away, it was everyone’s grandpa on the team,” Tupa said.
Tupa says Sam is still one of the hardest workers in school history with one of the best family-support networks he has ever seen.
“Sam was a gym rat,” he said. “He had unbelievable family support. His parents would always be stopping by to try to get a key to the gym late at night and his grandpa would be at half-court in the middle of the night watching Sam shoot.”
That tradition has continued for the youngest Elgin.
“I like to get in the gym and be the last one shooting,” Sam said. “In the past, I’ve seen guys who stay in the gym longer and they’ll shoot half-court shots or try to get dunks up – which is alright – but in reality, if you want to get better you have to shoot game-shots.”
That extra practice has paid off. His team sits atop the NSIC-South with a 3-0 conference record, but Sam and the Peacocks will need their best come Friday as they take on a Wildcat offense that averages the fifth most points in the conference this year with 72.6 points per game. WSU is led by, none other than Sam’s best friend – Shelby, who is fifth in the NSIC in scoring this year with 18.9 points per game.
All signs of this reunion point to a showdown – one that grandpa Elgin would be proud to watch.
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