Indiana Trio All Play for Different Colleges : Basketball Mom Has Hectic Time Keeping Up With Her Three Sons

With three sons playing varsity basketball at three colleges, Julia Lewis hasn’t mistakenly found herself in Greencastle on a night she should have been in West Lafayette, or in Missouri.

And she’s never approached Kendrick or Scott with an affectionate “Nice game, Troy.”

No, she isn’t prone to making such blunders after 15 hectic years of following her sons’ exploits on the courts, first in grade and high school in Anderson, then at Purdue with Troy, at DePauw with Scott, and at Avila College in Kansas City, Mo., with eldest son Kendrick.

“I love it,” she said before a recent game at DePauw. “I enjoy watching basketball, but I especially enjoy watching my boys play.”

The most accomplished player is Troy, a 6-foot-4 sophomore at Purdue and the youngest of the three brothers. He shared Indiana’s high school Mr. Basketball Award in 1984 and now is the leading scorer for the Boilermakers.

In contrast to Troy’s offensive brilliance, Scott, a junior at DePauw, is a defensive standout and floor general for a team that is 16-1 and ranked No. 3 in NCAA Division III.

At 6-5, Kendrick is the tallest of the brothers. He is a smooth-shooting senior who averages 18 points per game for Avila College, an NAIA school.

“I have everything scheduled on a special calendar before the season starts; I plan it all out,” Mrs. Lewis said.

During one recent 17-day stretch, she attended 10 games. It began with Purdue’s Michigan State-Michigan swing, took in four DePauw victories, included two stops back at Purdue’s Mackey Arena and one at Indiana, where the Boilermakers lost 71-70 in overtime to the Hoosiers, and ended last Saturday with Purdue’s 73-66 loss at Ohio State.

She also has made the long trip to Kansas City to see Kendrick play.

“Our parents have always been supportive of us,” Kendrick said. “They’ve given us good incentive.”

The boys’ parents have been divorced since 1969, but both remain strong influences in their sons’ lives.

“I always preached for them to become somebody, to work at it and not be like all of the rest who didn’t make it,” Mrs. Lewis said. “I’d tell them that no matter what they did, to be your own person, to respect people and to do your best.”

Scott said: “My father (Robert Lewis) said go out and do your best. He said if you do your best, that’s all you can do.”

Troy agreed.

“Dad just supported us. He never sat us down and told us what we had to do; he never took us aside and told us to go out and play basketball. There was never any pressure from him or mom,” he said.

The only pressure came in academics.

“Mom preached to us early that studies had to come first. She said once we got our grades, they can never take ‘em away from you,” said Scott, a communications major at DePauw and the school’s president of the Association of Afro-American Students. “We’ve always been able to keep our priorities straight.”

“I’ve had the philosophy that I didn’t want to turn out like a lot of great basketball players have ... he’s good, but he’s dumb,” said Troy, also aiming at a future in broadcasting. “I didn’t want that reputation because I’m not dumb. I know what I’m doing in life.”

And the three boys have done nothing to spoil their parents’ expectations.

“I’m just so proud of all of them,” their mom said. “I never dreamed that all three would be playing basketball and excelling like they are. It’s a blessing to have so many doing so well.”