Photos provided
Alumnus Ralph Taylor (HK '69) played on one of the greatest teams in Purdue basketball history. In his senior year, the Boilermakers beat their Indiana University Hoosier rivals 120-76 in the season finale and made it all the way to the NCAA Tournament championship game, losing to a UCLA team led by Lew Alcindor (the future Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).
Although basketball opened numerous doors for him, Taylor also wants to be remembered for being a difference maker in his professional life and through volunteer work and civic engagement. Based on the many awards he's received, he has accomplished that goal.
Basketball taught Taylor a valuable lesson. "Basketball teaches you not only the importance of recognizing the strength in individual differences and skill sets, but it also teaches the importance of having a common vision," Taylor says. "Everyone may not like each other, but with the same common goal, much can be accomplished."
Taylor has brought that team-based approach to many different professional positions, often trying to get people to recognize the similarities in their apparent differences. Throughout his professional career, he has helped organizations and people adapt and succeed in their endeavors.
In his volunteer role as liaison to the Immigrant Center in Indianapolis, Taylor serves as an advocate and voice for some of the city's newcomer communities. He has received awards for his work from the Chin Community of Indiana, an organization that serves refugees from Burma, as well as from Exodus Refugee Immigration Inc., the African Center of Indianapolis, and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees.
Former coach Bob King recruited Taylor to Purdue from Indianapolis Washington High School, where he had led his team to the 1965 state championship. Taylor arrived on a campus of 25,000 students where fewer than 100 were African American. Before he graduated, in days long before Twitter handles and Facebook pages, Sam Jones, a fellow student, created a Ralph Taylor Fan Club that boasted nearly 1,000 members. In 1995 Taylor was named one of the four all-time fan favorites of Boilermaker basketball.
Though he thought his connection to Purdue might end after graduation, Taylor has remained close to his alma mater, becoming a lifetime member of the Purdue Alumni Association, as well as a John Purdue Club member, and serving on the Athletic Advisory Committee, the College of Health and Human Sciences Alumni Board and Purdue's representative on the Big Ten Advisory Committee. This year, he'll begin his 10th year as radio color analyst for Purdue Men's Basketball. "I've had the great opportunity to work with Larry Clisby and Rob Blackman," says Taylor, who points to a course called Advanced Public Speaking that helped enhance his extemporaneous skills.
Elected president of the Indianapolis Rotary Club, one of the 10 largest Rotary Clubs in the world, as well as president of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Directors, Taylor is always quick to point out his Purdue affiliation. He encourages young people to be positive and embrace change. "Be prepared to work in an area that you never thought you might work in," he says. "Whether it's in our personal life, family life or business life, change is always going to happen."
