Inside The Huskies

Hardest-Working Husky Ever Ready to Have Jersey Retired

Detlef Schrempf will be honored on Saturday while the UW hosts Wisconsin.
Dan Raley|
Detlef Schrempf was a UW standout in 1982-85.
Detlef Schrempf was a UW standout in 1982-85. | UW

To have his No. 22 jersey retired by the University of Washington, Detlef Schrempf will stroll into Alaska Airlines Arena on Saturday afternoon as a 63-year-old man. Surprisingly, he won't be dribbling, shooting or leading the fast break in a helter-skelter fashion.

They have finally broken him of that habit -- which was playing basketball nonstop, anywhere he could, every day, at all waking hours.

Schrempf, who gloriously suited up for the Huskies in 1982-85, will take his bows while the UW (14-14 overall, 6-11 conference) honors him and hosts Wisconsin (19-9, 11-6) in a Big Ten game, with tipoff at 1 p..m.

No one has ever played the game with a more hellbent effort in Montlake than this 6-foot-9 player, the son of a construction worker, who originally hailed from Leverkuson, Germany, a blue-collar city of 200,000 on the Rhine River.

"Without question, Detlef plays harder continually than anyone I've ever coached," the late UW basketball leader Marv Harshman once said.

Schrempf was notorious for going from Husky basketball practice straight to the Intramural Building next door to join a pick-up game and keep going into the evening.

He played guard, forward and center for his UW teams.

He played so much he often had to wear a protective boot because he put so much strain on his ligaments and his Achilles heel.

Schrempf continuously played what was known as "Rat Ball," which was showing up for a game in some obscure court in Montlake nicknamed "the Criminal Court" or outdoors at Green Lake, the elbows were always flying.

"I play everywhere, everywhere in Seattle where I can find a game," Schrempf said back then. "There are a lot of places. You go there and just get picked up or pick up some guys and the winner stays on the court. You play until you get tired."

Except he never got tired.

Schrempf never took a day off if he could help it, His foot was so sore in 1985, he didn't practice and didn't start in a game at Arizona State. The situation was so dire, Harshman didn't even think his swingman should pull on a uniform that day.

Yet two minutes into the game with the Huskies down 5-0, Schrempf was inserted. He played the next 34 minutes until he fouled out and scored 20 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and dished out 7 assists in a 72-65 victory over the Sun Devils.

Desert Rat Ball.

Then there was the 1984 UCLA game at home, which was a classic. In an inspired 89-81 triple-overtime victory, Schrempf played all 55 minutes, scored 27 points, shot 10 of 18 from the floor and probably headed to the Intramural Building once it was over.

"He's a scary player," former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski once said.

He would know. Schrempf led the Huskies to an 80-78 victory over the Blue Devils in the 1984 NCAA Tournament in Pullman, scoring 30 points in one of the UW's biggest wins in program annals.

March Madness Rat Ball.

Detlef Schrempf shares a 2024 moment during a Rising Stars game.
Detlef Schrempf shares a 2024 moment during a Rising Stars game. | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

He was an exchange student who led Centraiia High School to a state championship and was supposed to go right back home to Germany to graduate.

Instead the late Harshman saw something he liked and this kid appeared in 122 games, scored 1,449 points and played in a pair of NCAA Tournaments for him.

So now Schrempf will hear the cheers once more, respected forever as someone who couldn't get enough Husky basketball, never shied away any challenge or a throbbing foot, went to the NBA because of his desire and lived to tell about it.

And, without much trouble, you could probably still talk him into another game of Rat Ball.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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