Sunday Chat is a weekly feature appearing in The Blade’s print and digital platforms each Sunday.

When Tom Kozelko graduated from the University of Toledo in 1973, he was second on the men’s basketball all-time scoring list with 1,561 career points.

He might be No. 1 if not for eligibility rules that precluded freshmen from playing.

The Traverse City, Mich., native was the Mid-American Conference player of the year in 1972 and ’73. His 24.3 points per game during the 1971-72 season remains the gold standard at Toledo. Kozelko scored 39 points against Western Michigan that season, the sixth-most in program history, and his 608 points in 1971-72 are the eighth-most in a single season.

Next week, Kozelko will be enshrined in the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.

His decorated UT career includes being named the MVP of the 1970 Sugar Bowl Classic, the 1971 Michigan Invitational, and the 1972 Michigan Invitational. He was one of 66 players chosen to try out for the 1972 U.S. Olympic basketball team and was picked as an alternate.

Kozelko was drafted by the Capital Bullets in the third round of the 1973 NBA draft, playing three seasons in Washington, including a run to the 1975 NBA Finals. He played one season in Italy in 1977 before a back injury forced an early retirement.

The Varsity T Hall of Famer recently talked to The Blade about entering another hall of fame, his prolific career as a Rocket, and three thrilling seasons with the Bullets.

The Blade: What was your reaction when you found out you were going into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame?

Kozelko: Well, I was really just surprised. It was unexpected, actually. But I knew that coach [Bob] Nichols had been inducted and Steve Mix had been inducted. I’m really happy, and those are two very deserving people for sure. So I was kind of taken aback because it’s such an honor.

The Blade: It’s not like Traverse City is super far away. But things were different in the ’60s and ’70s with recruiting. How did you end up at Toledo?

Kozelko: When I was growing up, it was a football area. Basketball had teams, and once in a while, they had good teams. But it was up and down. When I was in junior high school, it was a down era for the local basketball team. And then going into my sophomore year, they hired a new coach. His name was Wayne Hintz, and he was coaching at Alma College.

That’s where things really began for me because he was so good at building a program and he was so good with teaching individual skills. I was 6-1 my freshman year, and then I grew six inches. We had a lot of success immediately. If not for him, I doubt if I would have played beyond high school. So I owe a lot to him.

The other thing that was interesting is the superintendent of Traverse City School System at that time was a man by the name of Bob Johnson. And he was a classmate at Bowling Green with Bob Conroy, who was an assistant coach and recruiter at Toledo. After my sophomore year, Mr. Johnson called coach Conroy and said, ‘We have a kid up here that’s about 6-7 and he’s starting to develop into a decent player. You may want to take a look at him.’ So that’s how initially I was recruited.

The Blade: What are the strongest memories you have from your playing days at Toledo?

Kozelko: A number of things. First, my teammates. That was always one of the most important things about playing a team sport, who you were playing with, the friendships you made, and the time you spent together. And, of course, the quality of the coaching was excellent. The competition was very good. We always played really good non-conference teams. All those games were very memorable.

The best season we had was junior year (1971-72). We tied for the league championship and had a one-game playoff with Ohio University to determine who would go to the NCAA tournament. The game was played at Bowling Green. It was back-and-forth game, real close. We went ahead by a point right at the end, maybe three or four seconds left. [Ohio] inbounded the ball at half court and just turned and shot it, and the ball went in. So we lost at the buzzer. It was a high point and a low point.

The Blade: Did you expect to get drafted?

Kozelko: When the season ended, I thought [my career] was over. I was making plans just to come home and head into another phase of my life. The way I found out I was drafted was kind of unusual because at that time, the NBA draft was not broadcast on television.

So the day of the draft, I was in my dorm room, and somebody knocked on my door and said there’s somebody on the phone. We had a pay phone at the end of the hall. So I go down and say hello, and the person on the phone said, ‘This is Bob Ferry, I’m the general manager for the Washington Bullets. I was a little suspicious being in the dorm on a pay phone. You think, ‘OK, who’s playing a joke on me?’

As we continued the conversation and more details came out, I realized that it was a legitimate call. And that’s how I found out that I had been drafted, which totally surprised me.

The Blade: You played on three great teams with the Bullets, including a team that made the NBA Finals. You had a great coach (KC Jones) and teammates. The NBA was filled with some amazing personalities and some of the greatest players ever. What was it like being around all of that?

Kozelko: I went to training camp, and it was obviously a big difference in level of competition. But during the summers at Toledo, we played pickup basketball at the field house, and Steve Mix would play, Butch Komives would play, Walt Piatkowski from Bowling Green would come over and play. So I’d actually had experience playing against NBA-level players, and that really helped me. Steve helped me a lot, just being able to talk to him and playing against him.

Training camp was three weeks and two sessions a day. It was really tough competition against Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes, Mike Reardon, Kevin Grevey, Nick Weatherspoon. It was a fast learning curve, that’s for sure. Veteran players on our team were very helpful teaching us some of the ins and outs not only playing, but the lifestyle of traveling and everything. I was very fortunate that we had a good group of guys.

The Blade: How was the run to the NBA Finals?

Kozelko: We lost a player by the name of Jimmy Jones. He hurt his knee, and he was our sixth man. That really hurt us in the Finals against the Warriors. The hard part of going from college to the NBA was just the length of the season, the number of games. You hit a point where, physically and mentally, you felt worn down. You’d go work through it and get your second wind.

First Published April 6, 2025, 1:30 p.m.