University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame
Jack Shabel 1963 - Basketball
You can still see this skinny guard slithering in and around the opponent's defense at Burlington's Memorial Auditorium. Somehow, he always managed to make it through, which usually meant a basket for the Green and Gold. A 1990 UVM Hall of Fame inductee, Jack Shabel was an exciting player, teaming with fellow Hall of Famer, Benny Becton, to give the Catamounts one of the most explosive teams in the Yankee Conference in the early 60s. Jack finished his UVM career as fourth on UVM's all-time scoring list with 1,049 points.
Although most fans remember Jack's full-court rushes, darting in and out of traffic, it would be interesting to see how this prolific scorer would take to today's three-point shot. He scored his 1,049 points (at the time, only the fifth UVM player to score 1,000 or more points) in only 67 games, an average of 15.6 points a game, then the sixth-best scoring average in program history. An all-state selection as a junior and senior, Jack was also an All-Yankee Conference (Honorable Mention) pick his senior year. He was also an All-Tournament selection at the Blue Nose Classic in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1963.
After graduation Jack has played industrial league basketball in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles and coached for several years in the Youth Basketball Association in California. Jack and his wife, Jeannie, reside in California and have two sons, Jeff and Steven.
