Ed DeChellis had planned to be a high school history teacher and coach after graduating from Penn State, where he played basketball and earned a degree in secondary education.
Penn State head coach Dick Harter, for whom DeChellis had played throughout his college career, had other ideas. Harter thought DeChellis had the mindset and aptitude to become a coach and convinced the 1982 graduate to stay in State College as a graduate assistant.
“I was 22 years old and didn’t know what I was doing. Coach Harter told me I needed to be his graduate assistant so I did what my coach told me to do,” DeChellis said.