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At Northwestern, Ryan Padgett was the one reading Shakespeare on team flights. When his roommate awoke at 7 a.m. to use the bathroom, he would notice Padgett studying index cards that contained the Latin roots of medical terms.

When the Wildcats flew to play Stanford in 1992, coach Gary Barnett noticed Padgett moving to the rear of the plane after a meal. Why?

Padgett arrived on campus at 17, having skipped a grade in grammar school. By the end of his true freshman season, he was a starter at the game’s most physically demanding position.

“He was a rough and tumble guy too,” Gary Barnett recalled.