My name’s Perry McMullin. I was born in 1983, the 7th of 9 children in a working-class family, and was raised in a Philadelphia row house. I played a lot of city ball in Philly. Any basketball court became my second home. But while good, I was not great. I attended a Roman Catholic High School in Philly, eventually starting but never becoming a standout. Therefore it wasn’t surprising that no college basketball programs showed any interest in me and that I was not recruited by any college.
But in May of my senior year just before graduation, Seattle University lost one of their recruits, apparently quickly perused the list of Catholic boys not yet recruited, and for some reason offered their last scholarship to me. Not wanting them to check further into my lack of high school basketball success, I jumped at the opportunity before they could rescind the offer, since without the scholarship I’d have had to follow my father’s footsteps and enter the workforce rather than going to college.