Darrin Fitzgerald
Darrin Fitzgerald is an American former basketball player who is known for his collegiate career at Butler University. Between 1983–84 and 1986–87, Fitzgerald scored 2,019 points, which is the third highest total in school history. He is 5'9" and played the point guard and shooting guard positions.
Fitzgerald is known as a prolific three-point shooter. He possessed the ability to make long-distance jump shots, and during his senior year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association officially introduced three-pointers into college basketball. Fitzgerald took full advantage as he made an NCAA-record 158 threes in a single season, while his 5.64 made threes per game is a still-standing record. He made more three-point field goals than all but 20 of the NCAA Division I teams that season. Also in his senior year, Fitzgerald scored 54 points against Detroit, which is another school record. In all four seasons Fitzgerald led Butler in assists.
Fitzgerald also held a share of the NCAA Division I single-game three point shots made record for a few years upon tying Gary Bossert on February 9, 1987 with a 12-22 game against in a Division I Midwestern Collegiate Conference contest. That record was surpassed December 21, 1989 when Dave Jamerson went 14-for-17 for the Ohio Bobcats of the Mid-American Conference against NCAA Division II's Charleston Golden Eagles.
Fitzgerald was not selected in the 1987 NBA draft. George Irvine, director of player personnel for the Indiana Pacers, explained that teams did not often consider small guards and "his reputation as a scorer may have hurt him" by not being a playmaker. Fitzgerald played for an Amateur Athletic Union team based in Flint, Michigan, after his collegiate career until he chose to retire by the time he was 25. He found work as a foundry technician at a Daimler-Chrysler plant in Indianapolis.
Fitzgerald has five children. On September 23, 2000, his daughter, LaKeisha, was fatally shot during a robbery attempt.