Why Darral Willis returned to Wichita State to become family’s first college graduate
Sometime Friday afternoon, Darral Willis will click submit on an assignment and breathe a sigh of relief.
The moment has been three years in the making since he left Wichita State in the spring of 2018 to become a professional basketball player. He left college with a handful of credit hours to go before earning his degree.
On Friday, Willis will have finished the last class he needs to become a college graduate.
And that is extremely important for the Madison, Wisc. native.
“I wanted to get this degree so much because I’m going to be the first person in my family to get a college degree,” Willis said. “It’s a really big accomplishment on my behalf. That’s why I wanted to get this degree, so I can show my people that they can do it too. I wanted to start it off for the next generation and the generation after that for them to get their diplomas too.”
Willis’ situation is not uncommon for the student-athletes that Gretchen Torline, WSU’s director of athletic academic services, has worked with over the last three decades.
But what stood out to Torline about Willis was that he didn’t need any push to finish his degree. His motivation was all internal.
“It’s so hard to go back to school after you leave and get on with your life and you’re overseas making money playing pro basketball,” Torline said. “That’s why we stress it so much to these guys to finish before you leave and you’re in a controlled environment with me hounding them.
“But with Darral, he never needed any of that. A lot of the guys I have to hound and text and email and cajole them to do it. He was all about it right away. He was the one who reached out to me and it was so cool to see how bound and determined he was to get his degree.”
When he left WSU in 2018, Willis had 12 credit hours standing between him and a degree. After a successful rookie season where his team won the top Cyprus league and he was named MVP, he returned home and was able to knock out the majority of his remaining credit hours through online classes.
After not being able to take schoolwork last summer due to the coronavirus pandemic, Willis enrolled in a four-week online session earlier this summer, which he completed when he was still in Italy, and then is finishing up with another four-week online session, this one an upper-level literature course, to complete the requirements for his degree.
“I had some really good teachers in my classes that really helped me out and stayed patient with me,” Willis said. “I have to give a lot of thanks to them because they knew my situation (playing professional basketball overseas) and with the time difference and they still helped me out. Now I’m getting it done. It’s a lot of weight off my shoulders.”
Willis won’t walk at the graduation ceremony this year because he will be headed to play in the top-tier league in Spain. But he plans to be back in Wichita next summer to pick up his diploma and graduation hat.
Torline believes that Willis’ dedication to finishing up his degree can be a motivation to others.
“I think it’s always important when you can be the first person in your family to do something,” Torline said. “It shows people, ‘If I can do it, then you can do it.’ It sets a precedent and it’s something Darral can take a lot of pride in because he worked hard to do this.”
WSU men’s basketball coach Isaac Brown, who was an assistant coach while Willis was with the program, was especially proud to see him back in Wichita this past week and to hear he was finishing up his degree.
“I tell kids all the time that at some point the ball is going to stop bouncing, so you need something to fall back on,” Brown said. “This is huge, because as a young kid when you’re growing up, and a guy like Darral Willis is in your community and you see him playing professional basketball at a high level, then he goes back and gets a college degree and you see him living a great life — that helps his family for generations.
“Other kids are going to want to do that, too, because they want to be like Darral Willis.”
Willis has been back in Wichita for the past two weeks as part of the WSU alumni team, the AfterShocks, competing in The Basketball Tournament. While a hamstring injury prevented Willis, who averaged 10.1 points in his two seasons as a Shocker from 2016-18, from playing in the AfterShocks’ three wins at Koch Arena, he hopes to be ready to play in the TBT quarterfinals on July 31 in Dayton.
While he was disappointed he wasn’t able to play and soak in the rowdy environment on the court at Koch Arena, Willis said being around his former teammates has been something worth coming back for.
“The bond that I’ve made with these guys over the past few years is just unbelievable,” Willis said. “Every chance I get when I have free time to come back and see my guys, I’m going to take it every single time.
“I love these moments and I cherish moments like this. You never know what can happen, so I’m happy I’m here and I get to hang out with my family.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2021 at 2:28 PM.
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