The leading basketball scorer in the Blue Hen Conference in the 1960’s, Sherman Dillard starred at Tulsa University and was a late cut by the St. Louis Hawks in 1967. A first team all-stater at De La Warr High School in 1961 and 1962, he was the only Blue Hen Conference player to exceed 1,000 points in the league’s first 23 years. After his two years at Parsons (Kans.) Junior College, Coach Joe Swank recruited Dillard and two teammates as the first black players at Tulsa University.

In his junior year, 1964-65, Sherman was seventh man for a 14-11 team that beat three top-15 schools, including Seattle (led by Tom Workman), San Francisco (with Ollie Johnson) and Wichita (with Nate Bowman). In his senior year, 1965-66, he was among the nation’s leaders in field goal percentage, shooting 182 for 342 (.532) and led Tulsa to the Rainbow Classic championship, making the all-tournament team. He was second leading scorer for the 16-13 Hurricanes, becoming the seventh player in school history to exceed 400 points in a season.

A strong performance in the 1967 national AAU tournament led the NBA champion 76ers to draft him, making him the third Delaware player taken in the NBA draft (after Ed Koffenberger and Nate Cloud). That fall, he was the last guard cut by the Hawks, the Western Conference finalists. He was the second male player (after Koffenberger) inducted into the Delaware Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.