George Terence Schofield (born June 16, 1948) is an American former basketball player and coach. He played college basketball with the UCLA Bruins, winning three national championships (1969–1971) under Coach John Wooden. Schofield played professionally in Germany, where he later became a basketball coach. He also became an English lecturer for a German university.
Schofield enrolled at Santa Monica City College, where he led the Metropolitan Conference in scoring as a freshman in 1966–67 after averaging 21 points per game.[2] The following year, he transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was on their non-playing squad for a year.[4]
As a sophomore in 1968–69, he was expected to start for the Bruins. However, he was beaten out by John Vallely, another junior college transfer, though Schofield was the better shooter. The move left him unhappy for two years.[5] After Vallely graduated, Coach John Wooden opted to promote Kenny Booker to start over Schofield in 1970–71. The coach felt Booker was slightly better on defense and would be a better fit with the other starters.[5][6] Schofield became the top guard off the bench, and served as the team's sixth man.[6][7] He averaged 6.2 points and 2.4 rebounds as UCLA finished 29–1 and captured their seventh National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship in eight seasons.[7] It was Schofield's third straight title with the Bruins (1969–1971);[8] he is one of 14 players who won three national titles at UCLA under Wooden.[9]
Professional career
At the urging of former UCLA teammate John Ecker, Schofield went to Germany to play professionally.[10] Playing for SSC Göttingen in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), he had a career-high 52 points in 1974.[11] He later became a coach in Germany.[12] He led Göttingen to BBL titles in 1980, 1983, and 1984;[13] he has also coached TTL Bamberg.[14] Starting in 1980, Schofield coached the German national team.[12][15] He also became an English lecturer at the University of Göttingen.[16]
