Friddle's resume eventually included two state high school championships, a collegiate NIT finalist, and a head coaching job with the Indianapolis Jets of the NBA.

The sixteen-year-old DeJernett posed for studio shots as a team newcomer by flashily palming the basketball, something rarely seen from teens or even pros, at a time when the ball was made of smooth leather and was slightly larger than it is today.

[7] Upon winning the state title, Friddle accepted a challenge from Coach Jimmy Kitts of the Athens, Texas, Hornets, who had won back-to-back national tournaments in Chicago sponsored by the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg.

[10] DeJernett tied the Hornets' hook-shot-specializing Center Freddie Tompkins for game honors with 11 points as his Hatchets won the "world" title with a thrilling 28–26 victory.

Rockne ostentatiously grabbed Big Dave by the hand[17] and shook to cap off the evening as well as his heroic career, as within two days he would die in a plane crash.

[20] After back-to-back season-ending showdowns DeJernett and Mann were later recalled as having been "Gold Dust Twins thrusting and parrying like two skillful fencers,"[21] their pivot duels foreshadowing future celebrated center rivalries such as Mikan/Kurland and Chamberlain/Russell.

[22] The following year, in his final college season, he captained the team and was role model for freshman Ray Crowe, who considered DeJernett the hero of his youth.

Before DeJernett, no African-American collegiate star had stayed in school for the now-traditional four years of college ball in advance of signing with a club of the calibre of the Rens.

Examples like DeJernett's of staying in school rather than turning pro early eventually became the accepted practice for Afro-American collegians until the Spencer Haywood and Moses Malone "hardship"/highschool cases emerged in the American Basketball Association of the 1970s.

After a season with the Rens DeJernett played Center from 1936 to 1941 for the Chicago Crusaders, an all-black barnstorming five whose history was closely related to the then-lesser-known Harlem Globetrotters.

[30] Drafted into World War II in the summer of 1942, DeJernett served as a Sergeant in the North African, Southern France, Rhineland, and Central European theaters, winning a bronze battle star for each of the four campaigns.