Sports Editor

AUSTIN, Texas – Just in case, Uwe Blab apologized in advance.

“If my wife calls, I’ll have to take it and I’ll try to put you on hold but I will most likely hang up on you,” Blab said.

This is from a custom software developer who obviously has some technical aptitude giving him a life after basketball that took root as the German foreign exchange student taking Effingham to the Illinois high school state finals before helping Bob Knight at Indiana team win a Big Ten Conference championship and then playing in the NBA and European leagues.

He just cannot master his office telephone at Calavista software.

 “I’ve just never really taken the time to figure it out,” Blab said. “For some reason I keep dropping people.”

Blab can laugh at himself.

He knows even though his NBA career ended after five seasons in 1990, he still stands out in a crowd.

“The only reason they recognize me is not because I was some great NBA player but because I have red hair, I’m 7-foot-2 and have a really, really strange name,” Blab said. “People don’t forget that.”

You would have to think he catches less flak over that these days than when he came to Effingham in 1979 and for junior and senior high school basketball seasons was a target for opposing crowds.

“I don’t remember anything of it being a burden,” he said. “I enjoy everything in life. The Effingham times, the rivalries and other schools you are correct. You could look in the archives and see they used to call me Sauerkraut Thunder. They used to have Chocolate Thunder. I was Sauerkraut Thunder.”

Tagged with a spin-off of the Chocolate Thunder” name used by former NBA center Darryl Dawkins, Blab still is glad to have come to Effingham and still considers Chuck Keller his American father.

 “I lived in his family like any other family member,” Blab said. “I was very grateful to have that. It was a good move, a lucky move.”

The move was good enough that his younger brother Olaf later came to the U.S. where he played basketball for Effingham’s Apollo Conference rival Charleston.

Actually, as a German kid living in rural U.S., the 7-2, 180-pound kid may have fit in here better than back home.

In Germany being that tall only made you different and was a cause for some ridicule back in the days when basketball was hardly played in Europe.

In the U.S. he was still different but excelled in a popular American sport, co-starring with Mitch Arnold to take Effingham to the state championship game before losing in 1980 and then as a senior after Arnold graduated leading the Hearts back to the Elite Eight.

His size and ability landed him at Indiana University where he averaged 7.5 points as a freshman, 9.4 points for the Big Ten championship team as a sophomore, 11.8 as a junior and 16.0 as a senior.

“I had a great time at Indiana,” Blab said. “Coach Knight was an incredible coach for me. It was hard of course. We were expected to get our grades and perform on the court. It was hard but for some reason it was a lot of fun, the atmosphere coach Knight created. At the same time I learned a lot and it made it possible for me to play in the pros.”

Chosen in the first round of the 1985 NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks, Blab never experienced the same stardom he had at Effingham or Indiana.

He spent five years in the league with the 2.6-point average as a Mavericks rookie the highest of his career. In 1989-90 he played for the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors and logged a career high 11.3 minutes per game.

“You can call it less successful,” Blab said. “I knew my role. I really, really enjoyed it.”

After the NBA he played in Europe where again he became a key player, maybe one relied upon too much.

Twice he played for German Olympic teams meaning he went from the European league’s season to the Olympic team and back to the regular season.

He was a successful commodity as one of the best players coming over from the U.S. while not counting against the European limit of two Americans per team since he was German.

Still, he retired from basketball at a rather early age of 31.

“I was very successful but it was also very stressful on the body,” Blab said. “I just didn’t want to do it any more and my body was giving me trouble.”

All during his pro basketball career Blab found time to set the foundation for his future.

A mathematics and computer science major in college, he got into software during those days and while playing in the NBA he worked for development companies on an hourly basis with the schedule allowing sometimes 40 hours a week or as little as five hours a week.

Once his playing days ended, he got into the computer field full-time and was in charge of Paragon Scientific Corporation from 1999 through 2005.

“I ran that company from 1999 through 2005 but it’s not really my field of knowledge or interest,” Blab said.

Now he is with Calavista software doing custom development for other companies.

Is he better with a basketball or computer software?

“I don’t know,” Blab said. “Obviously, right now I’m better at this. Obviously, I was more successful in basketball so far. Since I made it to the pro level or Olympic level, you’re considered one of the best 350 in the world or however many players there are in the NBA. I can pretty much tell you I am not one of the 350 best software developers in the world. But I also have, if I work until 65, another 20 years to do this.”

Along the way, Blab has served as a part-time youth soccer coach, basketball and volleyball spectator and full-fledged father.

While Olaf Blab returned to Germany after his University of Evansville basketball days, Uwe after playing European basketball returned to the U.S. and lives in Texas where he met his wife, Key.

The 7-2 Blab and the 6-foot Key have three children.

Christopher, at age 17 stands 6-4 so probably is not going to reach Uwe’s height but is playing high school basketball.

“My son isn’t that interested in basketball,” Blab said. “You almost have to be a fanatic about it these days.  He’s not that interested in basketball. He plays it with his buddies but it’s a different commitment to the next level.”

The 14-year-old daughter Laura might be the upcoming sports star. She is already 6-foot tall and likes basketball but her favorite sport is volleyball.

The youngest is 9-year-old Stefan.

“It’s all in the stars what will happen with him,” Blab said. “It changes so fast.”

But most likely, the son’s home country will not change in high school and he will never be called Sauerkraut Thunder.

Then again, that’s not a bad life.

“I’ve been very fortunate,” Blab said. “Effingham was good to me. Like I said, I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve done.”

Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.

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