(This is the third in a series of profiles of the 2015 Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame inductees)

Terry Black has certainly had a year to remember.

Next month, the former basketball standout will complete a rare Hall of Fame trifecta when he's inducted into the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame. He joined the Indian Hills Community College (Ottumwa, Iowa) Hall of Fame in February and had his jersey retired and was added to the Messmer High School (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) Hall of Fame in June.

"I don't even know what to say," Black said. "Some guys are lucky enough to be in one (Hall of Fame), but to be in them at every level of basketball I've played . . . I'm deeply humbled and blessed by being selected to all those halls of fame."

Black won a pair of state championships in high school and led Indian Hills to back-to-back NJCAA national championships while averaging 12.8 points and 7.7 rebounds. He was a two-time JC All-American and was named the nation's "Best Defender" in junior college by Lindy's magazine.

On his visits to Baylor, "I just felt comfortable with the people, the teachers I met, the guys out in the community that I spoke with. The coaches did an excellent job of recruiting me and keeping me informed and letting me know that they wanted me to be a part of Baylor University."

As a junior, Black averaged 11.7 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds in earning Big 12 All-Newcomer honors. But after the Bears finished 14-15 that season, "I was pretty determined to be better myself and do whatever we could do to help us win more games."

The highlight of his senior season came on Feb. 12, 2001, when the 6-foot-5 senior forward scored 20 points and added six rebounds and four steals in the Bears' 85-77 upset of sixth-ranked Kansas in a nationally televised ESPN "Big Monday" game.

"Kansas had just lost to Iowa State, I think, and Kenny Gregory had a quote saying, 'Well, it's not like it was Baylor that we lost to,''' Black said. "I think that kind of motivated us. And then watching them go through their warm-up routine before the game, you could just tell they weren't taking us very seriously."

It wasn't until he returned to school a decade later that "it finally hit me how huge that game was for our program," Black said.

Earning first-team All-Big 12 honors, Black averaged 15.4 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals in leading the Bears to a 19-win season and their first postseason appearance in 13 years. Despite his 22-point effort, Baylor lost to New Mexico, 83-73, in a first-round NIT game at The Pit in Albuquerque.

"That was huge," he said. "That place had a great reputation for the fans and the style of play. And, obviously, it was big for our coach at the time going back, because that's where he had coached before. More importantly for me, as an individual, I got to play against one of my really good friends, Wayland White. He was a childhood friend, we grew up together."

And with both of them now living in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, "Fifteen years later, I'm still hearing how I lost to him in my last college game."

While at Baylor, he was named college basketball's best dunker by The Sporting News. His best: "I think when it's the one when I stepped over (Kansas') Kirk Hinrich. It's on a lot of posters. That was definitely one of the best dunks I had at Baylor."

After his Baylor days, Black played eight years of pro basketball in Europe with stops in Italy, Germany, South Korea and Finland.

"Like I always say, I've been extremely blessed with basketball. I've been to places all around the world that people dream of seeing," he said. "Just to go over there and see the Berlin Wall and learn about some of the history in Italy and going to Venice. It's surreal to actually see all these places that you learned about in history class."

In 2006, Black was named to Baylor's All-Centennial team that included Vinnie Johnson and Terry Teagle. He still ranks first all-time with 2.55 steals per game.

"Being named to that team, I guess it helped me realize the impact I had on this university," he said. "There have been a ton of great players that have come through our program since then, so I'm amazed and honored that (the steals record) is still there. . . . I tell the kids I coach all the time, 'If you generate steals and play great defense you'll have fun on defense. That's how I played and it's what I believe in."

Thirty hours shy of his degree, Black returned to Baylor five years ago and graduated in August 2011.

"When it was all said and done, I was sitting at graduation, and I couldn't stop crying," he said. "Looking back on it, having my mom and my kids there, it kind of set the bar for my kids where if they set their minds to something, the sky's the limit."

Black, a manager at Valvoline Instant Oil Change and coach at 3D Hoop Academy in Grapevine, Texas, has three children: daughter, Terrianna, 17; and sons, Anthony, 11, and Beckham, 6.

Of his experience as a coach, Black said, "On a daily basis, we train these kids and teach them the fundamentals, talk to them about school and try to be a positive influence or role models for these kids."

Joining Black in the 2015 Hall of Fame class are football players Tom Muecke and Ed Marsh, basketball's Danielle Crockrom, golfer Jimmy Walker, soccer's Molly Cameron, track's Bayano Kamani and Benedikt Dorsch from men's tennis.

The banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, at the Ferrell Center. Tickets are $50 each and can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at tammy_hardin@baylor.edu.