Submitted photo: Sam Mosley, a former Fort Dodge Dodger star athlete shown here playing at Nevada, will be inducted into the IHSAA Basketball Hall of Fame this March.

Hall of Fame honors are typically viewed as a reward for an athlete’s overall body of work in their given sport.

Sam Mosley’s perspective is much different than most these days.

The former Fort Dodge Senior High all-stater found out this week that he will be a 2025 Iowa High School Athletic Association Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. Mosley becomes just the fourth Dodger player in program history to attain this elite status.

Some would say this is the pinnacle for a former star on the hardwood. To the 65-year-old Mosley, though, the March 14 ceremony in Des Moines will likely feel more like a lifetime achievement award.

Not because Mosley has been waiting by the phone for this particular call. He’s just happy to be around to celebrate the news in the first place.

Submitted photo: Sam Mosley, a 1978 Fort Dodge Senior High graduate who is 65 years old, currently lives in Wisconsin. Mosley will be inducted into the IHSAA Basketball Hall of Fame in March.

“I’m thankful for every day I have,” Mosley said. “It’s all a blessing. I’m very appreciative of this award — don’t get me wrong. I was shocked when I found out. But when you go through what I have, it makes you see things in a whole different light.

“I’m lucky. I was faced with an eye-opening situation, and I feel like I came out of it a much wiser person with a much better understanding of where my priorities are.”

In 2016, Mosley was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease: focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. For years, the 1978 Fort Dodge Senior High graduate privately fought to keep his health from failing. His situation ultimately took a turn for the worse, however, and doctors decided a kidney transplant was necessary.

Mosley, who currently lives in Wisconsin, was placed on a waiting list in 2021. A long and sometimes excruciating wait followed, before Mosley’s family finally got the news they’d been hoping and praying for: a transplant date of June 18 this past summer.

“I’m doing really well health-wise now,” Mosley said. “Just very fortunate to make it through and to have the kind of support system I do. My wife (Debbie Chase-Mosley) got me out of the battle. She deserves all the credit in the world. My doctors and the care I received…I can’t say enough.

“I’m a lucky man to be alive and having this conversation today.”

Mosley’s credentials still speak for themselves. As a Dodger, his reputation for eye-opening athleticism and electrifying dunks quickly spread during the 1976-77 and 1977-78 varsity basketball seasons.

“I had a lot of different people supporting me (in Fort Dodge), and it’s something you look back on and see with more clarity as time passes,” said Mosley, who was named to the FDSH Hall of Fame in 1992. “I would say I had some mixed emotions and bittersweet feelings about that time of my life, but I’ve learned to let a lot of things go as I’ve gotten older — especially after going through the health scare.

“Grudges are elementary and petty. So I’ve decided to focus on the positives, and I did have plenty of people looking out for my best interests at the time, and really, at every stage of my life.”

Mosley was a unanimous first team all-state basketball player after a senior season that saw him average over 20 points per game for the second straight year. He had a school-record 22 dunks that winter and ranked among the top rebounders in the entire state as the Dodgers went 14-5 and captured the Big 8 championship.

Mosley received more first team all-state votes than any other player in his class after the 1978 campaign, but the “Mr. Basketball” award didn’t exist in Iowa until three years after his graduation.

Mosley’s 19.8-point career average is still the best in FDSH program history.

“It’s funny, because looking back, I never really considered myself a pure basketball player,” said Mosley, who was a lean 6-feet, 7-inches and 195 pounds in high school. “I was more of just a general overall athlete who just tried to do my best in every sport I played. But I wasn’t like one of the Clark boys or Clayton boys or Jay Goodman, who were just all about basketball.”

The intrigue of his potential as a football player always followed Mosley, even though basketball remained his meal ticket.

“When I got to Ellsworth, the football coach wanted me to play for him, too,” Mosley recalled. “But the basketball coach said absolutely not. Then the same thing happened (when Mosley transferred to the University of Nevada at Reno). I wanted to give football a shot, but I was there for basketball and didn’t want the conflict (between programs).”

That didn’t stop professional football teams from taking notice. After an all-Big Sky Conference hoop career with Nevada — Mosley led the nation in field goal percentage as a junior, then averaged a double-double with 15.4 points and 11.2 rebounds as a senior — he became one of the few athletes in pro sports history to get drafted by both an NBA and NFL franchise.

“The Nevada (football) coach had me come and work out during their pro day (after the basketball season in 1983),” Mosley said. “I guess I did enough to (attract the interest of) (the Seattle) Seahawks and (Oakland) Raiders.”

The Seahawks took Mosley in the 12th round.

“I went to Seattle’s camp,” Mosley said. “I remember flying there and then getting in a charter bus with the other draft picks and free agents. I’m surrounded by all of these massive individuals who had to turn sideways just so you could get to your seat.

“It was right then and there I realized professional football wasn’t for me.”

Mosley was selected by the NBA’s Phoenix Suns a few months after his short-lived NFL experience.

“My coach called me into the office and said, ‘I have the Suns on the phone,’ and my initial reaction was, ‘what does that have to do with me?'” Mosley laughed. “He said, ‘they want to draft you in the fourth round.’ I wasn’t really expecting it or paying attention to the draft that day at all, to be honest. They wanted to know if I’d be on board, and of course I said, ‘heck yes.'”

Due to his height, Mosley had always been a post player by default.

“I never really felt like I completely fit in (on the low blocks), but I got to be a pretty good rebounder and defender. You just kind of do whatever your team needs you to,” Mosley said. “But then you get around NBA guys, and suddenly I’m not big enough at 6-7 (to play the post).

“At the professional level, you find out really quickly what does or doesn’t work for you. Suddenly you’re surrounded by elite players who can do it all.”

Mosley was the last player to get cut in the Suns’ summer camp.

“I wasn’t a great shooter, so that hurt my chances, but I held my own physically and athletically all through camp,” Mosley said. “I might have made the team, but they had (1982-83 All-Star) Maurice Lucas on their roster at the same position, and he had a guaranteed contract. So I was kind of the odd man out.”

Mosley was assigned to Phoenix’s farm team in Casper, Wyo. He became an all-pro in the Continental Basketball Association with the Wyoming Wildcatters, then eventually played overseas, with stops in France, Belgium and Spain.

“I took a little from every experience,” Mosley said. “It’s a culture shock at first: a kid from small-town Fort Dodge, Iowa being overseas and learning how the game was played.

“I was always impressed by how fundamentally sound guys were in Europe. You could see (the international wave of NBA players) eventually coming (to the United States) because of it. I went up against guys like Arvydas Sabonis (who eventually became a veteran standout for the Portland Trailblazers). I learned a lot before I hung it up.”

Mosley retired from basketball in 1988. He moved to Nevada, where he began a long career in the corrections and treatment field. Mosley served as an admissions manager, facility supervisor and lead coach for close to 20 years in both Las Vegas and Minden, Nev.

Mosley then became a group supervisor at the Summit View State of Nevada Youth Boys Corrections Facility, and later, the mental health coordinator at Spring Mountain Mental Health Treatment Hospital in Las Vegas.

Mosley and Debbie, his wife of seven years and a significant other for over 20, have three grandchildren together. Mosley has three adult sons — Quincy Mosley, Leighton Wells and Aaron Mosley — who all live in Nevada.

The IHSAA Basketball Hall of Fame push initially came from then-Fort Dodge Senior High athletic and activities director Josh Porter, who is now the school district’s superintendent.

“I’ve always felt we have both a responsibility and a passion to promote our district’s students, both past and present,” Porter said. “Sam is obviously one of our all-time greats. He was before my time here (Porter graduated from FDSH in 1999), but I’d always heard stories and learned more about him from articles in (The Messenger).

“To have the kind of career he did both here and collegiately, then get drafted in two different professional sports — that’s incredibly rare. He’s earned this honor, and we’re just so happy for him as a district and a community. We’re proud to say he’s a Dodger, and we’re really looking forward to the ceremony in March.”

Mosley still has to meet certain criteria before making the trip, but he has every intention to be in Des Moines for the festivities.

“I’ll obviously have to get cleared by my doctor, because it’s only been about six months since I had my transplant and I have to be careful given how compromised my immune system is,” Mosley said. “But I’m hoping for the best. And I’ll definitely stop in Fort Dodge if I can. I have a lot of relatives (in the area) I’d love to see again.

“I don’t know what it will all look like, but just being able to try and plan it all is a blessing that I wasn’t sure I’d have up until the transplant. God is good.”

Wade Lookingbill, Jay Goodman and Tom Goodman are former Dodgers in the IHSAA Basketball Hall of Fame. Former coaches Connie Goodman and Dutch Huseman are the other Fort Dodge Hall members.