Background
He grew up in Ludington, Michigan, and played basketball for Ludington High School from 1951 to 1954.
He grew up in Ludington, Michigan, and played basketball for Ludington High School from 1951 to 1954.
In three years at Ludington High, he scored 1,176 points -- 179 points as a sophomore, 433 points as a junior and 564 points as a senior. During the 1953-1954 season, he averaged 25.6 points per game. He led Ludington to a 21-2 record and the state finals in 1952 and an 18-4 record in 1953.
As a student at the University of Michigan, he played center for the Michigan Wolverines men"s basketball team from 1955 to 1958.
He was the captain, most valuable player, and leading scorer on the 1957-1958 Michigan Wolverines men"s basketball team He scored 415 points during the 1957-1958 season (an average of 188 points per game), the second highest point total in Michigan"s history to that point.
Tillotson was drafted by the Syracuse Nationals in the fifth round (53rd overall pick) of the 1958 National Basketball Association draft. He was injured during the pre-season training camp for Syracuse and spent the 1958-1959 season playing for the Milan Simmenthal in the Italian Amateur League.
He led Milan to a second-place finish for the European championship while averaging 18 points and 11 rebounds.
He played for Syracuse in 1960, but his playing career ended after he sustained a knee injury. After retiring from basketball, Tillotson worked for nearly 40 years for Ford Motor Company, Paine Webber, Goldman Sachs and General Electric. He retired in 2001. He was included in the inaugural class of seven athletes inducted into the Mason County Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.
