Career
He played with the Waterloo Hawks and Sheboygan Red Skins during the 1949-1950 National Basketball Association season. Phelan played for the DePaul University Blue Demons from 1943-1945, playing on the 1945 National Institute of Technology Championship team before enlisting in the Navy. He returned to the team from 1947-1949, playing forward and back-up center to the man voted the best basketball player of 1900-1950, George Mikan.
Mikan had a scar on his elbow made by teeth he knocked out of Jack"s mouth in a practice the day they left for the National Institute of Technology Tournament.
Jack played part-time from 1951-1955 as a fill-in player against the Harlem Globetrotters. Phelan went on to a successful career as a salesman and manager with the Nalco Chemical Company.
He now resides in Bradenton, Florida.