14 years after Jeff Foster left San Marcos to embark on a 13-year NBA career with the Indiana Pacers, Texas State University will hang his jersey in the rafters of Strahan Coliseum and the number 42 will officially be retired by the Bobcats.

Many would take this opportunity to relish in their personal accomplishments after such a successful life and career, but Foster, a consummate professional throughout his playing days, remains humble and appreciative of those that helped him achieve his success.

"I'm not really the kind of person for individual honors," said Foster." The last two (conference) championship teams for (Texas State) basketball, it's crazy to say, were teams that I was on from '95 to '99. It's just such a great opportunity. A lot of the guys are going to be coming back, it's going to be the first time we're all together since then. I really want to take this opportunity to recognize them for our accomplishments in the nineties because that's never really been done (at TXST). Until the banner is unfurled and I see it up there with my name on it and, I'm sure it will be a great moment, but I can't look at it as an individual honor because there were so many other people involved in getting me to where I am today."

Foster only played just one season of varsity basketball for Madison High School in San Antonio. Texas State (at the time they were South West Texas University)was the first D-1 scholarship offered to him. They would soon be followed by many other schools, after the relatively unheard of Foster started to make some noise his senior year.

"I kind of was, actually not kind of, I was a late bloomer. I was 6'9, 175 pounds my senior year," said Foster. "TXST sent one of their coaches to watch me at a three-on-three workout during our basketball class, and then I got a letter from the coaches saying they watched me workout and they wanted to give me a scholarship offer to TXST. That was my first full division 1 offer but I started to go to other camps and started to get noticed. I had offers from others schools but I've always been a very loyal person and I kind of told my parents and friends that they were the first ones to offer me a scholarship, they're close to home, I like the coaching staff, and so I decided to sign with TXST."

That 6'9, 175-pound frame grew into a 6'11, 232-pound one by his senior year at Texas State. When his collegiate career was over, Foster left a resounding impact on the Texas State history books. He finished as the all-time leader in blocks for Texas State, finishing with 111 blocks in 111 games played (89 starts).

His senior season, he was third in the nation in rebounding, averaging 11.3 a game. He is fourth all-time in rebounds for the Bobcats with 931 career boards. He is also ninth all-time in steals with 99 for his career. He was also part of one of the two teams in Texas State history to make the NCAA tournament.

Despite all these accolades, the humble Foster had no idea that NBA teams had taken notice of his game.

"After my senior year, which was a great year, we won twenty games and made it to the (Southland) conference championships, and unfortunately lost in the championship game in the (conference) tournament so we didn't get to go to the big dance," said Foster. " The year ended and I planned on going to Cancun and be a college kid for the first time because I hadn't been able to go on spring break, but I was given a box full of letters from agents who invited me to NBA draft camps. I cancelled my trip, hired a trainer and got to work. I knew I had a chance to maybe play overseas. We played Nebraska in a tournament in December of my senior year, who had the Big 12 player of the year that season (Venson Hamilton, Center) and I killed him in that game. I said to myself, 'This guy is the Big 12 player of the year? Well, maybe I can get drafted.' I thought I could go in the second round or maybe have a chance to try out but then I started going to the draft camps and teams started calling me. I started to compete with guys from pretty good schools and I was holding my own. That's when I realized maybe I do have a chance. It took a lot of hard work, which says a lot about my parents and the way I raised me, to just keep working and always improve because you never know what will happen."

Foster's hard work paid off as he was drafted in the first round by the Golden State Warriors. His agent at the time was based out of San Francisco. When he called his agent to say he'll be seeing him in California soon, his agent informed him that the Pacers had already traded for his draft rights.

"For me, I just always wanted a chance to play in the NBA," said Foster. "I was excited to go to the Pacers. I mean, I worked out that morning for Larry Bird and all of their coaching staff; they had just gone to the Eastern Conference Finals the year before so I knew they had a great team. Larry (Bird) called me and Donnie Walsh called me to say I was drafted and I was coming to Indiana and we'll see you tomorrow."

The Pacers hadn't made the NBA Finals before Foster's arrival, but they finally broke that barrier in his rookie season.

"Well, going from just 15 months from the last game at TXST to in the NBA Finals was kind of surreal," said Foster. As a rookie I was like 'Ok, this is really easy. We got here, this happens all the time' but, I always heard people going to the Super Bowl and just trying to take in every moment because it doesn't happen that often. I can speak for that, exactly. I still have snap shot pictures in my head of events that occurred on a certain series, but I really thought that would just be the first of many Finals appearances for me. Unfortunately for me it was the only one I got to play in."

They didn't win the NBA championship that season and it has been the lone Finals appearance in the organization's history. Foster credits his success to having a strong core group of players and coaches around him his rookie season, laying the foundation for the long NBA career he built.

"Larry (Bird) was my coach my rookie year," said Foster. "Rick Carlisle was our assistant coach; he worked me out every single day. We had a great team, I mean, Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson, Chris Mullin, Rik Smitts, Sam Perkins, Dale Davis, Derrick Mckey, just go down the list of the people that were on my team. It's your experiences and mentors your first years in the league that define your career. Especially for a guy who's not a star like I wasn't. I learned so much from those guys on how to be a pro and just watching how they work and, at some point, those guys were the stars on their team and how they were able to integrate into one team was incredible. Watching Reggie work every day, I learned so much from watching those guys. It's one of those things that I've always tried to do towards the end of my career with the guys that are now in Indiana and hopefully they have a chance to win a championship. I just wanted to be an example for them that you need to come, do your job, work hard, do things the right way, and if they had questions about anything I just tried to give them the right answer. I had such great mentors my first year in the NBA that if I had gone to a team, like Golden State, that was in shambles and wasn't very good, things might have ended up differently for me. So, I was very fortunate to end up where I did with Larry."

The season after the Pacers made the Finals; they traded Jalen Rose and Travis Best to the Chicago Bulls for Brad Miller, Ron Artest, Kevin Ollie and Ron Mercer. Miller and Artest would end becoming All-Stars for the Pacers and the emergence of Jermaine O'Neal put Indiana back on the map as NBA title contenders.

In 2004, during a Pistons-Pacers game in Detroit, Artest jumped into the stands to confront a fan that threw a cup at him. What conspired next would be infamously known as the Malice at the Palace, as an intense brawl ensued between many of the Pacers players and Pistons fans. Artest was handed the largest suspension in NBA history, 73 games (the remainder of the season), for instigating the fight. Stephan Jackson, another key player for the Pacers, was suspended for 30 games after following Artest into the stands. O'Neal received a 25-game suspension for punching a fan that came onto to the court, but his suspension was reduced to 15 games.

Despite all of this drama, they still made the playoffs that season and the next to mark their 14th playoff appearance in 15 seasons.

They would go on to miss the Playoffs the next four seasons, marking it the first time since the 1980s that the Pacers didn't make the Playoffs in back to back seasons.

Things began to change for the Pacers in the 2010 season, after they drafted Paul George in the first round and Lance Stephenson in the second round. They then added George Hill via a trade from the Spurs in 2011 and signed free agent David West, which would prove to be pivotal moves for the Pacer's current success.

"Well, there were a lot of high points before the incident in Detroit but that kind of gave the organization a black-eye for a long period of time," said Foster. "It was a crater that took us a long time to get out of and to the organization's credit, to Larry's credit, he put good guys in that locker room and drafted good guys, high character guys that were willing to work hard and are willing to improve their game. Every single one of the players there now has something to prove. Paul George came from a small school; they said he was too slow. Lance Stephenson, they said he was a knuckle-head. David West, he tore his ACL and he's too small. George Hill, from a small school. Their entire starting five, except for maybe you could say Roy (Hibbert) because he had some success at Georgetown, weren't stars in college. That says a lot for Larry and his eye for talent. It's been great to see the maturity and to see these guys come together. And Danny (Granger), even Danny had a great senior year but everybody said he had a bum knee which, unfortunately for him, hampered him later in his career, but it didn't bother him in the beginning and he's proved a lot of people wrong. It's just so great to watch them and to see what they are accomplishing. Any of those five guys can hurt you on the court at any time. I know the NBA is trying to make a superstar out of Paul George and he is a superstar talent but he does a great job of sharing the ball with those other guys. They play together as a team, makes them unique in today's NBA."

Back problems ended Foster's NBA career in 2012, but his life after the NBA has been good to Foster. In a league where around 60% of retired players are broke within five years of leaving the NBA (according to a study by Sports Illustrated), Foster was financially savvy with his earnings, saving most of it throughout his career and making smart investments to not just maintain his means, but increase it.

Despite his financial success, Foster says the best part about being retired is getting to spend time with his wife of 13 years and his twins, Carter and Elle, "Right now, I am passionately involved in quite a few things. I have been very blessed to be able to spend a lot of time with my family. I was away a lot for 13 years, away from my wife and my kids so I've been trying to make up for a lot of lost time. I get to see my parents a lot more now, they made a lot of sacrifices to come up and see us in Indiana during the season, so I am trying to repay that to them as well. Now I am closer and they get to be around their grandkids."

Foster's career is unique in many ways, but the roller coaster ride he experienced with the Pacers throughout his 13 years there, is unlike anything anyone else has gone through with the organization, outside of Larry Bird. His ability to overcome all those ups and downs, and yet still remain professional, humble and, above all, loyal is the reason Jeff Foster's jersey will forever be enshrined at Texas State University. And the memory of his contributions, on and off the court, will forever be enshrined in the minds of both Bobcats and Pacers fans everywhere.