Marshall Harrison Plumlee was born July 14, 1992, in Warsaw, Indiana — the youngest of three brothers in a family built on basketball. His mother Leslie had set the single-game rebound record at Purdue. His father Perky had played at Tennessee Tech. His oldest brother Miles had been born at eleven pounds. His middle brother Mason would become a McDonald’s All-American. Marshall was the little one. In the driveway one-on-one games, he squeezed in when he could. "Growing up, there was always a bit of a physical difference," he said. "I didn’t have much of a chance."
He followed his brothers to Christ School in Arden, North Carolina. Four consecutive state championships, 139 wins in 150 games. By junior year, with both brothers at Duke, he averaged 8.6 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 2.6 BPG. McDonald’s All-American, top-65 national recruit, third Plumlee committed to Duke.
But something happened at Christ School that separated Marshall from his brothers. At a high school basketball tournament, he met General Robert Brown, a retired Army four-star who had played basketball under Coach K at West Point. Brown was nearly as tall as Marshall and spoke about duty, service, and the possibility of playing college basketball and serving your country at the same time. Marshall’s biggest role models, he later said, had always been servicemembers. Brown gave him a way to pursue both dreams.
At Duke, Marshall became the first Blue Devil basketball player in three decades to participate in ROTC. He did it alongside basketball practice, alongside classes, alongside everything. On January 23, 2015, he participated in an ROTC contracting ceremony on the court at Cameron Indoor Stadium — the same floor where he played basketball, where his brothers had played before him. He stood in uniform and pledged to serve. The ceremony happened in the middle of the season that would end with a national championship.