In 1969, Pat Shelby turned down a football scholarship from the University of Texas-El Paso and instead played basketball at Wayland Baptist College.  Four years later, he had accumulated 1,993 points to become the Pioneer Career Scoring leader.

His freshman season, Shelby was the leading scorer for the Pioneer junior varsity and played in 19 games for the varsity, putting in 72 points and hauling down 32 rebounds.  The next year, even though he was only listed as one of "ten players from the junior varsity…available for home games" in the team's preseason preview, the 6'4" post worked his way into an everyday varsity player, finishing the season with an average of 19.5 points a contest.  During the 1971-72 campaign, Shelby scored his career high of 40 points against Texas College, and finished the season with team highs of 607 points, an average of 20.9 points per game, and 176 rebounds.

The 1972-73 season, Shelby's final as a Pioneer, was a memorable one.  The team finished the regular season undefeated at home with a 12-game home-win streak, and were the Texoma Conference Co-Champs for the first time, and the District 8 Runners-up.  On January 29, 1973, Shelby scored 30 points in 30 minutes to break the Pioneer scoring record and helped the Pioneers to a 100-63 win over district-rival Texas College.   At the conclusion of the season, Shelby had set a new Wayland single season scoring record with 761 points, was named Texoma Conference Most Valuable Player and honored as a 1^st team All-Conference selection.  Finally, April 7, 1973 was declared Pat Shelby Day by the mayor of Shelby's hometown of Ralls, TX.

At the time of his induction, Shelby, the owner of Quality Coating of Lubbock, Inc, was third in Wayland Career Scoring.  He still enjoyed playing basketball, officiating basketball games, and was the Division 2 Southwest Basketball Officials Association representative for West Texas Basketball.  He and his wife, Lynda, have three children:  Jonathan, Patrick and Brittany.