But the fact that he was there at all was monumental for the autism world. He was not a star for Michigan State as he was at Okemos High School, not far from the Lansing campus. It made Ianni the first Big Ten men’s basketball player with a known autism diagnosis. In 2009, Ianni made history when he suited up for the first time for the Spartans. Now, Anthony hopes that people will see him and the way his life actually turned out as the Michigan State (and Big Ten conference) equivalent of “Rudy,” the ultimate underdog who made it despite those initial long odds. It was 1993, and he had been diagnosed with autism, and it was an era when doctors were still learning about what they would later understand to be the enormous scope of the spectrum. ![]() WESTFIELD - When Anthony Ianni was 5-years-old, his parents were told that he could end up living out his years in an institution.
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