John Douglas is one of my all-time favorite Jayhawks. There was just something magical about this 6-2 slender and athletic guard. He had the perfect shooting form, and when his shot swished through the net in Allen Fieldhouse, I thought it was the most beautiful sight in the world.
As a very impressionable 11-year-old kid growing up in Lawrence, John was my childhood hero. I put him up on a pedestal; for me, he simply could do no wrong.
This was especially the case that memorable night at Hilton Coliseum on Feb. 16, 1977. I remember pacing in my bedroom as I listened to my favorite announcer Tom Hedrick broadcast that thrilling KU game against Iowa State. I was so nervous and hanging on each basket. Douglas was unconscious this night, scoring a career-high 46 points, still the third-most points in a single game in KU history behind legends Wilt Chamberlain and Bud Stallworth.
He shot 19 of 30 from the field and also had nine rebounds.
Here is how Chuck Woodling of the Lawrence Journal-World wrote about John’s scoring exploits that night.
“John Douglas did everything but put a drum on his back, a harmonica in his mouth and cymbals between his knees here Wednesday night. Douglas was one-man band, all right, scoring 46 points to help the Jayhawks escape cellar-dwelling Iowa State, 91-89, in overtime.”
Four KU players fouled out, with seldom-used reserve Chris Barnthouse tipping in a missed 20-footer by Douglas at the buzzer for the game-winning bucket in OT.
Hedrick recalls what Barnthouse said on the bus afterwards.
“’Today, John Douglas and Chris Barnthouse combined for 48 points. Of course, John had 46 and I had two.’ Everybody laughed. They couldn’t quit laughing.”
I absolutely loved Hedrick’s nickname for John, “The Franchise.” I’d get chills hearing Hedrick calling him “The Franchise” on the radio and watching Douglas perform his magic in Allen Fieldhouse. He was a bright spot on the 18-10 Jayhawks in 1976-77, Douglas’s junior year after transferring from Calhoun (Ala.) Community College, where he holds numerous scoring records and led his the Warhawks his freshman season to a 27–3 record and a No. 3 national ranking. Douglas averaged 19.2 points per game for KU and was named All Big-Eight and Honorable Mention All-American.
With the arrival of freshman sensation Darnell Valentine the following season, Douglas sacrificed his game for the betterment of the team and averaged 12.7 points per game. He still could do it all on offense and defense, always drawing the opposing team’s small forward in KU’s three guard lineup with Clint Johnson and Valentine.
While he didn’t have unlimited range, Douglas could knock down the 20-foot jumper with consistency and was quick and could dribble and drive to the hoop. For me, he was so smooth and poetry in motion. I never wanted him to leave Kansas and I'd get mad at Valentine for not passing the ball to John on the fast break. I wanted my childhood hero to score all the points, just as he did his previous season. John helped lead KU to a No. 5 national ranking and a 24-5 record that senior year, one of the most underrated teams in school history.
While John’s college career ended with a devastating loss to UCLA in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, he was drafted in the sixth round by the New Orleans Jazz in 1978. Douglas played two years in the CBA for Montana under head coach George Karl, competing for championships in 1981 and 1983. John ended up playing for the Los Angeles Clippers with Kobe Byrant’s dad, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant in 1981-82. Douglas played in 64 games, averaging 7.0 points per game while playing just three games the next season.
John then embarked on a long, successful career in Europe, playing in Italy and France.
“He was a scoring machine up there,” said Ken Koenigs in 2001, Douglas’s teammate and roommate at Kansas.
Koenigs told me that John became “very worldly” and “very polished” in Europe.
“It was good to see his growth and where he’s gone now,” Koenigs said.
Koenigs has very fond memories of Douglas from their days at Kansas. But Koenigs did have one little problem with his former roommate.
“I never got a phone message the entire year. He was not a good answering machine,” Koenigs told me with a chuckle. “A great roommate, but not very good at passing along the phone messages.”
I had a lifetime thrill with having John in my sociology of sport class at KU when I went back to school in the summer of 1989 or ‘90 (I forget the exact year) after graduating with honors in 1988. John returned to KU finishing up his B.S. degree in education (he also ended up receiving a master of science in education at North Alabama). It was great talking to John and getting to know him a little bit in class. He was very nice and kind to me, and I even played in a pick-up basketball game with him one night at Lawrence High School, along with guys like Terry Brown and Bud Stallworth. That was indeed a memorable night.
After his playing career ended, John has had a very successful career in coaching. He led his alma mater, Calhoun Community College, to a 32-4 record in 2000 and runner-up finish in the NJCAA national tournament. He is only the second coach in the history of Alabama Junior Colleges to have coached in a national championship game. The Warhawks were picked as the preseason No. 2 team in the nation in one preseason publication the following year; a team that had only been in Division 1 the first year they made their national championship game appearance in Hutchinson.
A three-time Coach of the Year winner, Douglas was selected to be a court coach with the USA Olympic Team in 2000.
Douglas has also been head coach at Fort Valley State and Lawson State Community College in Birmingham, Ala., and also served as coach of the Magic City Court Kings (summer of 2005) and Druid City Dragons (summer of 2006) in the World Basketball Association.
Douglas helped resurrect the Lawson State program, coaching the team to a 46-16 record his first two years after LSCC recorded just an 8-20 mark a year prior to his arrival. Lawson State won the Alabama Community College Conference championship in 2005.
Douglas, who began his long coaching career as an assistant at Calhoun Community College, has also served as an assistant coach under his older brother Leon, a two-time All-American at Alabama and longtime NBA veteran, at Tuskegee Institute and Miles College.
Above all, John “The Franchise” Douglas is a winner who left me lasting memories at KU that I will cherish forever. I first learned to shoot a jump shot in eighth grade at Park Hill Park while pretending to be him. That jump shot helped me make my eighth grade team, a huge accomplishment at my size (5-foot-2 at the time), despite not completing full tryouts due to an injury. I guess I impressed my coaches with my abilities and jump shot, all thanks to my inspiration and my childhood hero John Douglas.
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