Dale Greenlee still believes in miracles

Here is the Where Are They Now? story I wrote on Dale Greenlee in March 2000 for Jayhawk Insider. We had a great interview. It's always a thrill to talk to one of your childhood heroes, and that's what happened to me on this night. I was so elated and humbled when Dale wrote me a thank-you card about the article after it was published. That meant so much to me! I have his card posted on my wall at home; it serves as daily inspiration. Thank you for your kindness Dale and for sharing your stories and memories with me. I will always be grateful to you for that!

By David Garfield

The miracle game is indelibly etched in Dale Greenlee’s mind.

Greenlee, the former Kansas standout guard, will never forget KU’s stunning comeback overtime win (93-90) against Oral Roberts on March 16, 1974. The victory gave Kansas a berth in the Final Four against Marquette.

KU trailed 77-68 with 4:49 left in regulation before rallying and beating ORU on its home floor (Mabee Center). Greenlee, who finished with 18 points, made a layup and some key free throws to help send the game into overtime.

“Teams just didn’t come back like that,” Greenlee said of the era without a time clock and no three-pointers. “I’d look at (Tom) Kivisto. He’d look at me. We’d look at Roger (Morningstar), and Danny (Knight) and Rick (Suttle) and Norm (Cook). We didn’t feel we were out of the game. We figured we’d do what we had to do to get back in it.”

Destiny was on KU’s side as well. A sign painted on the Mabee Center floor said: “Expect a miracle.”

And KU did all year.

“We pretty much had a season when we’d come back a lot,” said Greenlee, now the branch manager for Simco Controls in Indianapolis, Ind.   

It was a miracle year (KU went 23-7 and won the Big Eight championship) for a team that finished just 8-18 the previous season. The Jayhawks, who had all five returning starters back in 1974, were bolstered with the addition of junior college transfer Roger Morningstar and super frosh Norm Cook.

“It seemed that there was no one player that had a real consistent year (1972-73),” Greenlee said about one of the greatest turnarounds in NCAA history. “I bet coach (Ted Owens) had 20 different lineups trying to find a combination. ... My junior year (73-74), early on in the season we pretty much had a set starting five. We knew who we were.”

KU, which had five people in double figures (Knight led the team at 12.4 ppg), had a strong identity and was a “really tight group. We kind of watched out for each other. Coach once said, ‘We played like brothers.' No one really cared who scored.”

 

Greenlee finished third on the team in scoring at 11.8 and led the team in field goal percentage (49.9). One Big Eight coach actually called him the “league’s best pure shooter.” With Kivisto dishing assists at the point (school-record 18 against Nebraska on Dec. 29, 1973) and Greenlee at shooting guard, the two formed one of the best backcourts in the conference and arguably the smartest tandem in the country.  

Greenlee (a high school valedictorian in a graduating class of 700 at Guilford High School in Rockford, Ill.) and Kivisto were named Academic All-Big Eight that year. 

“I’ve always felt if players are smart, it just makes the game so much better,” Greenlee said. “We’re able to pick up things quicker, run the offense better and change defenses up.”

And then there were those unforgettable off the court memories. Greenlee recalls the time Suttle came late to practice one day. As punishment, the team made Suttle sing his high school song.

“He said, ‘I don’t know it,’ so we said, ‘Pick a song.’ He leaves the room and comes in singing “Hello Dolly.” Here’s Rick, 6’11, and he’s waving a handkerchief like Louis Armstrong. He had us roaring. He always kept you loose.”

Kansas, which lost to Marquette in the Final Four, struggled to find its identity without Kivisto at the beginning of 1974-75. However, KU (19-8) did win its last eight of nine games before losing to Notre Dame, 77-71, in the first round of the Midwest Regional.  

“I’ve not been much of a Notre Dame fan since,” Greenlee said.  “Doherty (Matt, the former KU assistant and current Fighting Irish head coach) is making it tough. We’re almost big Notre Dame fans now. ... I’m almost having to revise my 25 years of hatred.”

After graduating with a business degree in 1975, Greenlee spent a year working at Lawrence Savings before returning to his native Illinois. He’s been employed in industrial distribution since then for three different companies, most recently Simco Controls in Indianapolis, Ind. (his family to Indianapolis in 1990). Greenlee, who loves being involved in the goal-oriented side of sales and management, constantly uses sports analogies to his employees and reflects back to KU’s stunning win against Oral Roberts 26 years ago. 

“You never give up,” he said. “There are always situations that look hopeless, but if you keep working hard, good things will happen.”

A basketball junkie, Greenlee is growing accustomed to living in Big Ten country. His oldest daughter, Mandy, is a cheerleader at Indiana and youngest daughter, Julie, plays soccer at Purdue. In fact, Mandy asked her dad a few years ago if he’d like her to attend Kansas.

“It would have been nice, but distance wise, it’s very nice having both of my girls within an hour and a half of home. It gives my wife and I a chance to go to all of their activities.”

Greenlee’s family is very dear to him. His wife, Linda, is currently battling cancer and “doing fantastic.” Greenlee, who was a tough and fierce competitor at Kansas, calls Linda “probably the strongest person I’ve ever known.”

 “It’s not something, obviously, anybody would choose to do (radiation and chemotherapy), but when you do it, you face it with a positive attitude and just beat it like you would Kansas State or Oral Roberts.”

He adds softly: “We believe in miracles.”

A Closer Look at Dale Greenlee:

Years at KU : 1971-75

Career Notables: Member of 1974 Final Four team....Academic All-Big Eight in 1974 and ‘75...89.6 free throw percentage in ‘74 ranks No. 2 in KU history...No. 3 all-time career free throw percentage leader at 83.2.

Education: B.S. Business Administration, 1975

Family: Wife, Linda; daughters, Mandy, 21 and Julie, 19

Since Leaving KU: Greenlee spent a year working at Lawrence Savings before moving to native Illinois. He’s been employed in industrial distribution for three companies, most recently Simco Controls in Indianapolis. His family moved to Indiana in 1990.

Currently: Greenlee is branch manager for Simco Controls.

Hobbies: Basketball and golf.

Favorite KU memories:  “Beating K-State for the conference championship two years in a row (1974 and ‘75).”...Going to the Final Four in 1974: “We were thrilled to be there.”...Playing against legendary coaches like John Wooden, Bobby Knight and Adolph Rupp.

On the Jayhawks Today: “Roy Williams has done a fantastic job. ... KU graduates their players; it’s a quality program. There’s probably five major colleges that have that type of tradition.” 

Former KU standout Dale Greenlee recalls his memorable college career

Dale Greenlee wasn’t the most talented player on his KU teams, but he was a great shooter and simply outworked everybody on the court. He was one of the fiercest competitors in school history who never saw a loose ball and floor burn he didn’t like.

His "pure intensity" on the hardwood earned him a spot on the Kansas coaches' Dream Team.

A key member of the 1974 Final Four team, Greenlee averaged 11.8 points per game (No. 3 on team) in a balanced Jayhawk offense where five players averaged in double figures. He also led the team in free throw percentage (89.6) and field goal percentage (49.9), while one Big Eight coach actually called him the “league’s best pure shooter.” He and teammate Roger Morningstar would have been tailor-made for the three-point shot if it had been implemented in that era.

An extremely well-rounded person and brilliant and well-read student, Greenlee was named Academic All-Big Eight his junior and senior seasons. He was also valedictorian in his graduating class of 700 at Guilford High School in Rockford, Illinois.

I had a wonderful Where Are They Now? interview with Dale in 2000 for Jayhawk Insider, where he talked fondly of his KU career and his family, and what’s transpired in his life since graduating from KU with a business administration degree in 1975.

I was so flattered and humbled when he wrote me a thank-you letter after the article was published. Here is what my childhood hero wrote me on March 25, 2000:

"Dear Dave, Thank you for writing such a nice article and thanks for sending the two copies of the Jayhawk Insider. My phone interview with you and reading the article brought back a flood of great memories about KU and all of the fine people I have met. You’ve captured my feelings about my family well. I wish you good luck in your future endeavors. Sincerely, Dale Greenlee."

I also wrote an article about Dale’s book, “Kiss the Sky,” in 2009, and sat with him and enjoyed a great conversation at his book signing at Hastings Bookstore in Lawrence. Dale then kindly sent me a highlight DVD of the 1974 and 1975 KU teams, something that overjoyed me. The great thing about highlights is all the KU shots go in, making my memories of my childhood heroes that much fonder and sweeter. As I’ve said many times, the 1974 Final Four team brightened my childhood immensely and had a profound impact on my life as an impressionable 7-year-old boy.

Here is the great letter Dale sent me with the DVD on April 4, 2009, just shortly after KU lost to Michigan State in the Sweet 16.

“Dear David,

Enclosed is the DVD of the KU highlight film from 1974 and 1975. I believe you will enjoy seeing the Jayhawks with short shorts back in the day! It is fun to relive those wonderful years

And thank you for all of the great articles you have written about our team. I believe we had as good a group of guys that ever wore Kansas on their chests. I’m proud to have been part of that group.

I was at the game here in Indy when Michigan State beat us. Saw Roger and Linda of course, and sat by Dave Robisch. I thought we had that game won, but it got away. But we will be awesome next year. And Bill Self certainly deserved coach of the year.

All for now. Hope all is well with you.

Sincerely,

Dale.”

In this two-part series on Dale Greenlee, I’ll first report on his fond recollections of his KU career. And then, in Part II, I’ll post the Where Are They Now? story I wrote on him in 2000.

Roger Morningstar, Greenlee’s teammate at KU and one of his best friends, on the former sharpshooter and fierce battler:

“He was a kid that wasn’t recruited heavily out of high school. He had a broken leg his senior year in football so he barely got to play basketball his senior year,” Morningstar told me in 2001. “He was an extremely great shooter, maybe a step slow, but technique wise, everything he did fundamentally was next to perfect. He played extremely well.”

Ted Owens, former KU head coach, on Greenlee's tremendous human spirit and will:

"The human will and spirit, while not initially apparent, can be very strong," Owens wrote in his 2013 book, "At the Hang-Up." "Dale Greenlee was someone we rated as the seventh-best player in his freshman recruiting class, but he went on to play more minutes than any of his teammates who had seemed to have greater potential. You can't judge the inner will a person has."

Greenlee on the great team chemistry his KU teams had:

“We were really a tight group, great group of guys. We kind of watched out for each other. Especially, the last two years, we really had a close group. Coach once said, ‘We played like brothers.’ We cared about each other. We hung out together off the court, did a lot of things together. Didn’t have a lot of the jealousies you’d see on some teams. Boy, you were thrilled if Tom (Kivisto) played great and Roger (Morningstar) played great, Rick (Suttle) played great, you were just thrilled, whereas you’d see some teams, you could almost see it, the camera zooms in and somebody's playing great, but then somebody else who isn’t scoring, even though they’re winning, doesn’t seem particularly happy. We just did not have any of that going on. Tom Kivisto, for one, is probably the most unselfish player I’ve ever played with. Our whole starting five was from Illinois. I saw Tom play in high school. I never played against him. He was a year older than me, but I saw him play in high school. I think it was the Supersectionals when he was at Aurora East. It was probably the greatest performance I’ve ever seen by a high school basketball player. I had no idea I’d end up being fortunate enough to play college ball with him. 43 points, I mean he did everything, he stole the ball, he made great passes, he hit great shots, he pretty much from the guard position, controlled a great basketball game. He was a great scorer in high school, but in college, he totally sacrificed himself because he could have been a much better scorer, but he realized the size we had. Coach’s philosophy was to pound it inside, take advantage of our size. Tom pretty much worked into that system, became the assist man, the defensive leader, helped a bunch of us play better. Tom was never happier than when he was giving an assist.

“One thing I vividly remember about that team is nobody really cared who scored. We had five people in double figures. Whenever we played, they usually only had two players that were scorers. Chuckie Williams (K-State star) would average 25, and (Mike) Evans averaged 23, then it would drop down to about nine. Iowa State had Hercle Ivy averaging 25, and then it would drop off. We knew if you could take one person out of their game, we had a real good chance of winning. When teams played us, they couldn’t do that. Our top eight were almost interchangeable parts, which really made it difficult for people to key on any one person. If Roger wasn't hitting, then Tom was. If Rick wasn’t, Danny Knight was. If Norm (Cook) wasn’t, Tommy (Smith) was coming off the bench and scoring. That’s what made our team a difficult team for other teams to play.”

Greenlee on KU’s transformation from an 8-18 team in 1972-73 to a 23-7 Final Four team the following season:

”At one point, that was one of the top two or three largest turnarounds in NCAA history. One thing that was different, my sophomore year, it seemed that there was no one player that had a real consistent year  I bet coach probably had 20 different lineups during the season trying to find a combination. What that does for you, because the players weren’t consistent, we didn’t have a consistent lineup. Because there wasn’t a consistent lineup, the players don’t get consistent. When you did get your chance, there were a lot of us that were part-time starters shuffling in and out. When you were in, you pressed a little too hard, you were thinking you had to do something spectacular, whereas our junior year, early on in the season, you had a feeling we pretty much had a set starting five. We knew who we were. The players that were coming in first, second, third off the bench knew who they were, they knew what their roles were, and everybody seemed to be working real hard to do the best they could for the team. It didn’t seem to bother Rick (that he was KU’s Super Sub). Danny Knight would start, but Rick would actually play more minutes during the game, and sometimes, coach would play both at the same time. We’d run our double low post. Back in the 70s, it was a pretty nice luxury to have two 6-10, 6-11 people in at the same time.”

Greenlee on KU’s two conference championships in 1974 and 1975:

“Two of my best memories were beating K-State for the conference championship two years in a row. We hammered them when I was a senior, 91-53. K-State finished second. Coach Owens said afterwards that was one of the worse beatings by a good team of another good team. A good team will beat a bad team by 30 or 40, but for a good team to beat another good team by 38, that was a heck of a night. I broke Mike Evans’ nose early in the game. I picked off a pass at midcourt and he decided to draw a charge, and I kind of blew him into the third row. I felt bad that he was hurt, but they brought him someone who had hardly played, so we doubled Chuckie Williams the rest of the game, and that was pretty much it. He wore a hockey mask a year or two after that. They had two great guards, so it certainly helped us that he was out of the game.”

Greenlee on KU’s miracle win over Oral Roberts in the 1974 Midwest Regional Final 

(KU trailed 77-68 with 4:49 left in regulation before rallying and beating ORU on its home floor in overtime):

“Back then, there was no shot clock. No threes. Teams just didn’t come back like that. We pretty much had a season when we’d come back a lot. I’ll never forget the timeouts. I’d look at Kivisto.  He’d look at me, we’d look at Roger, and Donnie (Von Moore) and Rick and Norm. It’s like, we were always concerned, but we didn’t feel we were out of the game. We figured we’d do what we had to do to get back in it. The good news, bad news about Oral Roberts that year was I believe they led the nation in scoring. They were the kind of UNLV, Oklahoma before those people. They were the first team to really rack up 100 points a game. The good news for us is they were going to keep shooting. You could almost feel it. They weren’t going to try to not run the last two or three minutes off the clock. Our job was to play tough defense. Coach Owens and coach (Sam) Miranda said, ‘play good, tough defense, don’t make silly fouls, and then when we get opportunities on offense, try to push it up court and take advantage of those opportunities.’ We were fortunate. Tommy Smith hit some big buckets. We really had a nice flurry at the end. We hit most of our free throws, and we were able to go on and win it.  (Greenlee missed a 35-footer at the buzzer in regulation). I honestly don’t (remember that). I must have blocked that out of my mind. I had a pretty decent game scoring, but I would have liked to have hit that shot to win the game, but things turned out all right. I think you would have like to have hit that shot to win the game. I hit a couple of free throws in the last couple of minutes.

“I just remember both Ted and Sam being very positive,” Greenlee added. “We were very confident. We could execute what we need to do do.  Each time there was a huddle or timeout, I didn’t see any doubt. There’s some games, you just know we’re not going to get back in it. We never felt like that against Oral Roberts, and really didn’t feel like that any game that year.”

Greenlee on KU’s loss against Marquette in the Final Four:

“It is such a huge media event now. It was obviously a big deal to be in the Final Four back then, but it wasn’t like now. Now, all the games in the field of 64 are all televised. It’s such a buildup. We were thrilled to be there. We really felt we had an opportunity to beat Marquette. Actually, I believe we led at halftime. We came out and did not play very sharp the second half. Again, at the time once a team got ahead, if they had some good ball handlers, which Marquette did, they had a couple of awfully good guards, they could slow the game down, you ended up having to foul. It was only a two or three point game, then all of a sudden, it’s a 13-point game. We led one at halftime, and I didn’t think we played particularly well in the first half. Marquette kind of liked to slow it down. It was a low scoring game. We were playing a lot of zone in the first half, they came out the second half and started to hit a few jumpers, then we came out of the zone into a man to man. They were awfully good inside. They had Bo Ellis, Maurice Lucas, (Earl) Tatum. They had some great players underneath that made it a little tough to match. Their guards were really quick, not particularly strong outside shooters. We were playing some zone. They were much more difficult to match up with man to man.”

Greenlee on KU’s expectations during the 1973-74 season:

“When we were juniors, we weren’t ranked at all in preseason because we were 8-18 the year before. We slowly climbed up. You got up to the 20th, 18th, 15th, got up I think as high as sixth was probably as high as we were ever ranked , even though we were in the Final Four. Looking back on it, it was probably a great situation to be in, as opposed to the next year. We came out second in one poll, fifth in another. You got the bullseye pointed on your chest every game. The fact we lost Tom trying to get some things sorted out made it a more difficult situation than being an underdog. As an underdog, you have nothing to lose. You can go play all out and give it your all and make good things happen. Sometimes the teams that are favored start playing a little safe, making things a little more difficult. I take pride in the fact we didn’t have any player that went on to have huge pro careers. We were a group of overachieving guys that liked to play together. That’s the fun of sport. That’s really what made it a fantastic year for us. ... We prided ourselves on that (play hard and tough). We had to be. We figured that was the only way we were going to compete.”

Greenlee on KU’s 1974-75 season:

KU played No. 3 Indiana in Allen Fieldhouse on Dec. 4, 1974 and lost 74-70 in OT.

“I think Norm or Donnie had a shot right at the end of the game that would have won the game, but missed an eight or nine footer. Scott May had about eight or 10 in OT. Bobby Knight says to this day that was his best team, not the next year, when they went undefeated. That’s the year May broke his arm, and Kentucky beat them in the regionals.

“I think losing Kivisto really hurt us. (We had) eight of 9 players back. (We) won conference two years in a row. Early on in the season, we were trying find find a combination. Nobody had really stepped up to fill that point guard spot. We recruited number of point guards like Milt Gibson. I ended up playing it. I was not a natural point guard. I never played the point my whole life, when you’ve been a two or three your whole life, it’s a bit of a challenge. We got on a roll, we were really playing well, just couldn’t get past Notre Dame (in the first round of the NCAA Tournament).

“I’ve not been much of a Notre Dame fan since. That was tough. We had lost to Notre Dame when I was a sophomore at Notre Dame, when they shot 33 free throws, and we shot one. That left a bit of a bitter taste when you outscore somebody by 20 some points and end up losing. My senior year, to have your last game against Notre Dame. That may still be the record for  most people fouling out of a basketball game. That was one of the worse games as far as number of fouls. Back then, you really couldn’t even touch each other, you could bump a little bit. Now you watch the NCAA games, they all look like pro games. There’s so much grabbing, holding and shoving. Back then, you put your hand on him, it was a foul. I believe (Adrian Dantley) led the nation in scoring. He was a great scorer, he was a bit of a tweener. He wasn’t real tall, he was 6-4 or 6-5, but he was built like a horse. We tried big people like Norm Cook, 6-9, Dantley was too quick. If you tried small people, he was just too strong. He was really a tough person. Tough matchup. We just didn’t have an answer for him, and without a shot clock, without no three-pointers a team could pretty much really take advantage of both kind of matchmaking situations.”

Greenlee on Rick Suttle:

“I roomed with Rick. He was funny. I can still see Rick. He was late for a practice. To punish him, we had a pre-game meal and Rick was supposed to sing his school song as the punishment. He didn’t know his school song. I remember him going, ‘I don’t know it.’ We said, ‘So pick a song.’ He leaves the room and came in singing "Hello Dolly." Here’s Rick, 6-11. He actually left the room, came in waving a handkerchief like Louie Armstrong. He had us roaring. Probably every one in the room remembers that. Things like that, he was always good for something. He always kept you loose.”

Greenlee on his role on the team:

“My sophomore and junior year, with Tom playing the point, my role as the two guard was to do a good job defensively, basically to look and make sure you hit the open shots, hit the boards when you could coming from the two spot.”

Greenlee on teaming with Kivisto, both extremely smart players. Greenlee was Academic All-Big Eight in 1974 and 1975, while Kivisto was Academic All-Big Eight in 1973 and 1974. Kivisto, who earned an NCAA Post-Graduate Award in 1974, was also Academic All-American in ‘74.

“Definitely, I’ve always felt if players are smart, it just makes the game so much better. You can pick up things quicker, run your offenses better, we could change defenses up, you really knew you could count on other people to know what’s going on. It’s one thing to be physically talented, but all of us that’s played a sport would say physically talented people that maybe weren’t as mentally talented, consequently things don’t run as smooth. We could really count on each other to do the right thing and adjust to any game situation. Coaches always had a very comprehensive pre-game strategy. Tom and I and all of the players really understood, “OK, K-State, here are the things we want to accomplish.' When it was Iowa State or Colorado, whichever team, we knew their strengths and weaknesses.”

Greenlee on his memories of playing against great players and coaches:

“It was a great part of my college career to play against John Wooden, coach of UCLA, get to play against Bill Walton, Keith Wilkes, we got to play against Bobby Knight, we got to play against Al McGuire, we played Kentucky in Adolph Rupp’s last year. We got to play against some great coaches.”

Greenlee on KU’s Illinois pipeline:

“Illinois is such a much more populous state than Kansas. There’s just a lot more players. There’s literally hundreds of good players in Chicago and the rest of the Illinois area every year. At the time, the University of Illinois was pretty down. Their program was relatively weak. Most of their good players were leaving the state. When we played Marquette, three of their five starters were from Illinois. The joke was Illinois north versus Illinois west because everyone on the court was from Illinois. I think Illinois was 5-20 that year. They just weren’t keeping anybody around. DePaul, of course, had good players. There were good Illinois players from Kentucky. Quinn Buckner at Indiana was from Illinois. I played against Buckner in high school. Coach Miranda pretty much knew all the coaches (from Illinois). Dave Robisch had been to Kansas from lllinois, pretty much had a fairly consistent pipeline coming.”

Greenlee on his recruitment and his heroes:

“(I was) not heavily recruited. You get hundreds of letters, but once I broke my ankle, I missed almost the whole basketball season my senior year. ... I really liked the Boston Celtics and liked the Chicago Bulls. I liked the way Jerry Sloan played. He was such a tough, fierce competitor.’

Greenlee on his KU fandom:

“I root for the Jayhawks all the time. (Morningstar is) one of my best friends. I talk to Roger real often. That always brings back the KU days.”

Recalling when Danny Manning landed his first head-coaching job at Tulsa

Times have been tough on Danny Manning since he was named Wake Forest head basketball coach on April 4, 2014. While he won at Tulsa in his first head-coaching job and led the Golden Hurricane to the NCAA Tournament in his second year in 2014 for the first time since 2003 (21-13, 13-3 in league play, tied for first), where they lost to UCLA in the second round, the Jayhawk legend hasn’t been very competitive in the monster ACC. He’s coming off back-to-back 11-20 seasons, and there was speculation he might be fired after this season. Manning, who also went 11-20 in 2015-16, has posted just a 65–93 (.411) record at Wake in five seasons, including a dismal 24-66 record  (.267) in conference play.

Manning has only had one winning season at Wake in 2016-17 with future NBA lottery pick John Collins the team’s star. Wake went 19-14 that year and lost in the NCAA First Four to K-State. That’s when Wake AD Mike Wellman gave Manning a big contract extension.

In March, Wellman, the outgoing Wake AD, gave Manning a vote of confidence and said he would be back for another season. John Currie took over as new athletic director in May, so if Manning doesn’t show significant improvement next year, Currie could let him go. Manning’s contract reportedly runs through 2025 with a reported 18 million buyout, one reason sources say Wellman was reluctant to fire Manning.

Both Wellman and Manning spoke at their March press conference knowing the Wake basketball program needed to improve.

According to the Winston Salem-Journal, Wellman said the future with Manning is “bright with him at the helm.”

“Our fans and everyone associated with this program expects us to have a championship-caliber program and we believe we are capable of doing that, we have done that in the past and we will do it in the future,” Wellman said.

Wellman was encouraged how more competitive the Demon Deacons were at the end of the season.

“So often, in a situation like that, you can lose a team. You don’t have their attention, you don’t have their full commitment,” Wellman said. “When I would go to practice, I never saw that. I saw them working hard, I saw them absorbing what the coaches were saying and trying to execute it.

“And that carried over into the games. The grit and the determination and the chemistry, I thought, was evident during the games, even though we didn’t win some of the games.”

Like Wellman, Manning was also optimistic.

“I’m excited about this team. I think the young men that we have in this program represent us well on the court and off the court,” Manning said. “I think we — in a challenging situation, they did some really good things in terms of competing and battling and improving and wanting to improve and continuing to stay the course and be supportive of the whole program, especially of each other.”

Before his struggles at Wake, Manning was set to begin his first head-coaching job at Tulsa in 2012 after nine years on staff at Kansas, serving as an assistant coach his last five years. He was seen as a rising coaching star and expectations were high at Tulsa with his hiring. I wrote this article on Manning’s new job at Tulsa in Jayhawk Illustrated'a 2012 summer issue. I also included information on my former Lawrence High School classmate’s career at LHS and his loyalty to his high school coach Ted Juneau, and how he wanted to bring a family atmosphere to Tulsa and win championships.

Here is that story.

***

By David Garfield

Flash back to Dec. 13, 1983. It was my senior year at Lawrence High School, and the ballyhooed star senior on the LHS basketball team was playing his second game of the season in a highly anticipated battle against powerhouse Wyandotte High after transferring from Page High School in Greensboro, N.C., where he led his team to a state championship the previous season as a pivotal force on one of the greatest teams in North Carolina prep history.

Danny Manning, the 6-10 do-it-all forward who scouts were already comparing to Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, dribbled the ball upcourt on the game’s first possession, stopped on a dime just behind the free-throw line and released the jumper.

It hit nothing but net as the LHS gym rocked like never before.

On Lawrence High’s next possession, Manning dribbled the ball upcourt, pulled up at the same spot behind the free-throw line and shot the ball. 

Swish. The crowd came to their feet again and roared even louder.

Those were some of my first memories of Daniel Ricardo Manning.

Now, after leading LHS to one of its best seasons in school history, carving an All-American career at Kansas and spearheading the Jayhawks to the 1988 NCAA title, playing 15 years in the NBA (two-time All-Star) and then serving the past nine seasons on the KU basketball staff (the last five as as assistant coach), where he received due credit as one of the best big man coaches in the college game, Manning is looking to bring crowds to their feet once more as the new head coach of the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

This once bright-eyed Lawrence High teenager can’t wait to begin the next chapter in his life as a wise 45-year-old Basketball Jones who could be the best thing to happen to Tulsa basketball since Bill Self led the Golden Hurricane to the Elite Eight in 2000.

Manning, who was introduced as head coach on April 4, is ready to get started at a job he calls a “tremendous opportunity.”

“We look forward to becoming a part of the fabric of the TU family. I'm so excited,” Manning said. “It's going to be a lot of fun. It will be a lot of hard work. We're willing to put in the hard work and we will put in the hard work. (At the) end of the day we'll stack up the wins and losses, but more importantly we want to make sure when people leave here they're quality young men ready to take the world on and make someone else's life better. That's how we're going to build our foundation, from the ground up. “

After failing to make the NCAA tournament since 2003 and seeing a 35-percent decrease in season ticket sales since 2005, TU athletics director Ross Parmley believes Manning is the man to take the program to the next level. He replaces the fired Doug Wojcik, who spent seven seasons at Tulsa and guided the Golden Hurricane to a 17-14 record this past year.

"We are extremely excited to have Danny join The University of Tulsa as our new head basketball coach,” Parmley said. “He epitomizes everything our university stands for. His impact on young people will extend far beyond the TU basketball program and reach well into our campus and community. His 15 years in the NBA combined with the last nine years under one of the best coaches (Self) in the country, have helped mold him into a great teacher and coach of basketball. He most definitely brings the excitement, the style of basketball, and character that we were looking for in our head coach."

It had to be a special job to lure Manning away from Kansas, and the former Jayhawk star said Tulsa was the perfect fit. He was blown away by the “beautiful campus,” outstanding facilities and rich basketball history. Three former Tulsa coaches (Self, Nolan Richardson and Tubby Smith) had great success with the Golden Hurricane before moving on to win a national championship at other schools. 

“We were comfortable there (at KU),” Manning said. “But the more I spoke with coach Self, the more I spoke with coach (Larry) Brown about the opportunity of coming to TU and being a part of this rich tradition, it became a no-brainer. To get a job of this magnitude as my first job is unbelievable.”

Manning said he got great feedback from Self about the Tulsa job. Self was head coach at TU from 1997-2000.

“Coach Self and his wife rave about Tulsa,” Manning said. “They rave about TU, the athletic side of it, the community, the university. They had nothing but love. That has really made the transition easier mentally for me and I think for my wife and our kids, as well.”

While Self knows losing Manning is a great blow for KU, he couldn’t be happier for him landing his first head-coaching gig.

"Danny Manning is one of the most accomplished, humble people you'll ever meet,” Self said. “He's done more in his life through the athletic world than just about anybody, but you would never know it in visiting with him as he never ever talks about himself. His focus on deciding to be a basketball coach was to try to share some of his knowledge and make others better. He's certainly done that at a very high level with us here at Kansas. He's been around basketball his whole life, played for so many coaches, been able to steal from everybody and has developed a vast knowledge that will certainly play a huge role in his success as a head coach. 

"Although 45 years old, he's well beyond those in basketball years as far as experience. The University of Tulsa has not only hired a great person and a great ambassador, but also a man that will lead Tulsa to great heights athletically and be competing for championships in a very short amount of time."

Manning has already assembled a quality coaching staff, hiring former Jayhawk players Brett Ballard and Steve Woodberry as his assistants, as well as former KU manager and student assistant Justin Bauman as director of basketball operations. Wendell Moore, who served the last four years as an assistant at UMKC, will also be joining Manning’s staff as a full-time assistant coach.

Manning, who’s been around basketball his entire life, said he always knew he wanted to coach. After all, he grew up being mentored by his dad, who was a former NBA and ABA player and an assistant under Brown during Danny’s collegiate career. Even at age 4 or 5, Manning could be seen dribbling the ball on the sidelines during Ed’s practices with the Brown-coached ABA’s Carolina Cougars.

Manning spoke glowingly of his late father at his introductory press conference. Ed died in March 2011.

“I believe he'd be proud,” Manning said. “He got me into the game, showed me how to do things. He was someone in his professional career that was a journeyman, played on a lot of different teams. He had to do the dirty work, play the defense, dive on the floor, do all those small things that make teams work. I learned to appreciate that at a very early age. That's one of the biggest compliments I ever heard given a player was someone told my dad, ‘I enjoy playing with you because you made the game easier for me.’ I think that's a wonderful compliment. That's something we want to have as a team.”

You can bet Manning’s Tulsa teams will play unselfish, team basketball. Manning certainly was the consummate team player and learned from his dad and Brown about the importance of team ball. Brown preached the mantra: “Good ones do for themselves. Great ones do for others.”

“There’s not a day that goes by in practice that I don’t think of coach Brown,” Manning said at his induction into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. “Coach Brown always used to tell us, ‘Go out and play hard. You play together and you play unselfishly.’ Those are the big things that I’ve always carried with me.”

Manning’s coaching style will also include playing “up-tempo” basketball. 

“We want to be a team that plays pressure man-to-man defense without giving up easy buckets, scores in transition, gets down the court, gets into some type of motion offense where the ball goes from one side of the court to the other, give the defenses a chance to break down, then attack,” Manning said. "We'll incorporate a lot of ball screens and give our ball handlers a chance of getting into the paint and create.”

***

After first arriving in Lawrence at age 17, Manning leaves the city and KU as an institution, the best player in Lawrence High School history and one of the top two players in Jayhawk annals who made an indelible impact on and off the court.

It all began after Brown hired Ed Manning as his assistant coach and the family moved to Lawrence after Labor Day in 1983. Juneau fondly remembers visiting the Holidome with senior captain Jeff Johnson to introduce themselves to Danny and his family. 

After knocking on the door, Ed answered.

“Danny was lying on the bed watching TV and he got up, and it was just like seeing all legs come up,” Juneau once recalled to me. “He didn’t weigh a lot. He was pretty skinny. But boy, you looked up and said, ‘Oh, my god, this is for real. So the ride began.”

It was a great ride with Manning leading the Lions to a 22-2 record and a berth in the state championship game against Wyandotte in Allen Fieldhouse, the same team which had defeated LHS in the second game of the season. Manning, who could dominate when needed all season, hit two big free throws to put LHS up by one point in the final minute.

“There was no hesitation (by me) or thought he was going to miss those free throws,” Juneau said. “He’s such a competitor.”

Then, with LHS down by one point (50-49), it was Manning who heaved up a shot near midcourt at the buzzer. The ball hit the back of the rim, rattled around the goal and bounced harmlessly to the floor.

While it was a painful loss for Manning and the Lions, Danny’s career was about to begin at Kansas, where he would make a lifetime of magical memories in Allen Fieldhouse.

Juneau remembers when Manning first decided to become a Jayhawk in the fall of 1983. While everybody in the college hoops world believed Manning would soon become a Jayhawk and join his dad at KU after arriving in Lawrence for his senior year of high school — that it was a “package deal” — Juneau said Manning wavered at first.

“He told me he didn’t think he was going to sign early (in November), that there were five or six places he thought he wanted to visit even though his dad was an assistant at KU,” Juneau recalled. “Obviously, North Carolina had been on him since he was young (and living in Greensboro, N.C.). Dean Smith (then-head coach at UNC) was from Topeka (and came to visit Danny at LHS).

“I remember telling (Smith), ‘Danny tells me that he doesn’t think he’ll sign early.’ One of the great lines, Dean looked at me and said, ‘Well, he better not because his dad might be a head coach by the end of the season.’

“Quite honestly, after he (Smith) left, Danny told me the next Monday he was going to KU. 

Evidently, he thought he needed to talk to Dean Smith and let him know what was going on.”

While Juneau said he and Manning had never talked about where he would have attended college had Ed not been hired at KU, the former Lawrence High School head coach said he heard “some speculation that N.C. State had the inside track and that Dean pushed him to go to KU because he knew he wasn’t going to get him. I heard that story, but I don’t know.”

North Carolina’s and N.C. State’s loss was KU’s gain as Manning would blossom the next four years at Kansas under Brown’s tutelage and demanding presence. Manning saved his best season for last as a senior in 1987-88. He was a consensus first-team All-American, led KU to the national championship, and left KU as the school’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder, which still stands.

Manning not only carved his name in KU basketball history, but is recognized as one of the best college players to ever play the game.

***

Everyone knows about Manning’s greatness on the court. But Juneau is one of those unique people who knows how special his former player is off the court and what kind of true ambassador and loyal person Tulsa is getting to run its program.

Juneau recalls the story of what happened after Manning was selected as the top overall pick in the 1988 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Clippers and ready to compete in the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

Juneau said Manning had helped him run his summer basketball camp at Lawrence High School while he was a at KU, but with his hectic schedule that summer of 1988, had no intention of asking Manning to assist with his camp again.

But after flying to Boston the previous night to sign a Reebok contract, Manning showed up unannounced at the LHS gym on the first day of camp around 9 a.m. ready to work with the campers.

“Here comes Danny from the parking lot,” Juneau said. “He said, ‘Coach, you didn’t even call me to let me know camp was starting.’ Here’s a kid who had been Player of the Year, first-round draft choice, going to the Olympics, the last thing I want to do is say, ‘Hey, Danny, my is camp is coming, aren’t you going to come up and work?’ 

“He calls my wife that morning and says, ‘Isn’t camp pretty soon.” She said, ‘Yes, it’s today.’ That’s the kind of man he is, that’s the kind of loyalty he has. He had to fly that Thursday night to Boston to sign a huge Reebok contract, but here he was to work the Lions basketball camp for his coach in the midst of all this stuff. That says something about him and maybe the relationship we have.”

Stardom at Lawrence High, KU and in the NBA never changed him, it only made him more giving, more appreciative of his roots, and more humble.

Manning’s former agent, the late Ron Grinker, said in January 1996 that he gave more to charity than he received in salary (after taxes) the previous year.

“Some people think that’s weird,” Grinker said.  “He’s very modest, maybe to a fault.”

Juneau elaborates more on Manning’s giving nature.

“The next year (after he signed the Reebok contract), he makes sure the Lions’ basketball teams has Reebok shoes,” Juneau said. “The first year he’s an NBA All-Star (with the Los Angeles Clippers in 1993), he flies me out, all expense paid. I’m hanging out with Magic Johnson and everybody else. (Manning’s) ‘entourage’ is the ball boy from the Clippers, two college roommates, the trainer of the Clippers. Those are the people he’s taking care of, that he wants to experience that. ... Those are the kind of things he does. He’s a very loyal person and obviously very thoughtful.

“He’s always asking about the other kids (from the 1984 Lions’ team), where they are, if I’ve seen them. I think there will always be a special place for (him) with all those kids he played with.”

***

Twenty-eight years after graduating from Lawrence High School, Manning wants to build that same kind of family community with the Tulsa program.

Manning, who basketball experts once predicted would revolutionize the forward position, now looks to revolutionize Tulsa hoops, where he’ll continue to fulfill his life’s work and help shape young men into leaders.

“I enjoy the game of college basketball. It's a lot of energy, a lot of excitement, a lot of fun,” he said. "I also enjoy the off-the-court side of it, spending time with the young men in terms of helping them grow up, sharing experiences. I think that's pretty much what life is all about. I've been very fortunate and blessed to have the experiences that I have. A lot of people helped me out along the way. I feel I need to share some of my experiences, the different things I've learned with the next generation. Hopefully they can do that and it just moves on down the road.”

Manning, who was on the road many times during his 15-year NBA career playing for seven different teams, said he hopes Tulsa is his last stop.

He dreams of making it a very memorable one and win national championships like former Tulsa coaches Richardson, Smith and Self did at Arkansas, Kentucky and Kansas, respectively.

“We look forward to hanging some banners of our own,” Manning said.

Former Jayhawk standout Sean Pearson learned many life lessons growing up

Sean Pearson was a high school star at Nazareth Academy in LaGrange, Ill. The  6-5 swingman was rated the No. 58 best prospect nationally by Bob Gibbons his senior year, while considered one of the top five players in the Chicagoland area. He averaged 24.1 points and 9.0 rebounds per game his senior season while shooting 57 percent from the field, leading Nazareth to a 28-1 record, including 27 straight wins. As a junior, Pearson was MVP of the Lemont (Ill.) Holiday Tournament after scoring 104 points in four games. Pearson, who appeared in the acclaimed movie documentary “Hoop Dreams,” chose KU over Michigan and Marquette.

Pearson took his lethal perimeter jump shot to KU and finished his career as the No. 7 all-time leader in three-point field goals with 117. He had his best year his junior season in 1994-95, averaging a career-high 9.6 points and 3.0 rebounds in 23.5 minutes per game, starting 28 of 31 contests. Pearson, who also made a career-best 41 threes that season, posted career averages of 6.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in 14.2 minutes per game, while shooting 41.6 percent from the field, 31.5 percent from beyond the arc, and 57.6 percent at the charity stripe.

In the 1995-96 Media Guide, it was reported that Pearson was “an underrated small forward who at times can shoot from the perimeter as well as anyone in the Big Eight Conference...Has made great strides in his overall game since his sophomore season, especially on the defensive end...Arguably KU’s most solid performer last January...” Pearson scored a career-high 26 points against Colorado on Jan. 21, 1995, connecting on 6 of 8 three-point field goal attempts.

From the 1995-96  Media Guide:

Favorite Food: Chicken

Least Favorite Food: Fish

Favorite Movie: Crimson Tide

Person I admire the Most: My father

Person in history I would like to converse with: Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X

Favorite Sports Hero: George Gervin

Team I would like to see added to the schedule: Illinois

Best athlete I have played against:  Eddie Jones

Ten years from now, I hope to be: Playing basketball

If I were president of the NCAA for a day, I would: Pay the student athletes

When I have time to relax, I: Listen to music

The toughest thing about being an athlete is: The practices

If I have one million dollars, I would: Invest it

My advice to kids is: Study hard

To get psyched up for a game, I: Listen to music

My biggest thrill in sports was: Going to the Final Four

Not many people know this about me, but: I’m shy

I can’t imagine going a week without: Chocolate 

Last summer I: Played in the Kansas City Bell League

I chose my jersey number because: I like it

Here is my Where Are They Now? interview with Pearson in 2000. I met with him at the Boys & Girls Club in Lawrence, where he was working at the time as program director and providing a true role model and great example for youth.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for kids,” Pearson said of the Boys & Girls Club.

We had a wonderful talk. I could tell Sean had a great perspective on life and realized there were far more important things than basketball like studying and getting a great education.

“I tell my nephew, ‘You go into the gym and you play basketball for two hours, you got to study for two hours.’ They go hand in hand. A lot of players are starting to realize that just because you can dunk the basketball doesn’t mean a college is going to take you. You got to be able to go to school and make the grades. You got to be able to do both.”

By David Garfield

Sean Pearson calls the experience a defining moment in his life.

Pearson, the former KU basketball player, was just 13 years old and attending the prestigious Five-Star basketball camp. He and approximately 1,700 other campers sat mesmerized while listening to a speech by Rick Pitino (Providence head coach and current coach of the Boston Celtics).

“He had us all stand up, and then made everyone sit down except for one kid,” Pearson said.  “He told us out of all of us here, only one person is going to make it to the NBA. ... At that moment, I realized that basketball wasn’t meant for everyone to play professionally. Everyone can play the game, but only a select few can play professionally.”

While Pearson continued attending camps as a youngster, he “just didn’t go to try and play basketball and show the talents I could do. I tried to learn some things.”

Now, at 28, Pearson is putting his basketball dreams aside and using the gifts and lessons he learned from people like Pitino and KU coach Roy Williams and passing them down to impressionable youngsters at the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence. Pearson has been the club’s program director for the past six months. 

“Kids tell me, ‘I’m going to be an NBA or NFL superstar,’” Pearson said. “It’s not that easy. You got to be willing to put forth the effort. And putting forth the effort still doesn’t mean you’re going to get there. There might be somebody better than you at the time, or something else could happen. ... It’s a great goal to have, but you have to be ready to set other goals in between because that goal may not happen.” 

Pearson, who previously worked for the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department, was naturally drawn to the Boys & Girls Club. He said he feels a personal mission to make life better for young people.

“I try to set up after-school programs and give them some rules and boundaries of what they can and cannot do, and kind of just head them in the right direction as they get older,” he said. 

The team comedian during his Jayhawk career, Pearson revels in working with children and helping shape the next generation.

“Probably most of my staff tell me I’m the biggest kid that we have here,” Pearson said, smiling.  “As long as it makes the kids happy and makes them comfortable about being around me, it’s worth it. I love kids. I think they’re the greatest thing in the world. No matter what kind of day I’m having, if you put me around kids, it just makes it a better day. They’re the future of everything that’s going to happen in this world, and we just have to try and teach them the best way to do things and have fun doing it.”

Pearson certainly had a fun time during his KU career. A high school standout from LaGrange, Ill, he said Kansas was a perfect match for him. Pearson talked about the speculation that he wouldn’t have come to Kansas if Williams had signed Jimmy King, a McDonald’s All-American who chose Michigan and became a part of the famed Fab Five. King and Pearson were both recruited by KU and Michigan.

“It really didn’t matter if Jimmy went to Michigan or he went to Kansas, and I went to the same place,” Pearson said, noting the two played different positions (King was a big guard, while Pearson played primarily small forward). “It seemed like everything was meant for me to come here to KU. I just wanted to be someplace where I felt comfortable with the people. I think if coach Williams could have got both of us, he would have loved it. It just didn’t work out that way.”

A prolific three-point shooter, Pearson wound up his KU career playing in a Final Four, two Sweet 16’s, and an appearance in the Elite Eight. He said going to the Final Four in New Orleans as a freshman in 1993 was his crowning moment as a Jayhawk.

 

“March Madness is something you really can’t describe,” Pearson said.

And then there was his memorable senior year in 1996, where KU advanced to the Elite Eight.  Despite being replaced in the starting lineup that season by frosh sensation Paul Pierce, Pearson enjoyed every minute of his senior campaign.

“It was the (team) closeness we had,” Pearson said. “Everybody thought that could be a problem (losing his starting position), but it wasn’t. Regardless of how much time I was playing, I was still a leader on that team because I was a senior and I had been through things that those players hadn’t been through yet.”

After finishing his KU career, Pearson went back to his old high school in Illinois (Nazareth Academy) and became an assistant coach. He then hooked up with former KU teammate Calvin Rayford and played with the IBA’s North Dakota franchise. Pearson returned to Lawrence in 1998 and worked for the city’s Parks and Recreation department before embarking on another venture with professional basketball last summer with the USBL’s Kansas Cagerz.

Pearson, whose ultimate dream is to be a college basketball coach, is now focusing all his energies on the Boys & Girls Club.

“I feel the Lord had something else for me to do than be an NBA basketball player, and I’m here to do that.”

A Closer Look at Sean Pearson:

Years at KU: 1991-1996 (Pearson sat out the 1991-92 season as a non-qualifier, but eventually had his year reinstated by the NCAA)

Career Notables:  Member of 1993 Final Four squad...1994-95 Big Eight All-Improved team..1993-94 Big Eight All-Bench Team...Tied for No. 7 all time with Mike Maddox in NCAA Tournament games played (14)...No. 9 in career three-point field goals (117).

Family: Pearson is engaged to Martha Caldwell and will be married in November.

Education: B.G.S. Psychology, 1997

Since Leaving KU: Pearson served as an assistant varsity basketball coach at his former high school in LaGrange, Ill. (Nazareth Academy) before playing for the IBA’s North Dakota minor league club. He returned to Lawrence in 1998 and worked for the Parks and Recreation department, until playing professionally again last summer with the USBL’s Kansas Cagerz in Salina.

Currently: Pearson is the program director for the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence.

Hobbies: Watching television and talking and giving encouragement to his nephew David. 

Favorite KU Memories: Going to the Final Four his freshman season in 1993...Touring Paris during an exhibition game series his senior year... Final home game. “I miss the fans more than anything.”

On the Jayhawks Today: “They can’t look at what everyone else expects out of them. They’re going to have to go for what they expect out of themselves and what coach Williams expects. Believe in the things he wants them to do, because they’re going to work. We used to say you got to pull the nails out of the floor for coach if you want to win a game, and I think they have to take that into mind.”

B.H. Born was a true Jayhawk legend

B.H. Born was a true Jayhawk legend who had the most dramatic improvement of any player in KU history between his sophomore and junior seasons. After playing rarely behind Clyde Lovellette  during KU’s 1952 national championship season and averaging just 1.6 points per game, Born elevated his game and averaged a team-high 18.9 points per game his junior season, leading KU to the national title game, where the Jayhawks lost to Indiana, 69-68. Born, who recorded KU’s first unofficial triple double with 26 points, 15 rebounds and 13 blocks, was the first player from the losing team to be named MVP of the Final Four.

A prolific scorer, the 6-9 Born set a Big Seven single-game scoring record with 44 points against Colorado on March 2, 1953.

Born, who averaged 19.0 points his senior year, was the consummate winner whose teams won three conference championships and went 63-14 during his KU career. He continued to excel after leaving KU, winning a gold medal for USA at the 1954 World Championships. He also played five seasons for the AAU Peoria Caterpillars, winning three championships and was a three-time AAU All-American.

Born died at age 80 on Feb. 3, 2013. But his legacy at KU will last forever.

“He’s one of the very few people that have been the most outstanding player of the Final Four on the team that did not win a national championship,” KU coach Bill Self said at the time. “He was certainly a gentleman and a great ambassador for KU through the years. Our sympathies certainly go out to his family as they go through this difficult time. I’m sure our KU family is saddened today but also very proud of the legacy that he left as a faithful Jayhawk.”

Self, former KU player and assistant coach Jerry Waugh and former executive editor of the Lawrence Journal-World Bill Mayer were among many of Born’s admirers.

“He was outstanding on that ’53 team. He carried them,” Waugh told kusports.com after Born’s death. “He was really good at blocking shots when people drove toward him. He was a small-town guy who was a very good person.”

“He was an incredible guy who came here at 6-9, 190, and worked his butt off to become great. I never covered a KU athlete I admired more than I did B.H.,” Mayer added. “He became great as a KU junior and senior and had a tremendous record with the Peoria Caterpiller-Diesels. Home town was Medicine Lodge, Kan. He became one of the finest representatives KU has ever had. I’m so glad his jersey hangs in the fieldhouse.”

Indeed, it does. Born’s No. 23 jersey went up in the hallowed Allen Fieldhouse rafters on Feb. 15, 1992.

Born is enshrined in the KU Athletics Hall of Fame, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, the Kansas State High School Activities Association Hall of Fame, and the Greater Peoria Illinois Sports Hall of Fame.

Born also gets all the credit for first telling KU coach Phog Allen and assistant Dick Harp about Wilt Chamberlain after the two played against each other in the Catskills in New York in the summer of 1954. Born also talked to Chamberlain about coming to KU.

“He just chewed me up the first time we played,” Born told me during a 2001 Where Are They Now? interview for Jayhawk Insider. “I think he had 20 points and I had about 10. He was playing for Red Auerbach. He sicced him on me. He said, ‘Born made All-American. Now, Wilt, you probably won’t be able to handle him, but just do your best.’ Lord, he got out there and was flying up and down. He could run like a deer.”

Before arriving at KU, Born was heavily recruited out of Medicine Lodge High School, where he was an all-state player and one of 24 prep players selected to play in the U.S. North-South game. His 111 points in the 1950 Kansas High School State Tourney is still the all-time state tournament record.

I had a truly wonderful interview with B.H in 2001. After all, it’s not often you interview one of KU’s all-time greats. He was very kind and humble. B.H. was a subscriber to Jayhawk Insider so he was very familiar with our publication. He asked me to read him the story before we published it, and I happily obliged. I think B.H. was pleased how the article came out.

B.H., you were an All-American, the MVP of the 1953 Final Four, and one of the best Jayhawks ever. Thanks for all you did for KU basketball and the University of Kansas.

Here is that Where Are They Now? feature I wrote on him.

By David Garfield

B.H. Born arrived at Kansas University in 1950 as a decorated high school All-American from Medicine Lodge, Kan. Wooed by KU coach Phog Allen, Born spent his first two years battling each day in practice against superstar center Clyde Lovellette.

When he became eligible his sophomore year, Born immediately found himself riding the bench.

“Clyde and I had a good year. We had 30 points all together between us (Lovellette averaged 28.6 points, while Born scored 1.6 ppg),” Born quipped. “He was leading the country in scoring. Sometimes he didn’t have his average and they’d call me back from the scorer's bench...I only spelled Clyde when he got extremely tired.”

Born spent his time on the pine “having fun sitting there with Dean Smith and some of the rest of them trying to diagnose what was going on on the floor.” For KU, Lovellette wound up leading the Jayhawks to a 28-3 record and national title that year. After KU beat St. John’s in the final game on March 26, 1952, the Jayhawks came back six days later and competed against Peoria in the U.S. Olympic Playoffs championship in New York City. 

“My goal in high school was to play in Madison Square Garden,” Born said recently from his home in Peoria, Ill. “We came in there right after the circus was there for a week. And my golly, what a mess they left. It smelled like you were in a horrible barn yard. That kind of caused me to set some different goals. I thought I better see if I can set some better goals than just to play in Madison Square Garden.”

And one of those goals was winning another national championship.

With Lovellette graduating, Born received some much needed playing time his junior year and led KU to what publicist Don Pierce called the “most astounding basketball season in Mt. Oread annals.” The improbable Jayhawks won the conference championship and returned to the title game, where they were edged by Indiana (69-68).  Born, who raised his scoring average from 1.6 to 18.9 ppg in 1952-53, scored 26 points and was named MVP of the Final Four.

“We almost won it,” Born said. “We came within a hair. The ball skipped over the top (Jerry Alberts’ desperation shot from the corner), or we would have had two in a row.”

An athletic and agile 6-9 center, Born matured as a player and became an All-American his junior season. He even matched Lovellette’s school record with 44 points in a 78-55 win over Colorado. This offensive outburst set a conference single-game scoring record.

“It didn’t make too much difference in how many points I made, just as long as we won,” Born said. “I was always a team player. I just assumed see someone else score.”

Born will never forget that magical ‘53 season (19-6) and playing with teammates like Gil Reich, Harold Patterson, and Allen and Dean Kelley.

“We had great people,” Born said. “We weren’t very big...A lot of them had good hearts. They worked hard. Sometimes, people with lesser abilities win the major games and go on and be successful. I was happy to be associated with such good people and good coaches.”

Born led KU again his senior campaign at 19.0 ppg, as the Jayhawks (16-5) tied Colorado for conference co-champions. After being drafted in the third round by the NBA’s Fort Wayne Pistons, Born decided to get some summer seasoning and play in the Borscht League up east in the Catskills. He ran into a high school kid there named Wilt Chamberlain.

“He just chewed me up the first time we played,” Born said. “I think he had 20 points and I had about 10. He was playing for Red Auerbach. He sicced him on me.  He said, ‘Born make All-American. Now, Wilt, you probably won’t be able to handle him, but just do your best.’ Lord, he got out there and was flying up and down. He could run like a deer.”

Born, who was the first person to talk to Chamberlain about coming to KU, had a change of heart about professional basketball and opted to accept a more secure deal with the AAU Peoria Caterpillars. He played five seasons and won three championships and was a three-time AAU All-American. In 1958, Peoria became the first athletic team “of any kind” to play in Russia.

“That was kind of thrilling,” Born said. “They lowered the Iron Curtain. We ran into people who had never seen Americans.”

Born spent 43 years after college enjoying a challenging and successful career working for Caterpillar industrial company. He was employed in the personnel department, where he hired between four and five thousand people.

 

“You hire the best people you can for every job that’s open,” Born said. “It was a good reputable company that treated you right.”

Now, Born is enjoying the fruits of retirement after leaving Caterpillar four years ago. He keeps active traveling with his wife and assisting needy organizations and charities, including Alzheimers and Multiple Sclerosis.  Most recently, Born helped host teams in the Illinois state basketball tournament.

As for his own college basketball career, the Medicine Lodge native remains proud of coming to KU and surviving the daily practice battles with Lovellette and biding his time as backup center. He also credits assistant coach Dick Harp, in large part, for taking him under his wing and molding him into an All-American.

“He was a class person,” said Born, who is enshrined in the Kansas Sports and KU Athletics Hall of Fame. “I enjoyed my time at KU. I met a lot of good people. Almost every day, I run into people from Kansas.”

A Closer Look at B.H. Born:

Years at KU: 1950-54

Career Notables: MVP of 1953 Final Four (first player from losing team to achieve that honor)...All-American in ‘53...All-Big Seven in ‘53 and ‘54...Member of 1952 NCAA championship team....Set Big 7 single-game scoring record with 44 points against Colorado on March 2, 1953.

Family: Wife, Joan, and sons — John, 35 and David, 34.

Education: Majored in Education.

Since Leaving KU: Born, who played five seasons with AAU Peoria Caterpillars, worked 43 years in personnel for Caterpillar industrial company.

Currently: Born is retired and lives in Peoria, Ill.

Hobbies: Swimming, walking, gardening.

Favorite Memories: Priceless relationships with teammates like Gil Reich and Bill Lienhard...Winning seasons at Kansas.  “All three years, we either won or tied for the (conference) championship.”

On the Jayhawks Today: “Roy’s the best coach in the country...He’s got quite an alumni behind him at Kansas. Everybody thinks he’s the greatest ever.”

Joel Embiid made his mark at KU before becoming an NBA superstar

Joel Embiid has become all the rage in the NBA, a superstar on the court and a superstar on social media. He can do it all as a 7-foot center--shoot from three-point range, dazzle you inside with an array of  post moves, dribble to the hoop from the perimeter, pass, block shots and rebound with the best.

Some basketball observers believes this phenom has a chance to be one of the best ever. Just listen to TV analyst Mark Jackson during the May 2 game against Philly and Toronto, when Embiid had a monster game with 30 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks in just 28 minutes, leading the Sixers to a 116-95 victory in Game 3 of the playoffs.

“It would be a crime if he left the game and wasn’t in the discussion as one of the best big men of all time,” Jackson said. 

While fellow analyst Jeff Van Gundy told Jackson to “pump your brakes” with that comment, there is no denying Embiid’s incredible talent and potential to become one of the best players ever.

He finished this season as the only player in NBA history to score more than 27 points, grab more than 13 boards, dish out three-plus assists, block more than a shot a game and make at least a three-pointer per contest.

Embiid, who made his second-straight All-Star game, averaged career highs 27.5 points and 13.6 rebounds, while adding 1.9 blocks in 33.7 minutes per game. In addition, he shot an impressive 80.4 percent from the free throw line.

He's posted career averages of 24.3 points, 11.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.0 blocks in 30.7 minutes per game, while shooting 48.1 percent from the field and 78.8 percent at the free throw line. Embiid has started all of his 158 games.

The only question surrounding the former KU star is his durability. Forced to miss his first two seasons in the NBA with foot injuries after being the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 draft, Embiid played in just 64 games this season (career best), while playing in 63 games in 2017-18 and just 31 games his rookie year in 2016-17.

Barring injury, I believe he will be a future Hall of Famer and one of the best centers of all time. The big man just has mad skills you can’t teach. And he’s a joy to watch play with his myriad of talents and flamboyant style.

Embiid showed some signs of greatness during his one year at Kansas in 2013-14, at first coming off the bench for Tarik Black before earning a starting spot. You could see he was still raw, but had great feet, post moves and the “Dream Shake” patented by his idol Hakeem Olajuwon. Embiid, who missed the Big 12 Tournament and NCAA Tournament with back problems, averaged 11.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game.

But he’s completely transformed and elevated his game now in the NBA and should be a perennial All-Star.

Here is a story I wrote on Embiid for Kansas City Sports & Fitness during his freshman season at KU. This article was published in the February 2014 issue.

By David Garfield

Joel Embiid seemed destined for greatness despite playing organized basketball for just two years and before even competing in his first college hoops game.

Hall of Famer and Louisville head coach Rick Pitino said last July that the 7-foot KU freshman center could be the second overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft behind fellow freshman teammate Andrew Wiggins. And listen to what KU coach Bill Self had to say about his rising star at media day in late September.

“When you guys watch Joel play, you will say he’s got unbelievable feet,” Self said. “He’s like a 6-footer with the things he can do with his feet. He reminds me a little bit of (Hakeem, NBA Hall of Famer) Olajuwon early in his career. I’m not saying he’s Olajuwon, I’m not saying that at all, but some similarities when he was real raw when he was young. He was light on his feet, and I think Joel is the same way. 

“He’s got a long way to go from a strength standpoint and a toughness standpoint to be able to play a ton of minutes his rookie season. (But) he can do some things and move in a way that very few big guys we’ve had have been able to move.”

Embiid was unfazed about all the hype. Asked about Pitino’s statement that September day, the Cameroon native took it in stride.

“(That’s) good, but I’m not really thinking about the NBA,” Embiid said. “We just want to get better and try to win something this year.”

All Embiid’s done this season is made remarkable strides and become one of the biggest stories in college basketball and the “IT” topic among NBA general managers. At press time in late January, Embiid was averaging 11.2 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.8 blocks (tied for No. 1 in Big 12) in just 22.5 minutes per game, while shooting a scorching 66.7 percent from the field. At that shooting pace, he will finish the year with the top field goal percentage on the KU single-season list.

Embiid, who with 53 blocks will also shatter the school’s freshman record for most rejections in a season (62 by Eric Chenowith), set the Kansas freshman record, tied the Big 12 freshman record for all contests and broke the mark for a conference game with eight blocks against Oklahoma State on Jan. 18. Embiid, who added 13 points and 11 rebounds versus OSU, became the first freshman in Big 12 history to have a double-double and eight blocked shots in a game.

 

He was named CBSSports.com National Player of the Week for his play against the Cowboys and Iowa State with averaging a double-double (14.5 ppg, 10 rpg) and posting 13 blocks.

His stats, though, don’t tell the whole story about Embiid’s game. With a dazzling array of fluid and graceful post moves, including Olajuown’s patented “Dream Shake,” combined with a tremendous basketball IQ, his 7-5 wingspan, and imposing presence at the rim, Embiid has now been mentioned as the likely No. 1 pick in the June draft, if he decides to turn pro.

“Guys like that don’t come around very often” TV analyst and former NBA coach Stan Van Gundy said.

“He’s the real thing,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas added.

“I think Embiid’s the best player in the country,” Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg simply gushed.

Some observers may have been astounded at how much growth Embiid shows each game, but Self isn’t one of them. Self actually told Embiid when he first arrived on campus that he would eventually be the No. 1 draft pick.

“It's surprising that he can be as good as he is this soon if you don't know him. But if you watch him every day, nothing surprises you. The kid can do anything. He's smart and he's a sponge,” Self said.

       

 ”... When you think about (him being) gifted with hands and feet and intellect and things like that, I don't think anything really surprises you,” Self added. “But it does amaze you watching him make some plays. You can see a guy make a play, and you know he's capable of making it, but then you say 'Did he just do that?' He's one of those guys that once a day he'll do something like that. I think he dunked one yesterday and never jumped. I mean, that was amazing to me. He and Andrew can make some plays that you just can't coach, unorthodox things.” 

Embiid was asked if he expected to be this good so soon.

"I didn't expect anything, but I knew coming in to Kansas that I needed to work hard and listen to what coach Self says every day,” he said. “I knew all I had to do is work hard and keep improving."

He’s improved with a tireless work ethic and by watching tape of KU’s all-time leading shot blocker Jeff Withey, his idol Olajuwon, and San Antonio Spurs star Tim Duncan. He studies their moves and tries to incorporate them into his game.

While he hears the hosannas and rave reviews, Embiid knows he’s still a work in process and must get stronger. He’s committed to playing consistently each night.

“I always have the same mindset before every game,” Embiid said. “Just do my job, rebound the ball, block shots, get position in the lane and try to score.”

Embiid’s ceiling is so high that Self said he is a future NBA All-Star, while some wonder if he could become the next Olajuwon. Regardless, Embiid’s teammates absolutely love his game.

“I feel he gets better every day, every practice, and he’s just taking steps forward every chance he gets,” freshman guard Wayne Selden said.

“He affects the game in so many different ways, it's unbelievable,” Wiggins added.

And then there are the opposing coaches like Hoiberg who can’t stop talking about him. Iona coach Tom Cluess was amazed after Embiid scored 16 points (7-7 FG) and grabbed 13 rebounds against the Gaels on Nov. 19 with his dad in Allen Fieldhouse watching Joel play basketball for the first time.

"He was a monster in there,” Cluess said. “He was really, really impressive.”

Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk also raved over Embiid after he posted 14 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks against the Rockets on Dec. 30.

“One word: special,” Kowalczyk said. “I just like his humility. I like his passion for the game. I watch him warm up, you can tell he’s coachable. I think he’s special. To be honest, he’s bigger, longer and better than I anticipated coming in.”

Embiid, who played soccer and volleyball growing up, seemed destined for a pro volleyball career until he was discovered at age 16 by fellow Cameroon native and current Minnesota Timberwolves player Luc Richard Mbah a Moute at his camp in July 2011. He then left his country and attended Montverde (Fla.) Academy, Mbah a Moute’s former school, for his junior year of high school. 

Embiid, whose stock soared the following summer, transferred to The Rock School in Gainesville, Fla., for his senior year with hopes of more playing time. He averaged 13.0 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game and skyrocketed to the number one center in his class by ESPNU and the the No. 6 player overall. Self got his dream big man as Embiid chose the Jayhawks over Florida, Texas, Marquette and Virginia.

While he continues to progress and NBA general managers salivate over drafting Embiid — maybe even No. 1 — and making him a cornerstone of their franchise, this personable and humble freshman phenom just wants to win a national championship and savor each day as a Jayhawk.

“Since I’ve been at Kansas, I have fun, I love everybody, what everybody is doing for me,” Embiid said. “I love it.”