It was 50 years ago that KU’s great 1965-66 team marched to to the Midwest Regional finals and nearly beat Texas Western (now UTEP), a team with five black starters which eventually won the national championship that year against all-white Kentucky. Texas Western’s championship revolutionized college basketball recruiting, especially in the South, as now blacks were given an equal opportunity at a scholarship and the American dream.
For Jayhawk Insider’s Feb. 22, 2001 March Madness preview, my editor asked me and another staff writer to pick the best KU basketball team in history. The other writer got first choice and selected the marvelous 34-2 1996-97 team, which was upset by Arizona (eventual national champion) in the Sweet 16.
A KU hoops historian, I weighed my decision on which KU team to pick as the all-time best. I considered the 1952 national champions, the 1971 Final Four team, the 1986 Final Four squad, and the 1966 team. I had gotten to know and interview some of the members of that ‘66 team through my Where are they Now? profiles in Jayhawk Insider, and had become fascinated with Ted Owens’ former squad. The more I thought about it, I decided they were the best team to ever play at Kansas, despite never advancing to the Final Four and winning a national championship.
Here is the story I write that February day in 2001 on the magical 1965-66 Jayhawks.
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It was perhaps the greatest decision of Ted Owens’ coaching career.
Owens knew the 1965-66 Kansas basketball team was quite good. At 15-3 and ranked No. 9 in the country at semester break, Owens felt his squad could possibly win the Big Eight Conference championship and make some noise in the NCAA Tournament. But with the addition of Jo Jo White (an early high school graduate in 1965 who became eligible at mid-semester in ‘66), Owens thought he had an exceptional team that could win the NCAA championship.
So he inserted the confident freshman from St. Louis, Mo., in the starting lineup against Oklahoma State at home on Feb. 12. White caught the opening tip and immediately made a 20-footer (KU coasted to a 59-38 win).
The making of greatness and the last piece of the puzzle to Forever’s Team had been planted.
White added a lethal dimension of speed, quickness, and offensive and defensive firepower to the lineup, which already included superstar center Walt Wesley, sharp shooting forward Ron Franz, athletic Al Lopes, and the crafty Del Lewis. KU not only won the next seven games, the ‘Hawks annihilated opponents with an astounding 26.4 scoring margin.
Included in this magical journey was a victory over top 10-ranked Nebraska in Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 26, which had given KU its last defeat (83-75) over a month earlier. White and his teammates shredded the Cornhuskers’ full-court press for a 110-73 blowout. Owens later called this one of the greatest games ever played in Allen Fieldhouse.
KU blew out teams, in large part, with the deadly inside-outside combination of Wesley and White (11.3 points per game). Wesley (20.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game), one of the top three centers in Jayhawk history, dominated the paint and was a first-team All-American. The dynamic duo guided Kansas to the Big Eight title (first time since 1960) and Midwest Regional finals in Lubbock, Texas, against Texas Western. With the score tied and seconds remaining in the game, KU called timeout. White, who had played just eight games in his college career, insisted on taking the last shot.
His long, rainbow jumper from the left sideline hit nothing but net.
However, KU’s celebration was short lived as the referee, Rudy Marich, waved off the shot and said White stepped on the end line. Kansas wound up losing the game in double overtime, 81-80.
If only fate had been on KU’s side (films later seemed to document that White had not stepped out of bounds), there might be little argument in local barber shops about which Jayhawk team reigns supreme. Texas Western advanced to the Final Four and beat Adolph Rupp’s Kentucky Wildcats (“Rupp’s Runts”) for the national championship, a team KU arguably would have manhandled, given its overwhelming size advantage and talent.
The 1965-66 squad was simply loaded with skilled players, as five members played professional basketball (only the 1996-97 team can claim this distinction). White — arguably the best guard to ever play in the Big Eight — was an NBA All-Star with the Boston Celtics. In addition, Franz (seven years), Riney Lochmann (three years) and Bobby Wilson all played in the ABA.
And then there was “Wonderful Walt” Wesley, who spent 11 years in the NBA and previously held the Cleveland Cavaliers single-game scoring record with 50 points. While the underrated Lewis (10.9 points per game) never played professionally, he made All-Big Eight that season. Lopes, too, did not play pro ball, but he ranked second on the team in scoring (12.4 points per game).
Along with the overwhelming talent, what made this squad even more special and unique was its cohesiveness and unselfishness. The team chemistry was superb with four players averaging in double figures, and the fifth (Franz) averaging 9.6 points. When Owens was wrestling with the decision to activate White at mid-semester, senior co-captain Lochmann made a remarkable sacrifice and actually volunteered to give up his starting position and come off the bench.
And who says nice guys finish last?
Yes, the history books show that White stepped out of bounds against Texas Western and KU (23-4) finished the season ranked No. 4 in the nation. But for many Crimson and Blue followers, the 1965-66 Jayhawks will always be No. 1.
For all time.
Concluding Thoughts:
While the 1965-66 KU team was my choice as the best Jayhawk squad of all time when I wrote this story in 2001, my pick now would obviously be the 2008 national championship team.
Kansas won a school-record 37 games that season to just three losses and had a whopping seven players make the NBA: Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson, Sherron Collins, Cole Aldrich and Sasha Kaun. Chalmers won two NBA championships with the Miami Heat while Kaun captured an NBA title with the Cleveland Cavaliers in June.
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