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.”