I had the good fortune to interview former KU assistant coach Sam Miranda in 2000 for a Where Are They Now? story for Jayhawk Insider. We had a wonderful conversation as Miranda mesmerized me with stories of recruiting the likes of Jo Jo White, Rick Suttle, Dave Robisch and Tom Kivisto.
A Collinsville, Ill., native and former standout guard at Indiana who was inducted as a player into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1973, Miranda was responsible for recruiting the Illinois pipeline. Seven of the eight top players on the 1974 Final Four team hailed from Illinois, my heroes like Suttle, Kivisto, Roger Morningstar, Dale Greenleee and Norm Cook.
Miranda, who served for 13 years as KU head coach Ted Owens’ loyal assistant and was part of two Final Fours and five Big Eight championships, was voted by a Jayhawk blue-ribbon panel in 2000 as the best assistant coach in KU history, an honor that deeply humbled him.
“There’s been a lot of fine, fine coaches, and whoever that panel was, I appreciate their thoughtfulness very much,” he said. “That’s a fine honor when you think of 103 years of Kansas basketball, and to be selected as the top person, that’s quite a good feeling.”
I was very saddened when he passed at age 78 in 2009 and thought of him constantly. However, I also felt some comfort knowing I got a chance to interview him and hear his favorite KU memories and how his life turned out during our talk in 2000. I still have very fond memories about our interview.
Sam was a very demanding and tough coach, but his players deeply loved and respected him. Miranda cherished the lifelong relationships he built with his players, including White.
After his jersey retirement ceremony at Allen Fieldhouse in 2003, where Miranda and Owens stood next to Jo Jo at midcourt as White’s No. 15 jersey was unfurled in the rafters, I asked Jo Jo how he felt about Sam and Ted.
“Ted is like a second father to me, he and coach Miranda,” White told me. “They were more than just coaches. They were friends to us, they were our confidant. Our relationship continues on, far beyond the KU days.”
White also mentioned Miranda at his Hall of Fame induction in Springfield, Mass., in 2015 as being a very influential figure for him at KU, along with Owens.
In this two-part series, I first recall my Where Are They Now? story on Miranda in 2000. Then, in Part II, I will include my heartfelt tribute story about him when he passed in 2009.
Sam, thanks for the memories and recruiting so many of my childhood heroes, players that brought me so much joy and wonder growing up in Lawrence and attending KU games with my dad with our season tickets since 1973 before I began covering KU hoops in 1998 for 20 years.
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When Sam Miranda became the assistant basketball coach at Kansas in 1964, he soon made a call to a high school coach in St. Louis, Mo.
“I asked him, ‘Who do you think is the best player in St. Louis?’ He said, ‘Sam, the best player in St. Louis by far is Jo Jo White. You don’t even have to see him. If you can can get him, take him.’”
Miranda immediately launched a recruiting blitz on this phenom guard from McKinley High School. He called White three or four times a week and visited his family at home in the summer.
“About the third or fourth time I was back to see Jo Jo, we’re at a restaurant talking and I’m going over why I thought he should come to Kansas and everything,” Miranda said. “Jodie Bailey (White’s high school coach) was sitting there and he said, ‘Jo Jo, that sounds good to me.’ And that was it. That kind of sealed it.”
White, of course, eventually signed with Kansas and became arguably the best guard in Big Eight history. For Miranda, he was just beginning. Throughout his 13-year tenure as Ted Owens’ top assistant and chief recruiter, Miranda was instrumental in signing countless high school standouts. Names like Rodger Bohnenstiehl, Dave Robisch, Tom Kivisto, Roger Morningstar and Rick Suttle still dance in his mind.
A native of Collinsville, Ill., Miranda had especially good success recruiting in the Illinois and St. Louis area (seven of the top eight players on the 1974 Final Four team hailed from Illinois).
“I enjoyed recruiting,” Miranda said recently from his home in Lawrence, Kan. “It’s a challenge. You go in a home the summer time prior to their senior year. You’re in there with all the big schools and you’re trying to be one of the five to come out and visit your school. When you walk out on a summer evening, you know if you’ve done a good or bad job. It’s an exhilarating feeling when you walk out and you’ve done a good job of recruiting and get the kid to commit and say, ‘Yes, I’ll come visit Kansas.’”
Regarded as one of the most honest, knowledgeable, and talented assistants in the collegiate ranks, Miranda was recently selected by a blue-ribbon Jayhawk panel as the top assistant coach in Kansas history.
“There’s been a lot of fine, fine coaches, and whoever that panel was, I appreciate their thoughtfulness very much,” he said. “That’s a fine honor when you think of 103 years of Kansas basketball, and to be selected as the top person, that’s quite a good feeling.”
Miranda has many warm feelings about his KU days, including the great 1966 team. He can’t possibly forget the NCAA tournament regional finals that year against Texas Western, when the officials ruled that White had stepped out of bounds just before a game-winning shot in OT.
“I don’t know if KU’s ever had a better team,” Miranda said. “We had four or five guys who played NBA and ABA (White, Walt Wesley. Riney Lochmann, Ron Franz and Bobby Wilson). The ones who didn’t — Bohnenstiehl, Delvy Lewis and Al Lopes — were all outstanding college players. I honestly believe we would have won the national championship.”
After the 1976-77 season and 23 years in the coaching profession (eight in high school and 15 at the college level), Miranda left KU and went to work for Maupintour Travel. He was an outside sales manager for 17 years before retiring in 1994.
Miranda admits now that he might have erred in not going after a couple head-coaching positions during his tenure at KU.
“You got to do what you think is right at the time,” he said. “I just thought at the time I would stay at KU. It was probably a mistake.”
However, Miranda loved his job at Maupintour and is at peace with himself living in Lawrence with his wife, Polly.
“It’s been a very satisfying life,” he said.
It’s a life made richer with the lasting relationships built with so many former players that he recruited to Mount Oread. Miranda’s voice becomes more lively now as he reflects back to the late 1960s and his recruitment of Robisch, a standout center from Springfield, Ill. who had just broken all of the scoring records in the Illinois state tournament.
“Everybody in the country wanted him,” Miranda said. “We (Miranda and Owens) go back to see him just to make sure we’re in the picture, still fighting for him. So we sit down and visit quite a while. His dad, who was a Lutheran minister, said, ‘Coach, I’m going to excuse ourselves. Dave and I are going to go out on the back porch and talk a little bit. We’ll be right back.’ They came back in 10 minutes or so and his dad says, ‘Well, Dave and I have talked, and we’ve decided he’s going to come to Kansas.’” You could have knocked us over with a feather because we’re back there just to stay in the picture, and he commits that night!”
And Miranda’s reaction that moment?
“We felt pretty darn good about it, naturally,” Miranda said, laughing. “We kept our composure and congratulated him.”
A Closer Look at Sam Miranda:
Years at KU: 1964-1977
Career Notables: Member of two Final Fours and five conference championships...instrumental in recruiting the Illinois and St. Louis area pipeline...selected best assistant coach in KU history by blue-ribbon Jayhawk panel.
Family: Miranda and his wife, Polly, have four daughters (Joanna, Sueanna, Sarah, and Laurie) and seven grandchildren.
Education: 1952, B.S. Physical Education, Indiana University (Miranda earned second-team All-Big 10 basketball honors as a junior and was a member of the College All-Star team his senior year in its annual tour against the Harlem Globetrotters). 1956, M.S. Education, Southern Illinois.
Since Leaving KU: Miranda worked for Maupintour Travel for 17 years as an outside sales manager before retiring in 1994.
Currently: Miranda is retired and lives in Lawrence.
Hobbies: tennis, yard work, and spending time with grandchildren.
Favorite KU Memories: 1966 squad and 1971 and ‘74 Final Four teams...Whipping No. 4 Long Beach State at halftime, 32-8, on Dec. 1, 1970 (KU won 69-52). “They couldn’t even get a shot off...The crowd was screaming and yelling. We just played tremendous.”
On the Jayhawks Today: “I think they’re outstanding. Roy Williams does a fabulous job. He’s probably the best coach Kansas has ever had — on and off the floor.”
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