Ron Loneski was one of the toughest competitors in KU history

In this two-part feature on former KU great Ron Loneski, I share some of the information he gave  me during our very revealing, wonderful, memorable, and in-depth Where Are They Now? interview for Jayhawk Insider in 2002, some of which I have never published until now.

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Ron Loneski is one of the most underrated players and fiercest competitors in KU history. He played a complementary role to Wilt Chamberlain his first two seasons before averaging a career-high 19.0 points and 10.3 rebounds per game his senior year. Just 6-4 1/2, Loneski played forward, was very strong, and could rebound with the best. His career 8.9 rebound average ranks No. 7 all time at KU, while named All-Big Eight in 1958.

He also averaged 14.4 points in 63 career games.

“I had a passion for the game, I had a passion to play,” Loneski said. “I wasn’t the biggest guy but I could rebound with guys who were 6-11 or 6-10. There were maybe guys better than me, but nobody would beat me down the floor, nobody could play defense better than me. I could do it just out of sheer will and the desire to do it. That’s sort of the way I played.”

His best basketball was actually after he left KU. A 10th round NBA Draft pick by the St. Louis Hawks, Loneski decided instead to join the Army. He played four years in the service (1962-66) when he was deployed in Germany, including two years for the Belgium National Team, where Loneski competed against future Hall of Famer Bill Bradley.

“I think at that time, that was the highlight of my life,” Loneski told me in 2002. “I really developed into a heck of a player playing at that level and competition.”

He shut down Bradley, a master of moving without the ball, with his defensive prowess.

“Bradley got 26 points in the first half,” Loneski recalled. “He didn’t get a point in the second half with me on him. I can play anybody.

“(I was) known (in Belgium) as a very aggressive and tough player who didn’t want to lose,” Loneski added. “I enjoyed winning. That’s the bottom line for me is to win. I think that losing is despicable. I hate to lose. I’m not a poor loser, but I’m not a very good loser. I always hated to lose in everything I did. I think that helped me as a player because I was very, very aggressive.”

Loneski’s biggest loss of his career happened in the 1957 national game, when North Carolina beat KU in triple overtime. His lob pass to Chamberlain in the final seconds was intercepted, sealing KU’s doom.

“That (loss) is devastating to this day,” Loneski said. “There’s not a day that doesn’t go by that I watch a basketball game and that thought doesn’t come in. Whatever I see happen in a game, I always will go back to that. All the little things that happened where we could have won, where things could have been different. Somebody should have done this, or we should have done that. But we didn’t do that. It’s over. It happened. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Loneski, who had two tours in Vietnam and served 21 years in the military, has learned, though, to put the game into perspective. He experienced great personal tragedy in his life. Loneski lost many friends in Vietnam, and then his son, sister, and dad passed away within a seven-month span in 1980.

“At the time when you look at it (‘57 game), you say to yourself, ‘You know, I don’t know if I’m ever going to get over this,’” Loneski said. “When I reflect on some of the things that have happened in my life and some of the things I saw in Vietnam and some of the personal tragedies I’ve had, like losing a son when he was 16, it’s a game. The NCAA finals in 1957 was a game. In the grand scheme of things, the game is meaningless. It’s how you handle what happens, whether you are a winner or a loser, that matters. You look at everything that happens in your life, and you sort of learn from what happens and you measure what type of man you are and you move on.”

Ten years after that heartbreaking loss to UNC, Loneski was in Vietnam in 1967 when he recalled somberly of watching a “young kid get shot in the eye, blew the whole back of his head off.”

Thirteen years later, his son died.

“How you deal with losing a son when he was 16, which is the worse thing that’s ever happened to me in my life. Nothing ever could measure up to that.”

With great resilience, Loneski moved on with his life and taught high school and middle school English for 20 years in San Diego, Calif., while also serving as head basketball coach for 10 years at Lincoln High School.

“You look at everything that happens in your life,  and you sort of learn from what happens and you measure what type of man you are and you move on," he said. "It’s just a lesson maybe you learn when you get older and you see so many things happen.” 

He loved teaching and coaching kids and shaping their lives. Loneski, who was named San Diego Coach of the Year in 1991 and compiled an impressive 200-76 record, actually cut future Super Bowl MVP Terrell Davis.

This former KU standout had a special affinity for teaching middle-school students.

”Those people hold a special place in my life because they’re so dedicated.” Loneski said. "Dealing with 7th and 8th graders is not the easiest thing in the world to do. I have a good rapport with my kids. I tell my students, come to class prepared to learn and come to class with a good sense of humor and we’ll make the year short and everyone will  learn something. I have fun with my kids.”

Indeed, he did.

Loneski had a very distinguished military career, where he made lifelong friendships. He retired as Lieutenant Colonel. With two tours in Vietnam, he received a Purple Heart, two Bronze Stars and Commendations for Meritorious Service.

After retiring from teaching, he married his wife Jackie and moved to Lawrence, where he died in 2007, the last survivor of the seven Jayhawks who played in the 1957 national title game against UNC.

In his heartfelt obituary, it read that Loneski “continued to hear from many of his former students recognizing his contribution toward starting them on the right path to a better future.”

Thanks Ron for making this world a better place.

Al Donaghue was a star high school player and key member of Jayhawks' teams

Al Donaghue was a superstar player at powerhouse Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, leading his team to two state championships while a two-time Kansas player of the year. Heavily recruited, Donaghue narrowed his choices to K-State and KU. While he admits to being a big KSU fan growing up, this all changed when KU’s Phog Allen and Dick Harp made an in-home recruiting visit. Allen, who had just retired (Harp was now head coach), made a huge impression on Al’s parents. 

After Allen’s amazing recruiting pitch, Al’s mother asked her son: “‘You are going to Kansas, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I think so.’ That’s where she wanted me to go, and that’s what I wanted to do after meeting Phog Allen and Dick Harp.”

Al,  nicknamed “Sam” by Harp, never looked back. He played a key role on Jayhawk teams loaded with talent, including Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Bridges and Wayne Hightower. He improved his scoring average from 5.0 points per game his sophomore year to 10.6 ppg as a junior before a career-high 10.9 points per game his senior season. Al, who was part of KU’s co-Big Eight championship team in 1959-60, finished his standout career with averages of 8.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. He scored 566 points in 65 games.

A very versatile player, Donaghue could score, rebound, defend and pass, the consummate team player ever squad needs.

The 6-5 forward loved playing for Harp and credits him for his great improvement.

“Dick was a fine man,” Al told me in the early 2000s during a Where Are They Now? interview for Jayhawk Insider. “He probably was a better human being than he was a coach. When you say that, that’s not to diminish his coaching ability. He was an excellent coach, but was just a very saltable, God fearing, very moral gentleman. Great guy to play for. I enjoyed playing for him. He probably did a lot for me in terms of helping me grow and develop, and was instrumental in my development.”

Al was a loyal Jayhawk throughout his life, attending all KU basketball games after moving back to Kansas City in 1980 and served with coach Roy Williams on the Jayhawks’ mentoring program.

His death in 2007 shook his family and Jayhawk Nation hard. The Lawrence Journal-World’s Bill Mayer paid tribute to Al in his July 20, 2007 column.

“The recent death of Al Donaghue, a Kansas University basketball player of note in 1958-60, left a sense of loss and grief in many a life, particularly those in his family,” Mayer wrote. “He had a tough battle with lymphoma, and I can only hope he's comfortable and enjoying himself again. Al, nicknamed ‘Sam’ while playing under Dick Harp, brought a lot to the table in many venues. One of his best contributions was the loyalty and love he displayed as a KU product, especially as a basketball alum. I'm sad that his passing will take away a little more of the warmth that the KU sports program seems to be losing in today's dash for dollars.

“Al and his wife, the former Mary Susan Eggleston, were constant attendees at Jayhawk basketball games, and they and a number of friends helped create one of those pods of camaraderie and delight that were so typical of KU fandom over the years. People who had adjoining seats for the game got to know each other, relished those associations and focused their pride on Jayhawk achievements.”

“... Al, a one-time Wilt Chamberlain teammate, and his clan stuck with KU and each other through thick and thin for years, and his loss creates just one more gap in the Crimson and Blue fabric of devotion and affection.”

I, too, was very sad to hear about his death, but comforted knowing our paths crossed that evening in the early 2000s during our phone conversation, where Al was so full of life, his robust voice reveling in talking about his favorite KU memories, his devotion to KU, and his great experience playing at Wyandotte with best friend Monte Johnson, also a fellow Jayhawk teammate and former Kansas athletic director.

It was truly a very enjoyable and memorable interview!

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“I went to Wyandotte High School. Monte Johnson was one of my closest friends. Monte was best man at my wedding. Monte and I go back to Wyandotte, when he was playing there and have been friends since, oh Lord, 1953, I guess, and have maintained that friendship over the years. I first started playing organized basketball in junior high school in Kansas City, Kansas. So that was about the seventh or eight grade, I guess, other than playing in the playground. In the old days, you played everything out in the playground. You played baseball in the summer and you played football in the fall and basketball in the winter. That’s how kids grew up. Kansas City, Kansas, Wyandotte High School had a great program back in those days. It was started by Walt Shublom, who was the head coach at Wyandotte. He was there from 1960; in the 18 years he was there, he either won or finished second in the state every year. He won like 14 championships out of 18 years. We had a very good team, but it was a program in Kansas City, Kansas, that was pretty much developed. All the junior high schools ran the same kind of program that fed into Wyandotte. In junior high school, I was running the offense that Wyandotte High school was using. We were very successful. We won the state tournament two of my three years in high school, and lost it my senior year. We lost one game, and that was in the finals of the state tournament. We had a very good program-- it was a good school, some great players had come out of Wyandotte to play in colleges and the pros, some to KU. Some went to other schools. Wyandotte developed some nice players over the years from Kansas. Nolen Ellison, he was a sophomore my senior year. He was an outstanding, outstanding player. 

"Harry Gibson, who lives now there in Lawrence, played at Wyandotte. A guy named Pierre Russell played at Wyandotte. Cal Thompson, later. There were some great players that came out of Wyandotte and went to the University of Kansas. I was very highly recruited. I was voted for two straight years the player of the year in the state of Kansas. I could have gone a lot of places. Dick Harp, of course, did lot of recruiting. Phog Allen was forced to retire when he turned 70. My senior year of high school was his last year in coaching. I was kind of torn between KU and K-State, quite frankly. One of the in-home visits, Dick brought coach Allen to our house; he impressed my mother and father dramatically to the point that when they left, my mom said: ‘You are going to Kansas, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I think so.’ That’s where she wanted me to go, and that’s what I wanted to do after meeting Phog Allen and Dick Harp. With Chamberlain there, it was a nice chance for all intents and purposes to play for a national championship each year.

“Tex Winter, who was the coach at K-State in those days; he was a great recruiter. They had an excellent program at K-State. I was pretty much torn between KU and K-State. I grew up as a K-State fan because they had some great players. As I got to know more and more people (from KU), there was a gentleman with the name like Roy Edwards in Kansas City, who the Edwards campus at the junior college is named after. Roy was a very strong alum. He and I got to be very good friends. You start to change your allegiance as you meet more and more fine people from the University. I had a chance to meet Paul Endacott, who was president of Phillips. It was nice to finally make a decision. I made the right decision. After I met Dr. Allen in our home and my mom and dad met him, it was kind of a foregone conclusion that’s where we were going. It was a toss-up, they were both good schools, I know they both had good programs, I had to pick out the school I wanted to go to.

“As I said, I think KU was the best choice for me at that time, and I’m glad I went. I didn’t have an overwhelming desire when I was a kid growing up to go to KU because I really liked K-State when I was a young  man. You got to realize, K-State had a great basketball program back in those days. They were very, very strong. If you go back and look at some of the old archives, KU and K-State pretty much dominated the Big 7 in those days. KU would win it a year, and K-State would win it the next year. They were great schools, great competition and a great rivalry that went on. ... (Growing up), I was short; I was very small. I was the shortest guy on our junior high school team, so I played guard. I didn’t get a growth spurt until I was probably a  sophomore in high school. I went from about 6-0 to 6-5 in basically a year and a half. With it came the clumsiness. I think the chance to play guard as a young man helped overcome some of those difficulties. I could go out and pretty much do everything a guard could do, which helped in those days to be 6-5 and to do that. Six-five was big in those days, now it’s small. I started as a sophomore in high school, which was kind of unusual. That’s when I really became good. We won the state tournament my sophomore year. We had good seniors.  We won it my my junior year with Monte, and then my senior year, we were undefeated until the finals. I guess my sophomore year is when I really started to develop myself as a player.” 

Here is my Where Are They Now? story on Al Donaghue.

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Al Donaghue scored. He passed. He defended. Donaghue, quite simply, did it all for Wyandotte High School in Kansas City. He led Wyandotte to two state championships, while culminating his scintillating high school career in 1956 as a two-time Kansas player of the year.  

Recruited nationally by big-time colleges, Donaghue was “pretty much torn between KU and K-State.” He actually grew up cheering more for the purple Wildcats than the crimson and blue Jayhawks. This all changed, though, when KU made an in-home recruiting visit his senior year with former head coach Phog Allen (he had just retired due to mandatory age requirement) and current head man Dick Harp.

“He (Allen) impressed my mother and father dramatically,” Donaghue said, “to the point that when they left, my mom said, ‘You are going to Kansas, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I think so.’ That’s where she wanted me to go, and that’s what I wanted to do after meeting Phog Allen and Dick Harp.”

Donaghue had another important reason for choosing Kansas. It seemed there was a pretty talented freshman 7-footer already making a name for himself at Mount Oread.

“With (Wilt) Chamberlain there, it was a chance for all intents and purposes to play for a national championship each year.”

So yes, after becoming eligible his sophomore year, Donaghue got the prized opportunity to play with Chamberlain in 1957-58. It was the season after KU lost the national championship to North Carolina in triple overtime, and expectations were sky high with Chamberlain and fellow junior Ron Loneski returning. However, Chamberlain became injured and missed a couple of key games, as Kansas (18-5) finished second in the conference to K-State. 

“It was a disappointment not going to the tournament,” Donaghue said.

But Donaghue (6-5 forward), who was a part-time starter, still relished his time on the court with the “Big Dipper.” The two actually roomed together during road trips and maintained a friendship over the years.

“He was a unique player, probably the greatest athlete I had ever been around and probably the greatest basketball player in college that ever lived,” Donaghue said. “The rules of the game were changed to accommodate him, the dunking rules, things like that. He was an awesome athlete, the strongest man I ever met.”

Chamberlain (30.1 ppg), of course, was a dominant force in the paint.

“Knowing that you got the best player in the college game with you, you passed to him a lot,” Donaghue said. “There’s no doubt about that. You didn’t work offensively for your own shots as much as you were looking for him to pass to. That was smart. I think all of our players realized they had to do that. Our coach (Harp), he was a smart man in the fact that he came to all the players and said, ‘We’ve got two rules. We have a rule for the team, and we have a rule for Chamberlain. You need to understand that.’ He actually said, ‘You guys can vote on it.’ We all voted that Chamberlain could kind of, if he wanted to miss a practice, could miss a practice. He didn’t very often, but he could if he wanted to.”

A rugged rebounder and defensive stopper, Donaghue (5.0 ppg) was an invaluable supporting player to Chamberlain, and in ensuing years to stars Bill Bridges and Wayne Hightower. Donaghue loved playing defense.

“I wasn’t real fast, but I was smart and I worked hard at it,” he said. “I wasn’t a great player. I was just a good contributor. I rebounded fairly well and passed fairly well. I was a good team person.”

When Chamberlain left KU after his junior season to join the Harlem Globetrotters, there was a huge void in the middle. With Bridges the tallest player at 6-6, Kansas struggled and went 11-14. Donaghue, though, improved his scoring average to 10.6 ppg and pulled down 5.0 rebounds a game as well.

“As you get older and become used to the system, sure you get better,” he said. “My senior year (10.9 ppg), the same thing. You mature, your body matures, and you’re a better player.”

As the 6-8 Hightower joined the 1959-60 Jayhawks (19-9), an inspired Kansas team received some much-needed height and won a share of the conference title. The Jayhawks won their last 10 of 11 games before falling to No. 1 Cincinnati in the Midwest Regional finals. Unfortunately, Kansas didn’t have the services of Donaghue, who became academically ineligible after semester break.

“In those days, we didn’t have an academic program that they have now where you knew where you stood all the time,” Donaghue said. “You just didn’t know. It was very sad. In fact, Dick Harp used to say if the unfortunate things hadn’t happened to me, we might have won the whole thing.”

Despite not winning a national championship, it was indeed a memorable career for Donaghue. In addition to the games, he loved competing against the likes of Bridges and Chamberlain in practice.

“Bridges was probably the most intense rebounder I’ve ever met in my entire life,” Donaghue said. “He was just an animal. I use that as a lovable form. He was just great on the court as an intense rebounder. Chamberlain was just big and very powerful. If Wilt wanted the ball, he just went up and got it. He had a tremendous height advantage over we little people. It was a real treat to battle against them in practice. They made you better.”

After graduating from KU in 1960, Donaghue, 65, spent a year and a half in the Air Force before working for two years in sales with Phillips Petroleum Co. The former Jayhawk then joined Johnson and Johnson in 1964, a large pharmaceutical company on the East Coast. Donaghue lived all over the United States while working for Johnson and Johnson, and finished there in 1979 as director of field sales in New Brunswick, NJ. He then accepted a job with Russell Stover candies in Kansas City, and retired as vice president of sales and marketing in 1996.

Donaghue said he was fortunate for the opportunity to return home to Kansas City in 1980.

"It gave me a chance to reactivate myself with the university (Donaghue spent time serving with KU basketball coach Roy Williams on the Jayhawks’ mentoring program) and our kids had a chance to grow up in Kansas City and become reacquainted with their grandparents, which was important to us,” he said.

In all, it was more than 30 great years in the business world for Donaghue. He credits Harp, in large part, for his success and the lessons he gained playing basketball for Kansas.

“I think a lot of that can be related back to some of the things I learned as an athlete,” Donaghue said. “Some of the work ethic I learned being an athlete, the goals you set for yourself, the things you do to achieve those goals. I think that was all very important. I maintain that the University of Kansas had a great deal to do with it in developing me as a person  It was a wonderful experience, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.”

Currently, Donaghue lives a rich and satisfying life in retirement. He spends his free time socializing with friends, golfing, walking and traveling. And when Donaghue reflects back to those KU wonder days of yesteryear, he remains forever grateful for the recruiting pitch Allen made in his home nearly 50 years ago. 

For this one-time K-State booster, there is now no question where his allegiance lies.

“I’m a loyal Jayhawk,” Donaghue said. “I bleed blue.”

A Closer Look at Al Donaghue

Years at KU: 1956-60

Career Notables: Member of Big Eight conference co-champions in 1959-60 and Big Seven Holiday Tournament champs in 1957-58...Averaged a career-best 10.9 ppg in 1960...Career-high 27 points versus Colorado on Jan. 31, 1959.

Family: Wife, Susan, and two children — Amy, 36, and Paul, 33.  Donaghue also has two grandkids.

Education: 1960. B.S. Education

Since Leaving KU: Donaghue spent a year and a half in the Air Force before going to work in sales for Phillips Petroleum Co. in 1964. He spent the rest of his business career with Johnson and Johnson (pharmaceutical company) and Russell Stover candies. He retired from Russell Stover in 1996 as vice president of sales and marketing.

Currently: Donaghue is retired and lives in native Kansas City.

Hobbies: Golf, cooking, reading, walking, traveling.

Favorite Memories: “Off the court, obviously is the chance to get an education at the University of Kansas. The campus, the people I met, the friends I met and developed, it was awesome.”... Scoring a career-best 27 points at home versus Colorado in the first nationally televised game on Jan. 31, 1959. “Of course, all my relatives around the United States got a chance to see it. It wasn’t a good memory to lose, but it was a good memory to be on the first national televised basketball game.”... “I guess the thing I’m proudest of is the fact that in the three years I was there, we never lost to Missouri. That was always nice to say.”... Playing with Chamberlain. “He was a very quiet man. He broke a lot of the racial barriers in the Midwest in those days. There had been other black players before Wilt at KU, but he was the first true star. ... I could see that he faced a great deal of discrimination from the fans and media in those days, which was unfortunate. But that was the time we lived in. Thank God, times have changed now.”

On the Jayhawks today: “I’ve enjoyed them this year. I’m at every home game, so my wife and I still support the university very much. They’re fine young guys. They’re the kind of young guys you want representing your university. Roy runs the right kind of program.”  

Former Jayhawk standout Rodger Bohnenstiehl make his mark as a scoring machine

Rodger Bohnenstiehl might not be a name the young KU fan knows about, but Rodger was one of the better players of his era and a member of the 1,000-point club. He was All-Big Eight in 1967, where he led KU in scoring at 16.4 points per game. The 6-6 scoring machine also set a Big Eight career record of 56.6 percent field goal shooting that stood for many years. He finished as the school’s No. 9 all-time leading scorer.

Bohnenstiehl was part of the great and memorable 1965-66 team as a sophomore, serving as backup to All-American center Walt Wesley as KU marched to the Midwest Regional final before losing to eventual NCAA champion Texas Western. KU went 23-4 that season and again the next year, where Rodger led the ‘Hawks to their second straight Big Eight championship and berth in the NCAA Tournament, where KU lost to Houston in the first round. He was even the leading scorer that season ahead of future Naismith Hall of Famer Jo Jo White, a sophomore who averaged 14.8 points per game.

Voice of the Jayhawks Tom Hedrick, someone I loved to listen to on the radio growing up and one of the most positive, kindest and genuine people I’ve ever met, called Rodger “The Machine” for his lethal turnaround jump shot. Hedrick also coined Bohnenstiehl “quick as a hiccup.”

I had a wonderful and memorable Where Are They Now? interview with Rodger in 2001 for Jayhawk Insider, where he talked openly about his recruitment to KU and how instrumental KU assistant Sam Miranda — a fellow Collinsville, Ill., native — was to luring him to Mount Oread. Rodger also spoke of practicing that sweet turnaround jump shot for endless hours in high school and his favorite memories of being a Jayhawk.

Thanks Rodger for the time you gave me. I will forever be grateful.

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“This is what happened. I originally had visited the University of Missouri, Evansville and Indiana. Sam Miranda called me. He was in New Mexico. I flew out to New Mexico and I really liked it. While I was there, I signed a conference letter of intent because I liked Sam and I liked the school. When I got back home, my father got real ill, I mean really, really ill. My mother and I talked. We decided that was too far to go. It was two and a half hours by jet. She thought I should stay stay somewhere closer to home. So I was going to call Bob Vanatta, who was the head basketball coach at Missouri and ask him if the scholarship there was still good. While I was in the process of thinking about doing that, Sam Miranda called. He said, 'I’m leaving New Mexico and going to Kansas.’ I said, ‘Well, that's great Sam, because I’m not going to New Mexico either because my dad is very, very ill, and my mother wants me to stay close. I’m going to call Bob Vanatta and see if he’s still got a scholarship. He said, ’No you’re not. You come out to Kansas. I want you to see that before you do anything,’ so I flew out and fell in love with the place.’ This was like early June when I went out there, and there were a bunch of guys around there, Riney Lochmann, Wesley Unseld, and guys like that. I hung around with them. They were great guys, people I wanted to be with and a part of.

“In high school, that’s all I did was turnaround jump shots. It was quite an adjustment to play facing the basket. The offense that was designed put me in position where I could use the turnaround jump shot quite a bit. A lot of times, I’d get the opportunity to post up inside, and that’s where I was able to use it.”

“We had a guy when I was in high school named Bogey Redmond. My freshman year in high school, they won the state. They were 32-0. I kind of idolized him as a player.  He was 6-6 and 220, and I was about 6-6 and 180. He was kind of my idol. I always wanted to be like him, but better. I think in order to be a player, I think you got to have somebody that you kind of idolize. You got to kind of mimic after him. I didn’t like the pros.  At that time, there wasn’t any college basketball on TV, but it was on the radio. I used to listen to the Cincinnati Bearcats.

“As an eight grader, I was cut from the team, so I wasn’t go to try out as a freshman. I wasn’t going to get cut again. I was playing in PE, and Coach Fletcher asked if I was coming out for basketball. I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Why don’t you come out and try it. If you like, you can stay, if you don’t, you can go ahead and go.’ So that’s how I got my start in basketball. I liked it, I stayed with it. He worked with me. We had some great teams there. We were 75-14 for three years in high school. It’s a lot like my college career. My sophomore year, we were ] 26-8, my  junior year we were 26-3 and lost in the super sectional, which was one game before state. My senior year, we were undefeated all year and lost in the super sectional by five points, just one game before state. I’ve always been close, but no cigar so to speak.

“I spent a lot of my time at the gym in the summer, a lot of time by myself practicing that shot. I go by and get the key from his (Coach Fletcher) house and practice it. I’d go by at 8 a.m. and get it, and give it back at noon. Every morning during the week. That’s the only way you get better is by working at it and working hard at it.”

Here is that 2001 Where Are They Now? story.

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Rodger Bohnenstiehl’s jump shot didn’t exactly set the world on fire his eighth grade year in Collinsville, Ill. In fact, he was cut from the team and didn’t even plan on trying out again the following season.

 

Bohnenstiehl, however, had a change of heart when the basketball coach approached him one day in physical education class.

“Coach (Virgil) Fletcher asked if I was coming out for basketball,” Bohnenstiehl recalled recently from his home in Crete, Ill. “I told him, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Why don’t you come out and try it. If you like it, you can stay. If you don’t, you can go ahead and go.’”

Bohnenstiehl stuck with the sport and eventually blossomed into a high school standout. He worked conscientiously with his coach after practice, as well as spending endless hours by himself each morning during the sweltering summer months perfecting his turnaround jump shot.

“I’d go by and get the key (to the gym) from his (Fletcher) house at 8 and give it back to him at noon,” Bohnenstiehl said.  “That’s the only way you get better is by working hard at it.”

Recruited by KU assistant coach and fellow Collinsville native Sam Miranda, Bohnenstiehl (6-6) brought his sweet turnaround jumper to Mount Oread in 1964. He substituted for All-American Walt Wesley at center his sophomore season (1965-66) before starting at forward his junior and senior campaigns. Bohnenstiehl, who was All-Big Eight as a junior (16.4 ppg) and finished his career as the No. 9-leading scorer in Jayhawk history (1,006 points), set a Big Eight field goal percentage record (56.6 percent) that stood for many years.

“Voice of the Jayhawks” Tom Hedrick was so enamored by Bohnenstiehl’s uncanny shooting accuracy and trademark jump shot that he nicknamed him “The Machine.” Hedrick coined he was “quick as a hiccup.”

“That (turnaround jumper) was the only way I could score because I played against people that were a lot bigger than I was,” Bohnenstiehl said. “You had to do something to get your shot off. I just tried to be as quick as I could. I wasn’t fast, but I was quick.”

Bohnenstiehl played an instrumental cog in some of the most successful years in KU basketball.  Kansas won two Big Eight championships and went 23-4 in both 1965-66 and 1966-67. The ‘66 squad with Wesley and Jo Jo White lost to Texas Western (eventual NCAA champs) in the Midwest Regional finals, while the ‘67 team got beat in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Allen Fieldhouse. Bohnenstiehl led KU to the NIT finals in Madison Square Garden his senior year (22-8) before falling to Dayton.

“It seemed like even though we had a lot of success, we could never get the big one,” he said.  “We just came so close.”

Despite not winning the “big one,” Bohnenstiehl and his teammates enjoyed every second of the ride.

“We loved it,” he said. “It’s always great because teams were shooting for you and you know you had to be at your best. We went to some places like Oklahoma and Nebraska where it was just brutal. Nebraska had that small gym where the out-of-bounds lines were right at the bleachers. When you stood there and took the ball out of bounds, people would pull hair off your legs.”

After concluding a scintillating career in 1968, Bohnenstiehl was drafted by both New York (NBA) and the Pittsburgh Pipers (ABA). He made it to the Pipers’ last cut.

“I broke my nose and ring finger,” Bohnenstiehl said. “I guess it wasn’t to be.”

He then played AAU basketball in Lawrence before returning to native Illinois in 1970 and embarking on a high school teaching and coaching career. From 1985 to 1997, Bohnenstiehl served as head basketball coach at Rich South High School. Bohnenstiehl, who still teaches P.E. and driver’s education at Rich South, received great satisfaction from coaching and shaping young men.

“The biggest joy is watching kids improve and being able to put a team together and make it jell,” he said.

 “The Machine” certainly made remarkable improvement himself since those days of yesteryear when he was cut from his eighth grade basketball team. Bohnenstiehl is thankful his basketball skills and turnaround jump shot allowed him the opportunity to play at such a tradition rich university as Kansas, and treasures the lifetime friendships he built with teammates and coaches.  

Asked now about his feelings in breaking the 1,000-point barrier his final college game, Bohnenstiehl speaks from the heart.

“I wasn’t much for stats or watching how many points I scored,” he replied. “I just loved the game and tried to play it my hardest.”

A Closer Look at Rodger Bohnenstiehl:

Years at KU: 1964-68

Career Notables: All Big Eight in 1967 (led KU in scoring at 16.4 ppg)...Captain of ‘68 team...Paced KU in field goal percentage 1966-68 (set a Big Eight career record of 56.6 percent that stood for years)...Finished career as No. 9 all-time leading scorer.

Family: Wife, Gail, and children — Michael, 20, Katie, 17.

Education: 1969, B.S. Physical Education; 1991, M.S. Educational Administration (Governor’s State University in Illinois).

Since Leaving KU: Bohnenstiehl played AAU basketball in Lawrence before returning to native Illinois in 1970 and embarking on a high school teaching and coaching career. He taught and coached at four schools (Kankakee, Rich East, Bradley, and Rich South). In 1997, he quit his job (12 years) as head basketball coach at Rich South. 

Currently:  Bohnenstiehl lives in Crete, Ill., and teaches physical education and driver’s education at Rich South High School.

Hobbies: Handyman work, golf, painting.

Favorite Memories: The 1965-66 squad. “We had a lot of talent there. We had some depth. Things really jelled for us. It was just an outstanding year.”...Final home game on March 9, 1968 (Bohnenstiehl went 10-11 from the field as KU thrashed Iowa State, 91-58, in a nationally televised contest). “I had my family there.  It was something special.”

On The Jayhawks Today: “It’s fun to watch them. There are a lot of people in the area that know I went to Kansas. They watch the games, and we talk about them...He’s (Roy Williams) kept the tradition going. That’s not always easy to do, especially with the pressures.”

Former KU standout Ron Franz helped propel Jayhawks back to national prominence

Ron Franz was a rangy and rugged 6-7 forward from Kansas City, Kan., who was heavily recruited out of Ward High School. Attracted to the KU business school and wanting to stay close to home, Franz became a Jayhawk and was a three-year starter from 1964-67. He was a pivotal part of the rebirth of KU basketball, helping Kansas to a 63-16 record during his standout career, which included two Big Eight titles and three Big 8 Holiday Tournament championships. Franz was part of one of the greatest teams in KU history in 1965-66, when KU advanced to the Midwest Regional final and finished at 23-4. The Jayhawks were also 23-4 the following year, when Franz posted career highs with 12.4 points and 6.9 rebounds per game while serving as senior captain.

He finished his career with averages of 9.3 points and 6.0 rebounds while scoring 737 points. Franz remains grateful he helped KU return to national prominence.

“We brought KU back to where it had been,” Franz told me from his home in Germantown, Tenn., in 2001 for a Where Are They Now? interview in 2001 for Jayhawk Insider. 

“Knowing I had some small part in KU coming back from when they were down and knowing we helped get it reestablished playing with some really good quality guys, that’s what I’ll remember. He (Ted Owens) came in when a time KU basketball was down, and he put it on a path again. He got the enthusiasm going again.”

After concluding his KU career, Franz played six years in they ABA and thrived in the up-tempo, fast-break style. He guarded the likes of Dr. J (Julius Erving), and even had some success against the future Hall of Famer.

“He was phenomenal,” Franz said. “I know he scored a lot on me, but I think I scored a few on him, too. ... Man, it (ABA) was a hoot. If they had cable then, it would have pushed the NBA off the map. It was the game they play now. The speed of the game was the ABA. It was an interesting league. You didn’t really know if your check was good every day. You took your check and ran to the bank right away to make sure it was good.”

In this blog, I recall Franz’s high school days, where he starred at Ward High School, his battles on the playgrounds playing against star players, and his recruitment to Kansas. I also republish my Where Are They now? story. It was a very enjoyable interview and something I will always remember.

...

“My senior year, they used to send the letters to the high school coaches, and then they would give them to you. I remember my coach at Ward High School, Bill Samuels. He said, ‘You got some letters here to go to some schools. I think they’re recruiting letters.’ I said, ‘Gosh coach, I can’t afford to go to those schools.’ He said, ‘Hello, they’ll give you a scholarship.’ I’m going, ‘What, to play basketball?’ (laughs). I actually was naive. I didn’t think someone would give you a scholarship to play basketball. That wasn’t anything you thought about. You didn’t have the media hype that you have with the kids today. We knew about some scholarships, but you just didn’t think you’d get a scholarship. I certainly didn’t think I’d ever have one offered. Heck, I didn’t even play basketball unil my junior year of high school. I suited up, let’s put it that way. And then the Lord made a really neat thing happen. He grew me. I went from like 6-0 to 6-4 in a little over a year. I went, ‘Ok, now I can play basketball.’ We went to the state tournament my junior year and I think that’s where I got noticed a little bit. Then, my senior year, other than the one young man named Lucious Allen at Wyandotte, we had a very good team. When you have a good team, you obviously get looked at. My senior year, I think I was the leading scorer in the Kansas City area. No, they had a guy named Bob Bowers over at Rockhurst. I think he beat me. He went to Colorado. When you get that kind of notoriety and all of that, then you get people trying to recruit you, that was something I didn’t realize was available until my senior year. I finally realized, ‘Shoot, this is a good deal. Let me score a lot of points and see where I can go.’ (laughs).

"I played a little at the CYO. When I went to Ward, I was on the freshman team, but didn’t play. When I was a sophomore, I was on the JV team, but didn’t play. I grew that summer and started as a junior. When you got a guy who’s 6-4 at that time, that was pretty big for that era. By my senior year, I was 6-5. And by my freshman year at KU, I was 6-7. And by my sophomore year, I was, unfortunately only 3/4 more of an inch, a little under 6-8, and it just stopped. I really didn’t play until my junior year.

“Kansas City wasn’t really known for any great basketball players at that particular time frame when I grew up. There was a guy from my high school that played professional baseball named Ray Sadecki. He pitched for the Cardinals. As far as basketball was concerned, there were some guys that I know that I watched play over at Wyandotte. Harry Gibson, a friend of mine that was a captain of the KU team my senior year. He was about three years older than I was. The Ellison boys, Nolen Ellison, they played at KU. Wyandotte High School was the best high school program in Kansas. They had a coach named Walt Shublom. He’s still alive, and I saw him last when I was up at KU. He lived up the street from Mark Twain School in Minnesota Avenue or whatever the case might have been. All of the people would go there in the summer time and play on the asphalt. That’s where I really learned to play. I played against these guys from Wyandotte High school. There would be guys from Missouri that would come over. Warren Armstrong played at Central. His name in the old ABA was Warren Jabali. He played down at Wichita State. He’d bring his crew over there in the summer time and we’d play until it got dark. That’s really where I learned the game was on the playground there on the asphalt, sort of like being in the inner city. The brothers would come over and we’d just play. In that particular time frame, that was unusual for black and whites playing together. You just didn’t have a lot of that. You’d have a black school that would play a white school, but you didn’t have too many guys that would be on the playground playing on the same team with each other. I think that’s where my game developed, playing with these guys in the summer time before my junior year, and before my senior year. Of course, in the summer time after that, we’d play there, even when were were all in college. Or we’d used to play over at Rockhurst college. They used to have a summer league thing that we’d play at. 

"As far as remembering anybody as far as basketball was concerned, they had an old ABL team called the Kansas City Steers, and they had a guy named Bill Bridges who played at Kansas. He was pretty unique in the fact for his size, he was probably one of the toughest rebounders. He played in the NBA for quite a few years. I guess if anybody that I would recall or remember or think about in that particular time frame, it probably would have been him because I did go to the old Kansas City Steers game. He was an interesting player."

Franz talked about Sports Illustrated interviewing him about the “horrors of recruiting.”

“I was being recruited by K-State, which was very good then and (head coach) Tex Winter. I had already been to Michigan, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Colorado, I think I got letters from 50 or 60 schools — small and large. Notre Dame, of course, as a good catholic boy, you had to go to Notre Dame or the nuns wouldn’t let you back in school. Then I went out to Colorado. They were good. They had just won the Big 8 then. Any way, I was going to go out to dinner with coach Winter, and he asked if they could bring a SI guy to dinner named Frank Deford. You have to remember, I didn’t know you could get a scholarship to play basketball I was that naive. By about the fourth trip and the offers of free airline and free this and free that, I’m going, ‘Hum, something’s interesting there.’ I thought this was just another guy for a recruiting thing. I went, ‘Sure, yeah, bring him along.’ So I met him and we went to the Golden Ox and had dinner. At the end of the night, they dropped me off, my mother and myself at my house. Tex, which I still have to this day, gave me an autographed, it may be worth something, the triple post offense. ...That fall, somebody came in the athletic dorm (at KU), it use to be JRP. The guy says, ‘Hey you’re in SI.’ I went,’Yeah, right.’ He goes, ‘No, you’re in SI.’ It was probably in October or November of ‘63. What it was, they did a thing on recruiting, I think with four people across the country, and I was one of them. He was just talking about how K-State was recruiting me. He wasn’t talking about the other schools and what their recruiting tactics were. Lord knows what these kids go through now. I mean, it’s just got to be phenomenal. Plus these AAU guys who have their handouts for everything. In my particular time, it was just a lot of phone calls and letters. And of course, alumni could contact you. They’d show up at games. They’d come by the house. You’d get covered up with people who were alumni of the various schools that were recruiting you. They were calling you, coming up to the games, dropping by the house, seeing if you needed anything. They cleaned that up and got the alumni out. It was an interesting article. I got it around here in one of my things somewhere. It’s always interesting to kind of pop out.

“Actually, (KU) did a damn good recruiting job on my family. Mr. (Roy) Edwards, a fine man, one of the finest families I ever had the pleasure to come across, an avid KU man. At that time, KU basketball was down. K-State basketball was big. Colorado basketball was big. Michigan basketball was big. Kansas basketball was going down the tubes. I guess it was the proximity for one thing, I just didn’t want to be that far away from home. I had a good family support group. Again, KU recruited my family very well. I went up for one weekend on my own. I enjoyed it. I liked the campus. I think one of the first things I was impressed by the fact, my recruiting weekend, of course, it also happened at K-State. They took me, the first thing they did, they took me to the business school, which was what I wanted to major in. I thought that was pretty good because the other schools, that was a secondary thing. When I went to Michigan State, I was interested in hotel management, and they were one of the only schools in the country at that time that had a hotel management school. That was like later, the primary thing was basketball. (At) KU, Keith Wetmore was my advisor and he was a gentleman. We met at the B-School. He took me around the B-School. I thought that was pretty cool, because that’s what I wanted to major in, and that’s what I was going to school for, to get a degree and play basketball. Not to play basketball and hopefully get a degree. That was something. All the guys I played with got a degree. I got a call from coach Winter when I announced I was signing with Kansas. He called and wished me the best of luck, and was sorry that I didn’t go to Kansas Sate. And he would try everything he could to show that I should have gone to Kansas State. I think we were 6-1 against them my three years. I thought that was really classy of him, too.” 

Here is my Where Are They Now? story on Franz from 2001 in Jayhawk Insider.

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Ron Franz still gets chills when recalling one of the most thrilling moments of his life. It was the 100th-year anniversary reunion of Kansas basketball on Feb. 7, 1998. Franz was back in Allen Fieldhouse playing the game he loved with former teammates and legends from yesteryear.

“You went out on the court, and it was like time had stood still,” Franz said. “The place was sold out. When you started to warm up, 30 years had passed but it just didn’t seem like that. The band was playing. People were cheering. You saw some of the old guys not only on the floor, but in the stands. That was probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

For Franz, it was an opportunity to relive his glory days. A rugged and rangy 6-7 forward from Kansas City, Kan., Franz played a prominent role in the rebirth of Kansas basketball in the mid-1960s. Franz was a three-year starter who shined on teams that went 63-16 from 1964 to 1967. In the three preceding years, KU stumbled to a 32-43 record under Dick Harp. With coach Ted Owens taking over in 1964, Franz was a part of  two Big Eight championships and three-time winners of the Big Eight Holiday Tournament. Moreover, KU advanced to the Midwest Regional Finals in 1966, and was ranked in the top four during the 1965-66 and 1966-67 seasons.

“We brought KU back to where it had been,” Franz said recently from his home in Germantown, Tenn. “Knowing I had some small part in KU coming back from when they were down and knowing we helped get it reestablished playing with some really good quality guys, that’s what I’ll remember. He (Owens) came in when a time KU basketball was down, and he put it on a path again. He got the enthusiasm going again.”

Franz has especially fond memories of the 1965-66 team (23-4) that lost in double overtime to Texas Western in the Midwest Regional finals. With guard Jo Jo White joining the team at mid-semester, KU became one of the elite squads in college basketball. Joining White and Franz (9.6 ppg) were All-American center Walt Wesley, crafty point guard Del Lewis and second-leading scorer Al Lopes.

“That was probably one of the better teams that Kansas has had in its history,” Franz said.  “We’ve had a lot of great teams, but that team could do a lot of different things and knew the fundamentals of basketball. We could shoot from the outside, rebound, and get up and down the floor. ... Coach Haskins (of Texas Western, which eventually went on to win the NCAA title) said that was the toughest game (against KU) they played all year.”

Franz said White added a lethal dimension of speed and quickness to a balanced and patterned KU offense.

“He was very quick, very agile,” Franz said. “He brought a fluidness to the game that we probably hadn’t had prior to that. ...We got up and down the floor. We ran a pretty doggone good fast break. He created the speed that we needed. We were all pretty fast guys.”

Franz was both fast and tough. He demonstrated a physical presence who played the game with high energy and passion.

“I was the guy that did the dirty work so to speak,” Franz said. “If I could kind of push you out of bounds and not get caught, I kind of liked it.”

 

A senior captain in 1966-67 (KU went 23-4 again), Franz led Kansas in rebounding (6.9 rpg) that season and finished third in scoring (12.4 ppg). Franz, who had been accepted into KU Law School, said he had no illusions of playing professional basketball. After playing in a postseason All-Star game in Albuquerque, N.M., Boston Celtics coach Bill Russell asked Franz if he was interested in playing in the NBA.

“I went, ‘Huh,’ Franz said. “That was not a job or career then. Those guys weren’t getting paid anything.  It was nothing I was concerned about.”

Franz was eventually drafted by both the NBA’s Detroit Pistons and ABA’s Oakland Oaks. After negotiating a lucrative $16,000 contract, Franz had a change of heart about professional basketball and joined the Oaks. He played just one season in Oakland before he and Steve Jones were traded to New Orleans for Larry Brown (future KU basketball coach and current head man of Philadelphia 76ers) and Doug Moe.

“I can always get tickets from Larry. That’s always good for a free something with Larry if I say, ‘Do you really want people to know I got traded for you? How many tickets can I get?’” Franz said, laughing.

In all, Franz played six seasons in the ABA for Oakland, New Orleans, Floridians, Memphis and Dallas. Franz, who thrived in the fast paced, open-court game of the freewheeling ABA (career averages of 11.7 points and 5.3 rebounds), loved playing against such superstars as Julius Erving and Rick Barry.

“He (Dr. J) was phenomenal,” Franz said. “I know he scored a lot on me, but I think I scored a few on him, too. ... Man, it (ABA) was a hoot. If they had cable then, it would have pushed the NBA off the map. It was the game they play now. The speed of the game was the ABA. It was an interesting league. You didn’t really know if your check was good every day. You took your check and ran to the bank right away to make sure it was good.”

After concluding his ABA career with Dallas in 1973, Franz played a year in Europe before opening his own home building contracting business (R.S. Franz Construction) in Memphis, Tenn. Franz builds large custom homes in Tennessee, Florida and Arkansas.

 

“I sell dreams,” he said. “That’s a dream house. That’s what I do. I try to fulfill the dream that they have of the house that they want. ...Wherever they want me to build, that’s where I go and build.”

Franz says he has no regrets about not going to Law School after graduating from KU in 1967.

“I’m able to do something that I enjoy,” he said.  “Every house that  I do, that’s a part of me in that house. ... I met a lot of wonderful people through basketball and still have continuing relationships with those people from basketball as well as the building business I’ve been in for 30 years. It’s something the Lord has blessed me with. I’ve been very fortunate.”

Franz feels blessed to be a Jayhawk as well. He remains in awe of the 100th-year anniversary reunion of Kansas basketball in 1998 and talking to such childhood heroes as B.H. Born and Clyde Lovellette.

“It was a neat, neat deal,” Franz said. “KU basketball is very special in my heart and I know to all the guys that I played with in my era. We’d all like to put our shorts on and play again.”

A Closer Look at Ron Franz:

Years at KU: 1963-67

Career Notables: Three-year starter...Captain of 1966-67 team and led squad in rebounding (6.9 rpg)...Career-best 23 points and 17 rebounds vs. K-State on Feb. 20, 1965.

Family: Wife, Georgia, and two daughters — Tara, 30, and Shawna, 28.

Education: 1967. B.S, Business Administration.

Since Leaving KU: Franz spent six seasons in the ABA and one year in Europe before opening his own home building contracting business in Memphis, Tenn.

Currently: Franz is the owner of R.S. Franz LLC. Construction.

Hobbies: Golf and following Kansas basketball.

Favorite Memories: “I think it was the camaraderie of all the guys that I played with and how I’m still in touch with all of them. ... Every one of those guys that I played with, they may not have got their degree in four years, but they got their degree. That’s what you went to school for.”...Beating K-State seven out of eight games. “In that particular era, that was THE game because both teams had a lot Kansas natives on the team.”  

On the Jayhawks Today: “He (Roy Williams) gets young men that represent the university and what it’s supposed to be about. He’s somebody that I respect and I think all the former players respect. He’s brought quality to the program and quality to the university.”