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.
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