Former KU standout Ron Loneski lived his dream playing with Wilt Chamberlain

In Part 2 on Ron Loneski, I recall his recruitment to KU and include my Where Are They Now? story I wrote on him for Jayhawk Insider in 2002, along with some other nuggets.

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“(I was) recruited by (such schools as) N.C State, Purdue, Notre Dame, USC. I wanted to come to KU because Wilt was coming there. I wanted to play with him. They convinced me that they needed somebody other than they needed Wilt. They needed a strong forward, somebody who could hit the boards and rebound, who could complement Wilt’s game. I don't know if I met their expectations to a tee, but I really enjoyed playing there. I never ever had a regret of going to KU or going someplace else. A lot of people said I would have done better if I had gone to another school and been my own player, but I scoffed at that. I loved the fact that I got a chance to play with the guy I consider at least in my time not only the best basketball player, but the best all-around athlete I ever saw. I lived in Calumet City (Ill.), went to school in Hammond (Ind.), which was right across the state line. I went to catholic school in Hammond, Ind. In fact, I was the first basketball player in the history of the Indiana-Kentucky all-star game to make the Indiana all-star team and live in Illinois. It was the only catholic school at the area at the time. You had a choice if you wanted to go to catholic school, to go to Chicago or Bishop Noll in Hammond, Ind. 

“Actually, I had more scholarship offers to play football. I was a better football player than a basketball player, all-state in both sports. I just had the love of basketball. At that time, football wasn’t as glorified I guess you’d say as it is today. You didn’t play one position. You played offense and defense. I can remember I was a freshman in high school and we played a team from Louisville, Ky.  We went down to Louisville to play them, and I see these guys come out. That was the first time I saw squared off shoulder pads. We used to wear the rounded type. The first play this guy comes around end, and I went to hit him, went to tackle him. I bounced off of him and bounced five feet back. I thought to myself, who is this guy, and that was Paul Hornung.

“Basketball was my first love. When I was growing up as a kid, I always looked for bigger kids to play against. I never considered myself to have a lot of skills.  But I did have one thing. Most of things I do even now, when I’m 64 years old, if I get involved with something, I have a passion for it. I’m going to do it, and nothing is going to stand in my way to get it done. I’ve always been that way.”

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With freshmen ineligible, the Loneski’s team vs. Chamberlain’s team played before varsity games during the 1955-56 season, Phog Allen’s last year as head coach.

“The place was packed,” Loneski said in 2002. “We used to make jokes because the place would be packed, and after the freshman game, a lot of people left. They came to see Wilt.

“I guarded him. I was a smart player. I always loved to play against bigger guys than me because I felt I was an intelligent player. I could box Wilt out. I could rebound with Wilt. If I could put a body on him and keep him out, that was a challenge to me. I loved to do that.”

Loneski, who averaged 28.0 points per game in high school, had no delusions about being the star when he came to KU.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be like that. I came there with the purpose to play with Wilt. I didn’t come there with the purpose I was going to be disgruntled or upset or angry because Wilt was getting all the attention. It wasn’t like that at all.”

Loneski, who roomed with Wilt their first year on campus, wish the two teammates would have had a closer relationship.

“When I look back, I wish we would have had better camaraderie. I wish there would have been more closeness, but there wasn’t," Loneski said. "Why there wasn’t, I don’t know.  Maybe it was the sign of the time, the racial thing. Wilt was a very private person. He didn’t like people hovering over him  or prying into his business. He liked his privacy. He wanted to be Wilt.” 

Loneski said that some people badly “mistaken him for Bill Russell; (this) really set Wilt off (and he got) upset.”

Above all, Loneski remains eternally proud to be a Jayhawk.

“I will never forget to the day the (100th-year) reunion (in 1998),” Loneski said. “That was the most humbling experience of my life. Just to see all those people and the reception and the warmth that they gave was unbelievable. It’s just a class university. The people that go there that are associated with that school just have a lot of class, lot of dignity. I’m so proud to be a graduate of that school.

“It’s something that will live with me forever.” 

“I just have so many fond memories of my playing days,” Loneski added. “I still have almost every clipping that came out of the Journal-World. Eight or nine big, thick scrapbooks that are filled with great memories.”

Here is my Where Are They Now? story on Ron Loneski in Jayhawk Insider in 2002.

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Ron Loneski had many colleges wooing him after a standout high school basketball career in Hammond, Ind. North Carolina State, Purdue, Notre Dame, and USC were just some of the major schools interested in this husky 6-41/2 lefthander. However, those colleges never really had a chance.

 Loneski desired to play with the best.

And that place was Kansas, which had just landed a major coup in 7-foot Philadelphia native Wilt Chamberlain.

“I wanted to play with him,” Loneski said. “They convinced me they needed a strong forward, somebody who could hit the boards and rebound, who could complement Wilt’s game. I don’t know if I met their expectations to a tee, but I really enjoyed playing there. A lot of people said I would have done better if I had gone to another school and been my own player, but I scoffed at that. I loved the fact that I got a chance to play with the guy I consider at least in my time not only the best basketball player, but the best athlete I ever saw.”

Loneski was a pretty fine athlete himself. The 1956-57 KU Media Guide called sophomore Loneski “a sharp shooting, high leaping front line bruiser” who “rated only a cut below the Stilt in overall effectiveness.” After breaking a bone in his foot the first game of the season, Loneski wound up replacing Lew Johnson in the starting lineup at semester break. He would never lose his spot. Loneski played a great complementary role (9.5 ppg and 6.8 rpg) to Chamberlain, who led KU to the championship game against North Carolina. The Tar Heels beat Kansas (24-3) in triple overtime, 54-53.

It’s been 45 years, but the pain still lingers for Loneski.

“That 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.”

After years of torment, though, Loneski has put the game in perspective and moved on with his life. He’s had to overcome a tremendous amount of adversity. 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, 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.”

While there was great heartache in losing to North Carolina, Loneski cherished his KU days and loved playing with Chamberlain. Although Loneski wasn’t blessed with Chamberlain’s skills, he carved his own niche with a fierce competitiveness and stellar work ethic. Loneski, an All-Big Seven selection his junior year (13.5 ppg and 9.0 rpg for KU, which went 18-5), ranks No. 7 in Kansas history for highest career rebound average (8.9 rpg).  

“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.”

After Chamberlain left school in 1958, KU struggled the following season. Loneski led the 'Hawks his senior year with 19.0 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, but KU finished at just 11-14. With a memorable college career now history, Loneski spent the next year playing for the Denver Chicago Truckers (NIBL). He then embarked on a 21-year career in the Army, which included two tours in Vietnam, before retiring in 1980 as Lieutenant Colonel in Hawaii. Loneski also played four years of basketball (1962-66) in the service, two of them on the Belgium National Team. 

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

Loneski loved his military career.

“There’s not a greater profession than the military,” he said. “As far as the social life and the camaraderie, all my best friends, with the exception of a couple that still live in Lawrence, are all military people.”

After retiring in 1980, Loneski spent a brief period running a Navy reserve program before entering the teaching profession. Loneski taught junior ROTC and English at Lincoln High School in San Diego, Calif., for 12 years (he coached basketball for 10 seasons as well). Since 1994, Loneski has taught English at a middle school.

“I have fun with my kids,” he said.

Loneski will retire at the end of the school year. In the meantime, he’s looking forward to coming back to Lawrence in late March and visiting with old friends like former teammate Bob Billings. Loneski, who speaks in reverence toward KU, still feels chills from the 100th-year basketball anniversary reunion in 1998.

“That was the most humbling experience of my life,” he said. “Just to see all those people and the reception and the warmth that they gave was unbelievable. The KU fans never forget who you are.”

And when they remember Loneski, they usually think of the “Big Dipper.” But that’s just fine for Loneski. He feels honored to have that eternal relationship with Chamberlain.

“Wherever I’ve gone, people have always recognized my name not because of me, but because I got to play with Wilt,” Loneski said. “I came to KU because I wanted to be with the best. I thought Wilt was the best.”

A Closer Look at Ron Loneski:

Years at KU: 1955-59

Career Notables: Member of 1956-57 runner-up NCAA championship team...All-Big Seven in 1958...Ranks No. 7 all time at KU with 8.9 career rebound average.

Family: Loneski has two daughters (Laura, 40, Linda, 39) and eight grandchildren.

Education: 1970, B.S. Language Arts; 1975 (Pepperdine) Master’s degree in School Administration.

Since Leaving KU: Loneski played a season with the NIBL’s Denver Chicago Truckers before embarking on a 21-year military career in the Army. After retiring in 1980, he spent a brief period running a Navy reserve program. Then, he worked the next 20 years teaching high school and middle school students in San Diego, Calif.  

Currently: Loneski teaches English at a middle school in San Diego.

Hobbies: Fishing, bird hunting, traveling, golf, cooking.

Favorite Memories: Playing with Wilt. “Every place you went, everybody wanted to see Wilt. There was just no question about it, because he was a phenomenon. He was the first big man I think to be able to do the things a big man could do. Nobody at that time could run the floor like he could. He was a very athletic and physical kid. He dominated inside. It was just a shame they didn’t have a shot clock. If they would have had a shot clock, I think the Wilt Chamberlain legends of college ball would been unparalleled with anybody.” Rivalries with K-State, Missouri, and Iowa State. ... “Just the fact that you knew that every time you played, Allen Fieldhouse was going to be filled to the brim with people.”

On the Jayhawks Today: “I think Roy Williams is absolutely a superb coach. I’m so happy that he stayed at KU and didn’t go to North Carolina. He’s just a very fantastic man. He’s what KU is all about.”