A Heartfelt Tribute To Former KU Basketball Head Coach Ted Owens

Ted Owens grew up on a cotton farm in Hollis, Oklahoma, where he was raised by his parents to know right from wrong, to treat people with kindness and deep respect, to always listen to others, to show great empathy, to have profound faith, to have a strong work ethic, to treat people of color on the basis of their character and performance, and to always be a good person.

Owens carried these invaluable life lessons throughout his life, reinforced to him by his Oklahoma Hall of Fame basketball coach, Bruce Drake, and then KU head basketball coach Dick Harp — a man of impeccable values and strong moral fiber —when Owens served as a loyal assistant to Harp as an assistant coach from 1960-64.

In his nearly 91 years on Earth, Owens has learned from these instrumental people in his life and touched and impacted countless people, beginning as head basketball and baseball coach of Cameron Junior College in Lawton, Oklahoma, from 1956-60, and then as a KU assistant for four years before serving as KU head basketball coach for 19 years, still the second-longest tenured coach in the rich Kansas basketball tradition.

After KU, he continued impacting people’s lives as Oral Roberts head coach, Fresno Flames coach, Tel Aviv Maccabi coach, development director and basketball coach at Metro Christian Academy in Tulsa, athletic director at St. Leo University near Tampa, Florida, and all his other jobs and pursuits.

Above all, Owens has been a true loving and consummate family man, devoted to his wife, Michelle, and his children. He has also stayed in close contact with those players he coached decades ago, including many from Cameron and at KU, and those he also mentored like Joey and Stephen Graham, former Oklahoma State basketball players from 2003-05.

Owens’ daughter, Taylor Owens O’Connell, talked about her dad’s love and influence of people in his 2013 book, At The Hang-Up.

“I am beyond blessed to have a father who loves me endlessly. It’s amazing that a little boy from Hollis could grown up to have such an impact on so many lives,” Owens-O’Connell said.

Owens’ former players deeply love him, just as he loved them.

“The most important thing to my dad today is his meaningful relationships with his players. Every July 16 when 7 a.m. hits, Tommie Smith calls to wish him a happy birthday,” Owens’ son, Teddy, said. “Shortly afterward, David Magley will call, or Bud Stallworth, or Roger Morningstar, or Al Lopes. They call every year, never missing his birthday, because he loved them and believed in them. He continues to do so, and anytime they achieve something he always calls me and update me on their success off the court.” 

As soon as he became KU head coach, you knew Owens would be something special—as a person and as a coach.

After Harp resigned under pressure in 1964, the KU players petitioned for the popular Owens to take over the head-coaching job. Owens had great admiration and respect from his players and KU alumni.

“Owens is the best basketball coach I know for talking to high school boys and recruiting them,” a top KU booster said. “He and Jack Mitchell (then-KU football coach) are in a class by themselves in the field. Owens has also had a hand in recruiting most everybody now in the KU basketball program and they like him and respect him a great deal.”

Owens, who coached at Mount Oread 19 years until being fired in 1983, won six Big Eight Conference Championships, eight Big Eight Holiday Tournament titles, one Big Eight Tournament Championship, advanced to the NCAA tournament seven times, and earned Final Four berths in 1971 and 1974. He was named Big Eight Coach of the Year five times and selected as National Coach of the Year in 1978 by Basketball Weekly.

 

Owens, who also coached five All-Americans, ranks as the fourth-winningest coach in Kansas basketball history behind Phog Allen, Bill Self and Roy Williams with a 348-182 (.657) record.

But beyond the wins is the many lives he influenced and impacted. Just listen to former star forward David Magley, who played at KU from 1978-82 and then briefly with the Cleveland Cavaliers as a rookie. Magley and his wife, Evelyn, have always been very close to Owens; they used to babysit Owens’ kids when Magley was in college.

Magley truly admired and loved Owens.

“Of all the lives that Coach Owens has touched over the years, I have to believe that I am the most fortunate,” Magley said in At The Hang-Up.

“He taught me how to compete. He encouraged me and rewarded when I earned it. He showed me how to be a champion with grace.”

Just listen to countless other Jayhawks and coaches, including Riney Lochmann, who played at KU from 1963-66 and then in the ABA.

“The bottom line is that I would run through a brick wall for Coach Owens,” Lochmann said. “I have nothing but great memories from my time there. Kansas has retired many jerseys that hang in the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse. My hope is that Coach Owens will also be honored so his name can hang up in Allen Fieldhouse with the rest of his players.”

Just listen to Dave Robisch, the high-scoring forward and All-American who starred at KU from

1968-71.

“Coach Owens is more than a coach. He has been a part of my life since 1967,” Robisch said. “Our relationship has grown stronger over time. I look back now and understand so much more about what went on at KU than I did when I was going through it. He has been there through 42 years of my marriage. He has watched my kids grow up and I have watched his kids grow up. This type of thing does not happen very often. We have a very special friendship that continues to grow as we both get older.”

Just listen to Delvy Lewis, who was a star KU guard and All-Big Eight in 1966.

“I just have nothing but great words to say about Ted Owens as a coach,” Lewis told me in 2003. “He was a gentleman. I just feel badly, because I think he’s kind of gotten a bad rap, as far as perception.  He still has a tremendous winning record. I just hope he gets some credit for what he did, because I think he did a lot more than people realize. To this day, I have the greatest respect for him. He’s just a neat, neat man.”

“I think Riney and I were his favorites on that (great 1965-66 squad, which won the Big Eight title and lost to Texas Western in the Midwest Regional final) team, because he just appreciated the ‘roll up your sleeves and work,’ and that’s pretty much what Riney and I did,” Lewis added. “I hustled and gave it all I had every game. Everybody did. We had a group that pretty much got after it. We were pretty no-nonsense. “

Just listen to Bud Stallworth, who starred at KU from 1969-72 and is another of the five All-Americans (also an Academic All-American) Owens coached at Kansas.

“What I first noticed is that Coach Owens cared about his players beyond just playing sports,” Stallworth said. “He was more like a parent, wanting his players to be more than successful basketball players. He emphasized that we had to be well-rounded on the court and even better better people off the court.”

Just listen to Jo Jo White, still another KU All-American who is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“Ted is like a second father to me, he and coach (former longtime KU assistant Sam) Miranda,” White said after his jersey retirement at Allen Fieldhouse in 2003. “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 raved about Owens in www.celtic-nation.com on April 7, 2003, just hours before KU played Syracuse in the national championship game.  

“He was a very astute coach, and a great teacher of the fundamental,” White said. ”He was also politically involved within the college basketball community and well-versed when it came to the issues surrounding the game. Coach Owens contributed greatly to my growth as a basketball player. I enjoyed playing for him and I learned a lot from being a part of his program.”

And then listen to what White said about Owens in At The Hang-Up:

“Coach Owens was always open to sit and talk with individuals about how to be a better player and a better team. He wasn’t concerned about players approaching him to talk about the team. To me, he was a great coach—always sincere, honest and open with all of us. I absolutely adored the man and my time at KU.”

Owens not only had great respect from his former players, but from his peers in the coaching profession. Just ask Washington Wizards head coach Scott Brooks, who played under Owens with the WBL Fresno Flames in 1988.

“Coach Owens is a man of integrity; he is a sincere, honest person who treats everyone with a great deal of respect—which is something that I’ve carried with me throughout my life on and off the basketball floor,” Brooks said. “Coach Owens has had a great impact on me as a person and a coach. To this day, every time Coach Owens is around it seems that a memory is made.”

Just listen to Hall of Fame Kentucky coach John Calipari, who received his first coaching job under Owens as a graduate assistant at KU in 1982.

“He gave me an opportunity to coach at one of the greatest programs,” Calipari said. “Coach Owens has always handled himself with class. Whether we won or lost, he was just a classy, upstanding gentleman, and he did it at a hard place to coach, but a great place to coach. I will always be indebted to him, and Coach Owens knows that.”

Just listen to Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown, who succeeded Owens at KU for five seasons.

“(Owens) told the players he’d been here 23 years, 19 as head coach,” Brown said after the Legends of the Phog exhibition game at Allen Fieldhouse in 2011, during which he and Owens served as honorary head coaches. 

“He was in tears talking to everybody about his love for the school.”

Owens recruited players like Ron Kellogg, Calvin Thompson and Greg Dreiling (Owens coached Kellogg and Thompson for one season), who became vital senior cogs on Brown’s 1986 Final Four team.

“Ted left me with a pretty good group,” Brown said. “I was blessed with a really good team. And the values those kids have because of their relationship with him was pretty neat. He (also) left me with some good coaches. I was fortunate to have Bob Hill, Calipari ... It was a remarkable staff. Ted had a lot to do with this program, and to see his feelings about it is pretty remarkable.”

At age 82 then, Owens still had a strong competitive fire.

“He wanted to beat my (butt), I can tell you that,” Brown said in reference to the exhibition game, where Owens’ White team tied Brown’s Blue squad, 111-111.

Just listen to KU coach Bill Self, who has endless admiration for Owens.

“He comes back (to Lawrence and KU) all the time,” Self once said. “We take golf trips together every summer. We bunked together in Scotland (in 2009) for a week. I’ve gotten to know coach real well. He’s been really good to me and my family. When you’ve (coached here) 19 years, he’s kind of the coach that sometimes get lost, but he went to two Final fours and won an awful lot of games.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been around a coach that takes more pride in what his ex-players are doing than what he does,” Self added to the Lawrence Journal-World on July 16, 2019 when Owens turned 90.

“But it’s also easier to do that because he’s older and he’s seen his guys grow up to be 60-year-old grown men.”

“He’s an amazing guy,” Self said.

Even the legendary Hall of Fame UCLA coach John Wooden greatly admired Owens. Wooden won 10 NCAA titles in 12 years, including a record seven straight.

Owens wrote about his friendship with Wooden in his book:

“Toward the end of John Wooden’s unparalleled career at UCLA, Wooden and I had established a strong-enough friendship that we exchanged notes at the beginning of each season. Wooden sent this note to me in his first year of his retirement.”

It was dated on March 2, 1976.

“Thanks Ted,

Keep your chin up. Our profession needs more men like you.”

Sincerely,

John Wooden

One of the highest compliments, indeed, from arguably the greatest coach in basketball history.

As the Journal-World reported in 2019, Owens has taught the “games he loves” at such faraway places as Japan, China, Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, Switzerland, the Philippines, Korea, England and Israel.

During a speech in Oklahoma around that time, which the Journal-World wrote that The Oklahoman's Berry Tramel called “one of the best speeches he had ever heard” and “refers to Owens as a American treasure,” Owens spoke about his life in basketball.

“I had some time to dream while I was hoeing cotton back on that farm in southwest Oklahoma,” Owens said. “But my dreams were never so great as to imagine what I have been privileged to do during my lifetime, playing college basketball for the great Hall of Fame coach Bruce Drake at OU, coaching at the University of Kansas, where James Naismith was the first coach and Phog Allen coached and promoted the game, and to coach in the St. Andrew’s of college basketball, Allen Fieldhouse.”

“I have learned that as a coach, your success will be measured by the productive and successful lives of those young men and women for whom you were responsible,” Owens added with great meaning. “A chaplain at the NCAA Final Four was speaking to the coaches at a Sunday church service (years ago) and he said it best: ‘You should always remember that you are not using young men and young women to win a game but that you are using the game to win young men and young women.’”

Owens, who is enshrined in the KU Athletics Hall of Fame, Cameron University Athletics Hall of Fame, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and Oklahoma Sports Hall of  Fame, did just that with young men in his long and storied coaching career. From humble beginnings in Hollis, to playing at OU, coaching at Cameron Junior College, to then getting the biggest break of his life as head coach at KU for 19 years, Owens has touched countless lives beyond measure.

While his KU coaching career ended on a bitter note with his firing in 1983, Owens still revels in returning to Allen Fieldhouse and seeing KU basketball games while catching up with former players and close lifelong friends. He has such fond memories of his time at Mount Oread.

“Coaching in Allen Fieldhouse is like no other experience I have ever encountered,” Owens told Jeff Bollig and Doug Vance in their 2008 book, What IT Means TO Be A Jayhawk.

“Just running out onto the court before the games — and the anticipation of a noise level unknown to most places — was electrifying. Our fans are pretty knowledgeable about basketball and pretty fair about recognizing the great plays of opponents. It isn’t just a game, but an event — the ‘Rock Chalk Chant,’ the pep band, the pompom squad, and the cheerleaders all add significantly to the game. When I go back to games, I can still sing the same songs and chant the same chants as if it were yesterday. That is tradition.

“It is something that stays with you forever. You can walk into a sports apparel store in almost any city and buy a Jayhawk cap. There aren’t any other Jayhawks. It is a unique name with a unique history. I live in Tulsa, and I see people wearing Jayhawk caps and shirts all the time. You can be proud of being a Jayhawk because it represents more than athletic victories. It represents great academics, great tradition, from Dr. Naismith and Dr. Allen and so many great achievements in politics, aerospace, and other professional areas. Being a Jayhawk fills you with pride.

“I stay as close (to the program) as I can while living in Tulsa. ... I love to come back every time I can and see my former players and coaches. It is one of the great joys of my life.”

Recalling former Jayhawk standout Delvy Lewis

.                                                     KU Libraries Digital Collection
Delvy Lewis was one of the most underrated point guards and leaders in KU history. Lewis, a Topeka native who played at KU from 1963-66, teamed with Jo Jo White in the backcourt in 1966 and made it a dream season to remember. KU went 23-4, won the Big Eight championship and advanced to the Midwest Regional final, where it lost to eventual NCAA champs Texas Western.

Lewis was named first-team All-Big Eight his senior year in 1965-66, when he averaged 10.9 points per game and led the team in assists and free throw percentage. He posted career averages of 8.6 points and 2.6 rebounds in 76 games, while shooting 40.2 percent from the field and 75.1 percent at the free throw line.

A fierce competitor and blue-collar worker, Lewis endeared himself to head coach Ted Owens. Lewis and Riney Lochmann were co-captains their senior year in 1965-66.

“I think Riney and I were his (Owens') favorites on that team, because he just appreciated the ‘roll up your sleeves and work,’ and that’s pretty much what Riney and I did,” Lewis told me in 2003 for Jayhawk Insider. “I hustled and gave it all I had every game. Everybody did. We had a group that pretty much got after it. We were pretty no nonsense."

Lewis, who died in 2012, relished playing for Owens and KU.

"I just have nothing but great words to say about Ted Owens as a coach,” Lewis said. "He was a gentleman. I just feel badly, because I think he’s kind of gotten a bad rap, as far as perception. He still has a tremendous winning record. I just hope he gets some credit for what he did, because I think he did a lot more than people realize. To this day, I have the greatest respect for him. He’s just a neat, neat man.”

A die-hard Jayhawk fan growing up with his dad, Lewis has fond memories of listening on the radio with his father to his heroes like B.H. Born and Wilt Chamberlain.

This was father and son time alone to bond, their little word.

KU was where he wanted to go all along.

“It was just a great honor to play at KU,” Lewis said. “It’s a great tradition. To say that you played there and to have some success, is just a thrill.”

Here is a look at Delvy’s recollections on his recruitment to KU and his high school career at Washburn Rural. We talked for over an hour that memorable night in 2003.

...

“I was pretty much headed to K-State, they had offered me a scholarship. Of course, my teammate Ron Paradis, who was a great player, in fact, he was certainly more acclaimed than I was in high school-- Tex Winter had come to the school. That’s where Ron had decided he was going to go and Tex wanted me to go also, and I really wanted to go to KU, but they had not offered me a scholarship. I had several other places that talked to me. Colorado had visited with me a little bit, and a couple of some smaller schools out west. I really honestly just thought I’d probably end up at K-State, and I’d be close to home. I liked Tex Winter. He was a good guy, I was very impressed with him. Then we played in the state tournament my senior year, and we ended up playing Wyandotte in the semi-final. I had a great game. I had 28 points. I just had one of those really good games. After that, I heard from KU. I was voted on the all-state team, both Ron and I both were. They (KU) called and asked to come and visit with us. Of course, my dad was just an avid KU person. He’s passed away, he’s passed away now for a number of years. I can remember sitting at the radio and listening to B.H. Born. He was just an avid fan. Of course, Wilt. That’s where he (dad) would have wanted me to go, but we didn’t think it was going to happen since they hadn’t contacted me. But when they came and visited with me and said they would like me to consider going there, there wasn’t much consideration. That’s where I wanted to go. I chose to go there.

“We had a high school coach who was extremely disciplined. Tom O’Dell was his name. He was just a super high school coach. We won the state tournament as a sophomore with another coach, and then he came in our junior and senior years. The other coach was really laid back and easy going, pretty much do as you please. O’Dell was really structured and really a disciplinarian, really got on you, which was great for me because when I went to college, I really didn’t have any major adjustments fundamentally. I played defense. Fundamentals wasn’t a big stretch. Just the emotion and the stuff we were going through was the hard part to deal with. As far as the fundamental part was, I felt really well prepared. The only thing I needed to work on was going to my left more. I was pretty much a right-handed player. Tom O’ Dell, I give him a tremendous amount of credit for demanding that kind of discipline.

“Gosh we had a lot of memories. We were the little rural school. Back in the 60’s, there were just two divisions. There were two divisions,  2A and 1A, and I guess they did have some lower divisions. Class 2A was the biggest. When we won the state my sophomore year, we were 1A. The next year, I want to say we had 400 and some kids in our school. We were like seven or eight kids too many, so we went to the double A. That’s when we ended up playing Topeka High and all the big double A schools, which had 1500, 1700 kids and we had 400 and we beat them. I remember that was always a big deal. We were always playing the big schools, and we beat them. That’s how we got to the state tournament. We ended up beating Topeka High in regionals and going to state. Then, we played Wyandotte in the semis. We were a real small school. Now Washburn Rural is a big school. 

“I can remember playing in grade school. I can remember that far back. And Ron Paradis, we lived in the same area, so we went to the same school. Pauline was the school system. We always had good teams. I’m sure I probably did (emulate someone), but I don’t remember that. I was just a big fan of KU because of  my dad. He was just an avid KU guy. We’d just listen to the radio, pretty much listened to the games. Like I said, I can remember listening to them when I was a kid, probably like what a lot these kids do today, watching them on the tube. I can remember listening to the Wilt Chamberlain era. In fact, I went up to B. H. Born at the reunion and told him I can remember listening to him play back in the 50’s. My dad was always a fan and always had the games on. I remember Wilt’s group, Maurice King, Bob Billings, all those players.  

“I think it was just a handful of schools, I had a lot of small schools. Colorado voiced a little bit of interest. But it was pretty much Tex Winter, and that’s pretty much where I was going until the Wyandotte game. That was the game that I think caught their eye. Owens, I think he said he was at the game. I don’t know if (Dick) Harp was there or not. I wasn’t really holding out. Back then, they pretty much waited until the season was over before they got commitments. They had recruiting trips. Tex came in and visited with me a couple of times. He took me out to lunch, and visited about the program and what his expectations were. That’s pretty much where I figured I would go. Then, after the season, I started to get the attention from KU. That would have been my choice. Oh sure. I really thought the world of Tex. I could have played for him. We just are a KU family. My dad was such a fan, and it just kind of rubbed off on me. So that was where my heart was. Of course, when I got the  opportunity, there was no question. They offered me a full scholarship, and I said, ‘Lets go.’ He (dad) went to all the games, all the ones that were within reasonable driving area. My mother both went to all the games and just thoroughly loved it. They went to all the games, they were big supporters.”

Lewis still 'thrilled' 40 years later

For Part 2 of my tribute to Delvy Lewis, I am posting my Where Are They Now? story I wrote on him back in the March 20, 2003 issue of Jayhawk Insider. A few weeks later that year, KU marched to the national championship game before losing to Syracuse. Nine years later, I’m just sad Delvy passed too soon (last month on March 5) and wasn’t able to see Bill Self’s Jayhawks make their magical run to the national title game on April 2. Lewis, who always bled crimson and blue, would have been proud.


Jayhawk Insider March 20, 2003

Where Are They Now?

By David Garfield

Delvy Lewis can close his eyes and still feel the chills and excitement of those cold, winter nights as a wonder-eyed 9-year-old growing up in Topeka and listening with his dad to the Kansas basketball games on the radio. Clyde Lewis was an avid KU fan who always dreamed of his son playing for KU one day.

They’d cheer mightily for B.H. Born, and oh sure, Clyde would kick the radio when a call went against his beloved Jayhawks. This was their time together, their own sanctuary. For Lewis, it was a chance to grow closer with his father and fantasize about wearing the crimson and blue.

As a high school senior, Lewis was beginning to think his dream would never become reality. Playing in the shadow of superstar teammate Ron Paradis at Washburn Rural, Lewis was just recruited by K-State and a handful of other major colleges. He was actually planning on signing with the Wildcats until the semifinal game against Wyandotte in the state tournament, when Lewis busted loose for 28 points and finally caught the eye of  the Kansas program.

“Of course, when I got the  opportunity, there was no question,” Lewis said recently from his home in Topeka. “They offered me a full scholarship, and I said, ‘Lets go.’ We just are a KU family. My dad was such a fan, and it just kind of rubbed off on me. That was where my heart was.” 

Signing Lewis turned out to be one of the best decisions Kansas head coach Dick Harp ever made. After a brilliant freshman campaign, Lewis started his sophomore season at point guard for the the first part of the season. Then, Harp experimented with different lineups until academic casualties at semester break forced him to insert Lewis back in as a starter.

And Lewis never looked back.

“That’s really I think when I started being better as a player, because I knew that I was going to play,” he said. “I know that it was a fun thing. It was real challenging.”

Lewis averaged 4.5 points per game in 1963-64, while Kansas struggled with a 13-12 record.  After Harp resigned, assistant coach Ted Owens took over the job and improved Kansas to 17-8 the following season. Owens relied heavily on Lewis (9.8 ppg) and other members of the stellar junior class like Walt Wesley, Riney Lochmann, and Fred Chana.

“I think it was our group that kind of laid the foundation to getting the program back on its feet,” Lewis said. 

A great leader, crafty playmaker, and tenacious defender, Lewis was the consummate coach on the floor. He got the team in its multiple defenses, and on offense, his first, second and third priority was getting the ball to 6-11 center Wesley, who averaged a whopping 23.5 points per game.

“Walt would always yell out, ‘Ball,’ in  his deep old voice,” Lewis said. “I was kidding him about it at the reunion (105 year KU reunion held in February). I kept kidding him about yelling out, ‘Ball, Ball,’ because that’s all he did. He wanted that ball, and the coaches wanted him to have the ball. We got him the ball.”

Kansas was, indeed, enjoying themselves and having a ball during Lewis’ senior season in 1965-66. The Jayhawks, who started the season at 15-3, became a dominant team when Jo Jo White became eligible at semester break. KU won its next eight games before getting beat by Texas Western in the Midwest Regional finals.

Despite the heartbreaking double overtime defeat, Lewis was comforted that Texas Western went on to win the national title.

“I’m very happy they won the whole thing, because the coach from Texas Western (Don Haskins) said that was their toughest game when they beat us,” Lewis said. 

Lewis, 59, truly came into his own his senior year, upping his scoring average (10.9 ppg) and leading the team in assists and free throw percentage. He capped a stellar career by being named All-Big Eight. A co-captain along with Lochmann, Lewis endeared himself to Owens and the Jayhawk faithful with his scrappy play and overall work ethic.       

“I think Riney and I were his (Owens’) favorites on that team, because he just appreciated the ‘roll up your sleeves and work,’ and that’s pretty much what Riney and I did,” Lewis said. “I hustled and gave it all I had every game. Everybody did. We had a group that pretty much got after it. We were pretty no nonsense. “ 

Above all, Lewis loved playing for Owens.

“I just have nothing but great words to say about Ted Owens as a coach,” Lewis said. “He was a gentleman. I just feel badly, because I think he’s kind of gotten a bad rap, as far as perception.  He still has a tremendous winning record. .... I just hope he gets some credit for what he did, because I think he did a lot more than people realize. To this day, I have the greatest respect for him. He’s just a neat, neat man.”

After his KU career ended, Lewis spent the next seven years in the insurance business. In 1972, he joined Xerox for eight years before working the next 10 years in upper management for two other copier companies (Savin Corporation and Modern Business Systems). In 1988, Lewis bought his own copier business, which he owned until 1998. He then opened a consulting company, where he does performance and hiring assessments for CEO’s and executives. Lewis continues this business today, along with working 40 hours per week as account manager of outside sales for Office Depot.

It’s been a rich and rewarding business life for Lewis, who is at peace with himself living back in native Topeka. He returned home in 1968.

“I’ve had more success than I probably deserve,” Lewis said. “I think that’s one of the big pluses of going to a school like KU. The recognition — that’s helped big-time, just the exposure that you get has been a real plus.”

In addition to his work, Lewis coaches a touring high school boys select team from Kansas in the summer. Lewis is so passionate about coaching that he hopes to enter the profession full time in the next year.

“I just enjoy the game,” he said. “I enjoy the competitiveness. I just like to compete, and I enjoy working with kids. I always have.” 

When he’s not working or coaching, Lewis loves watching his daughter Mindi play basketball for MidAmerican Nazarene. And when he’s in the stands or out in other public venues, successful people from all walks of life come up to Lewis and tell him he was their childhood hero. Lewis calls that one of the best compliments he could ever receive.

“I‘ve had a number of people tell me that they used to play outside in their own goal, and would pretend they were in my shoes playing at KU,” Lewis said. “That’s kind of a neat honor for people to think enough of you to emulate you in that regard.” 

Indeed, it is. For Lewis, this only makes his decision to turn down K-State and become a Jayhawk 41 years ago that much sweeter.

“It was just a great honor to play at KU,” Lewis said. “It’s a great tradition. To say that you played there and to have some success, is just a thrill.”

A Closer Look at Delvy Lewis:

Years at KU: 1962-66

Career Notables: All-Big Eight and team co-captain in 1965-66...Led team in assists and free throw percentage in ‘65-66 (82.5 percent)...MVP of Big  8 Holiday Tournament in 1964.

Family: Wife, Karen, and children — Kristi, 29, Kerri, 24, and Mindi, 21.

Education: Majored in Education.

Since Leaving KU: Lewis worked seven years in the insurance business before changing directions and entering the copier industry, where he worked for three companies (Xerox, Savin Corporation and Modern Business Systems) for 17 years until 1988. Lewis then bought his own copier business, which he owned until 1998. Next, Lewis opened a consulting company, where he does assessments for CEO’s and executives.

Currently: Lewis owns his consulting business (Corporate Development Services) in Topeka and works for Office Depot as account manager of outside sales.

Hobbies:  Golf, coaching.

Favorite Memories: Playing and beating K-State on television during frosh year in 1962-63.  “That was unheard of back in those days to have  game (freshman) on TV. There were a lot of people interested in it. Everybody was kind of hyped. It was a big deal.”...Shocking Cincinnati, 51-47, on Dec. 7, 1963 and breaking its 80-plus game home winning streak. “They just had some great players. No one expected us to win that game. I think that was a highlight of that year.”...Hitting the game-winning shot at the buzzer against Colorado on March 2, 1964. “The play was supposed to go to Harry Gibson. I think they figured out what we were going to do. ... That wasn’t there so I just took it to the basket and fortunately made the shot. That was a good feeling.”

On the Jayhawks today: “I think he’s (Roy Williams) a great coach. I think he does it the right way. He’s obviously got that tradition where it’s supposed to be.”

A Tribute to Delvy Lewis

The Kansas Athletics family and Jayhawk Nation suffered a huge blow this past season with the passing of Aubrey Nash (starting point guard on the 1971 Final Four team), Charlie Hoag (four-sport standout who was a member of the 1952 NCAA championship basketball team), Al Correll (first African-American basketball captain and holder of school's single-season free-throw mark with 90 percent in 1964) and Delvy Lewis, a three-year starter and first-team All-Big Eight performer on the 1966 basketball team, one of the best KU squads of all time.

The news that Lewis died last month on March 5 at age 68 at about 4:30 p.m. after a courageous nine-year battle with cancer hit me the hardest. You see, one evening in March 2003, I called up Delvy to interview him for a Where Are They Now? story for Jayhawk Insider. We spent about the next 90 minutes having a wonderful conversation, as Delvy entertained me with his crystal sharp memory of his recruitment to KU, specific Jayhawk games, his unwavering support of his wife, Karen, and daughters — Kristi, Kerri, and Mindi — and what he’d been up to since leaving KU in 1966. It was a special interview, and one I’ve always remembered with great fondness.

Unfortunately, Lewis must have been diagnosed with cancer shortly thereafter, the beginning of a rough nine years for this very spiritual and religious man. He told me during our interview that he hoped to get into coaching full time in the next year, but cancer has a cruel and painful way of changing our life’s plans, our life’s work.

He called me once and left a message on my cell phone thanking me for sending him the article I wrote on him. Delvy said he hoped to see me at a KU game. And then, as he always said at the end of our conversations, he finished the message with these two words: “God bless.”

I believe I ran into him at a KU game in Allen Fieldhouse two times since then, the last on Dec.  3, 2011 when Lewis and the 1966 team were honored at halftime during the South Florida game. I went up to him afterwards and said hello. He said he was still battling his disease and I told him I was pulling and thinking of him.

“Thank you,” this humble man said quietly. “God bless.”

Then he slowly walked away heading north across one of the famed hallways of Allen Fieldhouse.

Three months later, I learned he had passed away. While I didn’t know him well, I felt a loss of someone who patiently took his time with me on that night in 2003 to recall his KU experiences and just what KU basketball meant to him, and also remember so well how gracious Delvy was the few times we met. I think it was Roy Williams who once said that your “time” is the greatest “gift” you can ever bestow an individual, and Delvy always had time for me ... and everyone he came in contact with.

I am not a very religious person, but I truly admired Delvy’s unwavering faith, which no doubt helped him through his battle with bone marrow cancer (multiple myeloma). During our interview in 2003, he told me times were tough and the economy was slow, but he and his wife continued to persevere.

“My wife and I are both Christians, and we know the Lord has a plan for our lives,” Delvy said. “I’m very thankful for all I’ve been blessed with. We’re just trying to do the best we can with what we’ve got.”

I was so happy he was able to attend the 1966 reunion last December before he died, and also thrilled he was inducted into the Topeka Shawnee County Sports Council Hall of Fame in June 2010.

"It's nice to get this while you're alive," Lewis told the Topeka Capital-Journal at the time of his induction. "They gave me three to five years to live and that was seven years ago, so I'm two years on the good side. I've had two bone marrow transplants and my numbers are continually rising, but hey, I still play golf."

The Capital-Journal reported that “with the health battles that both Delvy and his wife, Karen (she is a cancer survivor) have fought, Lewis said he's increasingly appreciative of all the good things that have come his way, including Wednesday's honor.”

"This is really for God's glory because I wouldn't be here," Lewis said. "We're all on borrowed time, we just don't know it.”

Delvy certainly made the most of his time on earth. While I never saw him play at KU (I did see him play an exhibition game in the early 1990s), I’m a Jayhawk sports history buff and know what a great contributor he was to those teams under Dick Harp and Ted Owens from 1963-66.

Delvy, a former standout at Washburn Rural High School whose team won the state championship in 1960 with his dear friend and the late shooting star Ron Paradis, was maybe the unsung hero of the 1966 KU team, which went 23-4 and advanced to the Midwest Regional Finals before losing to eventual NCAA champs Texas Western.

Playing alongside stars like Walt Wesley and Jo Jo White, Lewis was the team’s co-captain, playmaker and leader who got the Jayhawks into their offensive and defensive sets. He was the tenacious defender who never backed down. And he was a terrific free-throw shooter with an 82.5 percentage as a senior. Delvy, quite simply, endeared himself to his teammates, coaches, and Jayhawk Nation.

"Delvy was a great leader and a great competitor,” Owens said in a statement after Lewis’ death. “By sheer force of hard work he made himself an all-league player. His courage and his faith are what I'll remember about him. I'm so glad he was able to come to our (1965-66 team) reunion at Allen Fieldhouse in December.”

Delvy Lewis, who played with boundless courage, faith and heart, died with boundless courage, faith and heart on March 5.

Delvy, “God bless” and R.I.P.