Ted Owens fired after 19 years as KU head basketball coach

Ted Owens restored the glory to the rich Kansas basketball tradition in his first seven years from 1964-71, leading the Jayhawks to three Big Eight titles, one Final Four, and five Big 8 Holiday Tournament Championships.

Owens’ 1965-66 team and 1970-71 squad were two of the finest in KU basketball history; his ‘71 team was the first team in Big Eight history to go 14-0 en route to Owens’ first Final Four.

In seven years, Owens posted a stellar 149-43 record (.776). He had gained national respect among his peers and the future seemed very bright at Mount Oread.

But during the 1970s, his teams struggled with consistency. He and his staff were very inconsistent recruiters, as Owens found himself on the hot seat after repeated two straight down seasons, followed by a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

After the 1971 team reached the Final Four with a 27-3 record, his next two teams went just 11-15 and a dismal 8-18 (worst record in KU history). So Owens found himself on the hot seat, only to be rescued by a dramatic turnaround in 1973-74, when KU went 13-1 in Big Eight play, won the league championship, and advanced to the Final Four. Kansas won the Big 8 again the following year, yet lost to Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Suddenly, it looked like Owens had turned the corner. But he didn’t. After losing four of his top five scorers, KU faltered to just 13-13 in 1975-76 with two sophomores and one freshman in the starting lineup. The 1976-77 team improved to 18-10, but KU just finished fourth in the Big Eight at 8-6.

Max Falkenstien wrote about Owens being under pressure in his 1996 book, Max and the Jayhawks:

“Kansas had demonstrated progress, but the memories of KU’s 13-13 record two years earlier still lingered. Fans were growing restless for another conference championship, and there was a faction of KU supporters who thought it was time for a coaching change. They made their feelings known to (athletic director) Clyde Walker.

“With his job on the line, Ted shook up his staff.”

Owens’ loyal and great longtime top assistant Sam Miranda resigned under heat.

“Ted was a super nice guy. But Ted listened to everyone,” Miranda said in Falkenstien’s book. “He would listen to all the alums who would raise hell. Clyde Walker was the athletic director at the time, and he wanted Ted out of the job. He had tried to get him earlier, but as long as Odd Williams was on the athletic board, Clyde would never be able to fire him. After the 13-13 season, Clyde wanted him gone. He couldn’t get rid of Ted. Well, the next guy down the line was me. When I coached at KU, I recruited my rear end off and coached hard. I didn’t glad-hand the alums or rub noses with them. If I had been more of a diplomat, I might still be here today. But I wasn’t. It was either I was going to resign, or be fired. So I resigned. It was strictly the alums that put the heat on Clyde, and Clyde put the heat on Ted.”

Owens replaced Miranda with new assistant coach Lafayette Norwood in a package deal to land Wichita Heights phenom Darnell Valentine, who Norwood coached in high school. Owens saved his job by going 13-1 and winning the Big Eight title, yet lost to UCLA in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. KU was ranked as high as No. 5 nationally that season.

Owens then had two down years again, going 18-11 and just 15-14 in 1979-80, before climbing out of despair and advancing to the Sweet 16 in 1980-81 (24-8). That team was led by Valentine and super junior Tony Guy.

Little did Owens know that his long coaching career, where he had withstood so much heat, was soon coming to an end.

Forced to rebuild and rely too much on Guy and David Magley, Owens went just 13-14 in 1981-82 (4-10 for 7th place in the Big Eight). He followed that year with another losing season in 1982-83 (13-16 and again 4-10 and tied for 7th place in the Big 8). 

On Feb. 18, 1983, The Oklahoman’s Jim Lassiter wrote about Owens’ future with the headline: ”KU’s Owens Has Survived Some Storm-Filled Years.”

“One Jayhawker has observed that Owens may be the only coach in America who has never had next year to count on. Every December through March you can hear rumblings from the Sunflower State that Owens is history. His teams have either not won enough games, not won enough big games or not been exciting enough.

“Rumors flew through Kansas like sunflower seeds in January when Kansas lost to Oral Roberts University a few days after the Titans had fired their coach in a midnight, mid-season sacking. The gossipers said that if the Hawks didn't turn around and beat Evansville, Owens would join ORU's Ken Hayes in the unemployment lines.

“The Jayhawks saved Owens that test of fire, but the rumors persist. A Denver newspaper reported last Sunday that the Kansas coach will not be around next year. The unattributed report said there is ‘racial tension’ on the squad and a ‘rift on the coaching staff.’ Reportedly, sales in Kansas of that issue of the Denver paper shot out of sight.”

Asked about the report, Owens just smiled. After all, through his 19 years at Kansas, the Kansas coach was known as “Smiling Ted.”

Lassiter soon continued:

“The Kansas coach has always felt he could count on his athletic department administration for backing. But if there's any reason to believe that Owens may truly be in trouble this time, it's because that home support has eroded. Last fall Kansas named Monte Johnson as its new athletic director. Johnson comes from Wichita. That area of Kansas has never been an Owens stronghold, as indeed, it had never been one of Don Fambrough's bases of support. To now, Johnson's most noteworthy action was to fire Fambrough, who had been at KU for 31 years.

“Without Johnson's backing, Owens has only his record and the promise of the future to plead his case. This Kansas team may be one of the youngest of all time. The Jayhawks' starting lineup includes three freshmen and two juniors and turnovers and poor shooting have made this team a chore to watch.

“It's a chore many Kansans are avoiding in record numbers. The irony of Ted Owens' most troubled season ever is that he is finally enjoying a pleasant personal life again. Three years ago he went through a messy divorce, but since then has remarried and at age 52 has started a new family. He and his wife have two babies under the age of two. One Jayhawk says he has never seen Owens happier, or seen him work any harder. The KU coach is confident this young Kansas team will get better and maybe measurably so when 6-11 Greg Dreiling joins it next season. Dreiling started his career at Wichita State, but transferred this season. In practice he has seemed to be Kansas' answer for a big man in the middle.

“After all these years, Ted Owens can't imagine Kansas not giving him the chance to develop Greg Dreiling and this team,” Lassiter added. “And reluctantly, the university will probably give him just one more season as its been doing for the last 19 years.”

Three weeks after that article was published, Owens’ Jayhawks had their game of the year when lowly KU upset heavily favored No. 19 Oklahoma, 87-77, in the first round of the Big Eight Tournament at Norman on March 8, 1983. 

Freshman guard Calvin Thompson caught fire, scoring a career-high 30 points. a KU also held OU superstar and All-American forward Wayman Tisdale to just 13 points on 6-of-18 shooting. Owens walked out of his alma mater victorious and feeling grand.

“It was a great victory, and the players carried me off the court,” Owens told Jeff Bollig and Doug Vance in their 2008 book, What It Means To Be A Jayhawk.

“As they carried me up that ramp to the dressing room, I looked up in the crowd, and there was my coach at Oklahoma, Bruce Drake, and his wonderful wife, Myrtle, smiling and waving at me. That made it an even more incredible night.”

Thompson said that was one of the most favorite memories of his KU career.

“I couldn’t miss in warm-up, and so I just knew I was going to have a good one,” he told me during a 90-minute interview at his home in 1999.

Jeff Dishman, a member of that team, also described that magical night to me in a 2003 interview.

“We kept running a play for Calvin to get open,” Dishman said. “We kept running the same play over and over again, and they never could get it stopped. And, of course, our whole deal on the other end was stopping Wayman Tisdale. I think we held him to his lowest season total. He went for 50 a couple of times that year. I remember it being a total team effort, and Calvin stepped up and hit some big shots. Carl Henry (19 points) had a pretty good game. We pretty much knew if we could close down on Wayman a little bit, we’d have a shot. Nobody expected us to do that, I didn't think, have a shot against them at that point in our season. It was a good memory.

“Calvin really played well,” Dishman added. “We had a specific play to get Carl the ball. He was our first option and Calvin was the second. They kept covering Carl, and hitting Calvin on the second option. He shot a  lot of 15-17 foot jumpers at the top of the key. He kept doing it over and over again. They never did figure it out.”

KU, though, stumbled the next night against Oklahoma State, which featured a point guard named Bill Self (3 points), losing 90-83. Kelly Knight led KU with 26 points and 14 rebounds.

The long season, was at last, over.

There was hope for the future, though, with three talented freshmen in Thompson, Kerry Boagni and Ron Kellogg, and former McDonald’s All-American Dreiling, a 7-foot center with huge potential, was redshirting after transferring from Wichita State.

Owens and lead recruiter, assistant coach Jo Jo White, had also secured a verbal commitment from Curtis Aiken, a great shooter and one of the top high school guards in the country.

The past two years were more seasons of turmoil and losing, and new athletic director Monte Johnson, who had just been on the job for four months and already had fired the loyal Jayhawk football coach Fambrough, had a big decision to make regarding Owens, the second-longest tenured KU basketball coach in history behind Phog Allen of 19 years.

Owens recalled what transpired in his 2013 book, At The Hang-Up.

“Feeling that we were positioned to be a dominate force in the following season, I hoped that the new athletic director, Monte Johnson, would honor the remaining year on my contract and allow me to coach the team,” Owens wrote.

Before Johnson went on vacation with his son to Florida for a week, he called Owens into his office and “wanted me to prepare an evaluation of my program compared to the history of Kansas basketball. ... It was the longest week of my life. ... In my time as head coach at Kansas, we had won 15 Big Eight titles (a combination of regular-season and tournament titles) and advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 1971 and 1974. Fitting Dr. Allen’s criteria for a successful team, the players’ graduation rate was high and they had gone on to successful careers.

“Monte must have known that if he was going to make a change, the timing was ideal, since we were coming off of two seasons that were below the Kansas standards in terms of wins and losses. It was a perfect time to give a new coach the reins to a talented team and allow him to become immediately successful. And that was the decision Monte made.”

So, after 19 years, winning six Big Eight Conference championships, eight Big 8 Holiday Tournament titles, one Big Eight Tournament championship, advancing to the NCAA Tournament seven times, earning Big Eight Coach of the Year five times and named National Coach of the Year in 1978 by Basketball Weekly, Owens was fired.

The embattled KU coach had simply run out of lives. He left KU as the second winningest coach in school history behind the legendary Allen with a record of 348-182 (.657).

Owens was candidly bitter by his firing at the time. But as the years passed, he’s now at peace with himself.

But not then.

“I was absolutely devastated,” he wrote in his book. “I had hoped Chancellor Gene Budig would block the move, but he had been at the university for only the last two years, when our teams weren’t as strong as in previous years. Years later, at the 2009 memorial service for longtime KU athletic director Bob Frederick, Gene told me that if he had taken the time to look at my overall record, he wouldn’t have allowed me to be removed as head coach. Even if it was far too late to change matters, I respected Gene and felt good about what he had said.

“...I fault no one, and I take full responsibility for the decline of the program during the two years that followed our NCAA regional participation in 1981. In the spring of 1983, I had felt that we were positioned to restore the program to its rightful place as a conference power and national-title contender, had they decided to honor the last year of my contract. But we can only speculate about what might have been, and those who have followed me--Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Bill Self--have certainly done great things at the helm of Jayhawk basketball.”

Owens would deeply miss coaching at Kansas, where he formed lifelong relationships and friendships with his players and staff.

“So after 23 years, I was no longer a part of Kansas basketball. Those years were a wonderful time in my life. I loved every minute of it, from the joy of successes to the pain of disappointments. I dearly loved the University of Kansas, and I continue to do so today.”

Owens then wrote sentimentally and emotionally:

“I did something some say a coach shouldn’t do. They’ll say that a coach shouldn’t fall in love with the fans and the players. But I did. I loved the University of Kansas. I loved my players. My biggest fault was that I didn’t want to disappoint people. When we lost a game or experienced failure, I was really hard on myself. I never blamed anyone else.”

At the postseason banquet that year after he was fired, Owens spoke from the heart while also able to deal with his pain by cracking a joke about he and his wife being late that evening.

“We went down to pick up our unemployment checks and the line was a little longer than we expected,” Owens said.

“I won’t say there’s no anger and bitterness — honestly it come and goes, but there is so much to be grateful for,” Owens added. “I have four wonderful children and a wife who supports me. That’s what really matters. Only history will determine what kind of job we did here, but know this ... no one loves this place more than I do.”

The former KU coach had a message at the banquet for the returning Jayhawks.

“I hope you’ll have a great team,” he said. “I hope you’re almost as good as you could have been if we had been there with you.”

KU went 22-10 in 1983-84 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with new coach Larry Brown, who Johnson lured from his previous job as New Jersey Nets head coach.

Owens' former players would miss him being a part of KU basketball. They were quite fond of him, including guard Lance Hill, who played at KU from 1981-83.

“He opened the door for a lot of players here,” Hill told the Lawrence Journal-World. “I won’t forget what Tony Guy said at last year’s banquet. ‘He was a father to me.’”

Finally, Owens looked like a prophet when he said these words at the banquet:

“This team has laid the foundation for greatness in Kansas basketball.”

Indeed, it did.

Dick Harp takes over for Phog Allen as KU head coach

In Phog Allen’s last year as KU’s legendary head coach in 1955-56, the Jayhawks finished just 14-9 before Allen was forced to step down at 70 years old, the age of mandatory retirement. While he appealed all the way to the Board of Regents, it was to no avail.

Allen dearly wanted to have one season coaching his prized recruit Wilt Chamberlain, who would become eligible during the 1956-57 season.

“It would be the thrill of my life to end a long coaching career with a truly great team,” said Allen,  who called his just completed last season “very disappointing.”

The Lawrence Journal-World’s Bill Mayer summed up how close Allen came to his dream of coaching Chamberlain, only to see it never fulfilled.

“Phog was like Moses, who got to see the Promised Land but never was allowed to enter,” Mayer wrote. “The Kansas retirement rule said professors, coaches and other faculty-type people had to retire after the academic year in which they turned 70. Phog Allen hit 70 that night of the freshman-varsity clash in 1955 and gave way to assistant Harp for Wilt's sophomore year of 1956-57.”

Allen’s loyal assistant Dick Harp, though, told John Hendel in “Kansas Jayhawks: History-making basketball” that he actually believed Allen didn’t care to return for the 1956-57 season.

“A lot of people said he wanted to coach Wilt Chamberlain just one season,” Harp said. “But he never told me that. I think it was a case of some people wanted him to do it and he got caught up in it. He was flattered and so let it go on.”

Before Allen’s resignation became official, Harp spoke to the University Daily Kansan about the possible vacant head coaching position:

“As for applying, if the job were open, I presume (athletic director) Dutch Lonborg knows I hope to continue coaching here,” Harp said.

Still, even in the last moments, Harp was pulling for Allen to keep the job.

“If it is possible for Dr. Allen to remain as coach if that is what he wants and thinks is best, I will be happy for him,” Harp said. “No one has had more joy or reaped greater benefits than I have in eight years coaching under Dr. Allen.”

Harp continued talking to the paper about Allen and himself.

“There has been no change in the type of fundamentals we teach here, not in Dr. Allen’s insistence that fundamentals get perfected," Harp said. "Dr. Allen says fundamentals never change. Dr. Allen was years ahead of other coaches in his techniques of teaching and realized before others that without perfection of fundamentals, you can’t play the game well. He’s still a great stickler for doing things correctly.” 

While Harp admitted he had other coaching offers in the past, he has always been happy to remain at Kansas.

“Maybe I’m a sentimental guy--this is our school and I wouldn’t have taken a coaching job anywhere but here,” Harp said. “Sure I’ve been approached by other schools but the most attention I have ever give to another offer was to once an overnight looking at it. I enjoy coaching--particularly the association with the kids. That will keep me in coaching. I could be happy doing a lot of things, but probably not as happy anywhere as in coaching.” 

The student paper wrote that “Harp believes the Allen-built tradition of championship team has stood Kansas in good stead often...and will continue to bring the school victories.”

The paper called Harp an “avid student of the game” whose “studies have included everything I can get my hands on in the way of reading and lectures.”

Off the court, the University Daily Kansan wrote that Harp’s “music desires can be satisfied with a pop concert. It is a sore spot with his wife that he’ll not go dancing, not even at the annual Christmas faculty party.” 

“We’re always playing basketball then,” he grins. 

And KU basketball has always been a central part of Harp’s life, a dream to play for the Jayhawks since he was just 9 years old. Finally, on March 30, 1956, the Kansas Board of Regents named Harp as KU’s new head coach, effective July 1. The Regents also made a statement concerning denying Allen’s written request appeal.

“This board has nothing but the highest respect for Dr. Allen and his desire to serve. This unhappy dilemma always occurs when the retirement rule is applied to a man or woman of vigor, ability and national stature. However, the benefits resulting from the retirement rule far outweigh its disadvantages and the board unanimously feels that it must be applied to all.”

Allen concluded his legendary 46-year career with a 746-264 record, tops in the NCAA before his former pupil Adolph Rupp first broke it. Allen, who had won or shared 31 conference championships, coached at KU for 39 years with a 590-219 record and 24 league titles.

But his coaching career was now over. 

The torch had been passed from the game’s inventor James Naismith, to W.O. Hamilton, to the Father of Basketball Coaching Doc Allen, to now Dick Harp, just the fourth head basketball coach in the Jayhawks’ illustrious history.

It was the job he dreamed of in high school growing up in Rosedale, where his life revolved around KU basketball 365 days per year.

Now, it was his. Dick Harp was the new man in charge of Kansas basketball.

When Harp was announced as the new head coach, it was the beginning of a third chapter in his life and another dream fulfilled. First, he realized his dream of playing for KU. Next, he got the opportunity to become Dr. Allen’s assistant. And now, he was running the program as head coach at his beloved alma mater. He was looking forward to beginning his duties and continuing the rich tradition at Kansas.

“I am greatly honored by my appointment as basketball coach at the University of Kansas,” Harp said in a statement. “However, I cannot help being somewhat saddened by the realization that my intimate relationship with Dr. Allen will no longer continue. I shall certainly look to him for guidance and counsel during my tenure as basketball coach.

“There is not greater basketball heritage in the United States than at our university, and it will be my constant effort to maintain this tradition which has been foster so long and well by Dr. Allen.”

While he was succeeding a legend, Harp didn’t feel any extra pressure to perform. At least he didn’t admit so publicly.

“I never put it in terms of following Doc because that’s not possible,” Harp told Hendel. “It was not possible for anyone to follow Doc Allen. If you knew (Allen) at all, you know that would not be possible. I never gave that a thought.”

In a June 7, 1956 letter to friends, Allen wrote that KU and Harp would seemingly coast with Chamberlain on the team.

“Wilton could make a successful coach out of anyone.” 

Chancellor Franklin Murphy was happy to have Harp on board. He made a statement thanking Allen for his service while also lauding the hiring of Harp.

“The long and distinguished career of Dr. Forrest C. Allen speaks for itself. The records made by his basketball teams, and what is even more important the records made subsequently by members of his teams in their business and professional lives, are eloquent testimony to his unique abilities in not only building championship teams but also building first-class citizens. 

“It is entirely appropriate that his great contributions to the University of Kansas will be forever memorialized in the great field house which bears his name. I believe that the university is fortunate indeed to have obtained, as Dr. Allen’s successor, Mr. Richard Harp, generally recognized as one of the brilliant young basketball coaches in the country today. It is entirely appropriate he is an Allen-trained man. It is our conviction that he is especially equipped to continue the great tradition established by Dr. Allen and indeed to enlarge and further develop it.”

Harp expressed his sentiments to Hendel on what Allen meant to KU basketball.

“The experiences of competition and the the people you meet and the opportunities you have from that should be instrumental in your life as an athlete and not just the winning and losing of the game, he taught that in many different ways.

“In the game itself that is when his competitiveness surfaced. As long as you’re in the game, you may as well do your very best to win that. But he thought there was more to athletics other than the outcome of the game.”

Harp, who like Allen believed in a higher purpose for basketball, had the good fortune of further developing the great KU basketball tradition his first season with the arrival of Chamberlain to Mount Oread.

“I think Kansas will have a good 1956-57 basketball team,” Harp said in a glaring understatement.

It would turn out to be a magical run to the national championship game.

Ricky Ross: A shooting star who flamed out way too soon

This article was published in Jayhawk Illustrated.

By David Garfield

It was one of the happiest days of my life.  

Flash back to April 1979 when high school phenom Ricky Ross from Wichita South signed with Kansas. He chose the Jayhawks over North Carolina, Arkansas and Wichita State.

Ross, who verbally committed to KU twice before “wavering” and ultimately signing with the Jayhawks, told the Lawrence Journal-World at the time “that there was very big pressure” to choose KU, with his high school coach Bill Himebaugh, his mother, and KU backers in Wichita all favoring Kansas.

But now that his decision was finally made, he was looking forward to starting his collegiate career in Lawrence.

“I’m excited about playing with Darnell (Valentine, KU junior-to-be point guard and All-American candidate),” Ross said. “With all the pro coaches and scouts that will be watching him the next two years, that has to be a plus for me, too.”

Himebaugh was elated his franchise player was going to be a Jayhawk.

“I think he had KU in his mind all along,” Himebaugh said. “He’s the type of player who can turn a program around. And that guard tandem of KU now has to be one of the best around.”

I was 12 years old growing up in Lawrence, and recall going to our preseason baseball meeting at coach Bill Platz’s house that night after learning Ross had signed with Kansas.

As soon as I arrived, my buddy asked me, “Did you see we got Ricky Ross?”

I smiled and said I did.

For someone whose life revolved around KU basketball 365 days a year, the thought of Ross teaming with Valentine in the KU backcourt had me salivating. They would be the best guard tandem in college basketball, I predicted. With Valentine one of the best penetrators in college hoops and Ross a deadly pure shooter, I believed they could revolutionize Kansas basketball.

As I sat happily during our baseball meeting looking forward to my final season with the Merchants, my mind couldn’t help but dance with images of Ross raining jump shots throughout Allen Fieldhouse. The fans would come to their feet and roar. KU would win the Big Eight title. And then the Jayhawks would make a deep run in March and win the national championship. 

I had this all figured out. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

***

With Wichita Heights standout and KU signee Perry Ellis concluding a memorable high school career (he led his team to four consecutive state championships and a 97-3 record while Heights set a state record with 62 straight victories), the 6-8 forward has been compared to some of the greatest players in Wichita City League history.

Including Ricky Ross.

Longtime Wichita Eagle columnist Bob Lutz penned in his February blog that Ross ranks as the greatest player to come out of Wichita that he’s seen since the early-1960s. High praise, indeed, considering Wichita City League hoops has produced the likes of NBA players Valentine, Antoine Carr, and former Jayhawk star Greg Dreiling. 

With Ross in the news, I’ve been thinking of him more often these days, not that he’s ever drifted far from my thoughts since that magical day in 1979 when I read he was going to be a Jayhawk, the next superstar to don the crimson and blue.

He was a ballyhooed McDonald’s All-American and part of arguably the greatest high school senior class of all time, which also included Ralph Sampson, Dominique Wilkins, Isiah Thomas, James Worthy and Jon Paxson. Ross led Wichita South to consecutive state championships and broke Valentine’s City League career scoring record while averaging 32.1 points his senior season.

He once scored 47 points in a game (before the three-point shot), a City League record which stood for 32 years before Jayhawk-to-be and Wichita North standout Conner Frankamp broke it with 52 points in December 2010.

Ross, along with fellow McDonald’s All-Americans Valentine and Tony Guy, was a key reason why KU still had high hopes for the 1979-80 season despite losing starters Paul Mokeski and Wilmore Fowler (he transferred to Georgia after his sophomore season) from the 1978-1979 team, which went 18-11 and won the Big Eight Holiday Tournament.

The Jayhawks, though, stumbled out of the gate, losing five of their first nine games. After next winning three straight, KU finished the season losing nine of its final 17 games to finish just 15-14.

The parts just never fit, and Ross never found his way, despite finishing second on the team with 11.7 points per game. He pouted when he was on the bench and pouted when he didn’t get the ball.

What was supposed to be a dream season and a dream backcourt never materialized. My thoughts of winning the national championship dashed early in the season, although I still looked forward to watching Ross play in the Phog. He had one of the most beautiful shots I had ever seen, picture-perfect form with a feathery touch that he released so effortlessly, the kind of jumper that former superscout Howard Garfinkel might describe as “soft as drifting fog.”

And he had all the confidence in the world. My dad, who was a professor of social welfare at KU for 34 years (his most famous student was KU legend Bud Stallworth), once spoke to Ross on campus. He said Ricky told him that he believed all his shots would hit nothing but net.

He ended up shooting 44.4 percent from the field and 73.3 percent at the free-throw line, while chipping in 1.7 assists, 1.0 steals, and 2.5 rebounds per game. Along with his 11.7 point average, these certainly weren’t All-American stats. And he and Valentine certainly didn’t revolutionize Kansas basketball as I had hoped.

Still, I was hopeful he would blossom at Kansas the next three seasons. But then word came out prior to his sophomore season that Ross had decided to transfer after being caught with two other KU teammates using an assistant coach’s credit card for long-distance phone calls. I was stunned and saddened that Ross would leave. While I didn’t think Ricky seemed too happy at KU, I saw Kansas basketball through rose-colored classes and believed everything would work out.

So I decided to write a petition imploring Ricky to stay at KU. I would get all my friends and classmates to sign it, deliver it to Ricky, and surely he would see how much he was still loved by Jayhawk fans and decide to stay.

That was my plan at age 13, when I still believed in miracles, I still believed in the unlimited possibilities of the mind, and I still believed everything was possible after watching my beloved Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series a year before after trailing Baltimore three games to one.

My hero Willie Stargell was the Pirates’ savior who rallied his team and hit the game-winning home run in Game 7 to lift Pittsburgh to the sweetest victory of my life. Now, as events and circumstances suggested otherwise, I held on to faint hope that Ricky was still KU’s savior who could find happiness in Lawrence.

One day in Spanish class at South Junior High, I was working on my petition (instead of paying attention to the teacher) when my classmate Amy Lienhard, who sat next to me, asked me what I was doing. I told her my mission and asked if she would sign my petition and help keep Ricky in Kansas.

“Oh no,” she said. “We don’t want him.”

Amy, the daughter of Bill Lienhard, a starter on the 1952 KU national championship team, was one of the nicest and most popular people in school. I respected her opinion, and I believed if she wouldn’t sign my petition, who else would? Maybe Amy was right, I thought. Maybe Ricky wasn’t a good fit for KU.

Just like that, I dropped my petition. Later, I heard stories of how assistant coach Lafayette Norwood used to walk Ricky to class, and he’d typically walk out the back door. I also heard whispers he didn’t get along with Valentine.

Guy relayed an anecdote to me several years ago about Ross’ selfishness. The story goes that Ross scored over 20 points one night, but KU lost. Afterwards, all the Jayhawks were feeling down in the locker room, except Ross. He was upbeat since he had a good game and wondered why his teammates were so depressed.

Looking back, it was indeed best that Ricky left KU. Kansas basketball moved on without him, bouncing back from that disastrous 15-14 year and advancing to the Sweet 16 the following season in 1980-81. Guy emerged as a star and the team’s leading scorer after being moved back to his natural position at shooting guard, where Ross had played the previous season. Valentine and Guy became one of the best backcourts in college hoops, and there was great team chemistry, unlike in Ross’ freshman season, where dissension and egos ruled KU hoops.

***

But whatever happened to my hero Ricky Ross? Did he ever live up to the hype? Did he ever find stardom in college and the NBA?

After finishing his lone season at KU, Ross was a lost soul trying to find himself. He made brief stops at Wichita State (left school after failing to qualify academically) and Santa Ana (Calif.) College (he never actually enrolled) before landing at the College of Marin in California, where he averaged a nation-leading 30.5 points while achieving — get this — a 3.0 GPA.

Ross finally realized if he wanted to play hoops, he had to crack the books. In a 1982 interview with Sports Illustrated , Ross credited College of Marin head coach John Johnson for getting his life back on track. 

“Coach Johnson was a big influence in turning me around," Ross told SI. "I needed somebody like that, and fortunately I ran into a great guy."

Ross ran into another “great guy” and strong authority figure in head coach Nolan Richardson, when he next transferred to Tulsa. He found great success there in two seasons (1982-84), averaging 17.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, while becoming the player everybody expected out of high school.

I ran into Richardson in November 2008 after his press conference leading up to his induction into the College Basketball Hall of Fame that night in Kansas City. Richardson smiled when I mentioned Ross’ name.

“Ricky Ross, my man,” Richardson said. “Let me tell you what, Ricky played for me for two years. That kid could shoot the basketball. He was a player. I always thought he could have been a very, very, very super point guard because he was 6-7, he was rangy. The thing that Ricky didn’t play when he got there, is he wouldn’t play (any) defense because he was such an offensive threat. But in his senior year, he became a very good defensive player in our style.”

I thought surely Ross would make the NBA after his experience at Tulsa and follow the lead of his fellow high school class members of 1979 who excelled in the pros like Sampson, Wilkins and Thomas.

I was puzzled that he didn’t get selected until the third round (53rd pick overall) in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Washington Bullets, and even more confused when I didn’t see Ross on the opening day NBA roster.

And he wasn’t on a roster the next year. Or the next. Or the next.

You see, Ricky Ross — this once can’t miss superstar — never made the NBA, and to my knowledge, never found basketball success outside the NBA like in Europe or the minor leagues. I asked Richardson that November day in Kansas City what happened.

“I’ve had several players (play in the NBA), but Ricky to me should have been one of those guys that spent 10 or 12 years in the NBA,” Richardson said. “I think sometimes he listened to the wrong people, and the wrong people kept (telling) him the wrong things. It’s a combination of many things, but Ricky had so many other people in his life telling him what to do. Sometimes, those people were more concerned about themselves than about Ricky Ross.”

I always had a curiosity and affinity for Richardson’s “man.” That’s what drove me to pick up the phone and call then-KU coach Larry Brown 20 years earlier on his Hawk Talk radio show during the 1987-88 season and ask his thoughts on why Ross never found his way to the NBA.

“Ricky Ross’ problem was with his head more than his ability,” Brown said. “He didn’t like school, he wasn’t the hardest worker, and I think he got himself into a rut. He had a great year at Tulsa his senior year. I just don’t think he gave himself enough chance to be prepared for four years, and that’s why he didn’t make it.”

That fact saddens Brian Martin, the former Jayhawk forward who played against Ross in high school at Wichita Northwest. Martin said Ross was the bomb in high school.

“I just thought he was one of the most pure shooters I ever saw,” Martin told me. “He would dribble across the court, one dribble, look at his high school coach, his high school coach would give him the nod, he’d pull up and shoot. Nothing but net. He did that to us twice in one game in high school. He was amazing. Unfortunately, he had some of the greatest talent I think any guard had, too bad it was a waste. He was a phenomenal shooter.”

Richardson, too, thought Ross was all the rage at Wichita South.

“Out of high school, whew, Ricky was high, high profile,” Richardson gushed. “He was so high we didn’t even try (to recruit him) because we knew he’d probably end up going to Kansas. And then when he went off to junior college and when things changed, we started recruiting him.”

While Martin said he wasn’t around Ross when he traveled on his basketball odyssey after high school, he had his doubts that Ricky possessed the mental makeup to be an NBA player or have success playing in other professional leagues.

“I just don’t think he was disciplined enough to be able to handle the structure and life because in pro ball, it’s tough,” said Martin, who played briefly in the NBA and several years in the minor leagues and overseas. “Your lifestyle outside the game, nobody cares what you do as long as you show up for the games. I saw a lot guys when I was playing that couldn’t hack the responsibilities. Great talents, but couldn’t make it because they were on their own.”

Martin added that Ross was very close to his mom.

“I think he had a hard time being that far away from family,” Martin said.

***

Far away — both literally and figuratively — from the bright lights of the NBA — I watched Ricky Ross play an AAU game in Topeka in the early-to-mid 1990s. When I first heard he’d be in Topeka, despite knowing Ross was past his prime and in his mid-30s, I was overjoyed and thrilled to get another glimpse at the player I once worshipped.

So I sat in Lee Arena on the Washburn campus with about 100 other fans and watched Ross play a virtually meaningless basketball game. Armed with a notebook and pen, I wanted to write down everything I saw, every move Ross made, every shot that swished through the net. I wanted to rediscover the great talent who moved me so much that day I read he had signed with Kansas, the one who had initially inspired me to write a petition asking Ricky to stay at Kansas.

I was soon disappointed in what I saw. I was no longer an impressionable 13-year-old boy, but a young man trying to find my way who was about to turn 30. Maybe that was part of the reason I was not awed by Ricky’s jump shot this night. But with my wiser eyes, the older and aging Ricky didn’t move as well, didn’t shoot as well, didn’t have that same magic that I once remembered.

He didn’t stand out during the game, and he certainly wasn’t the Second Coming headed to the League. Ricky, who had surely given up that dream years ago, was just a former shooting star who had flamed out way too soon, now trying to seemingly feed his hoops fix and maybe hold on to part of his past when he was the baddest baller ever out of Wichita. 

From an outsider’s perspective, he seemed inexpressive, maybe even solemn that day, and I truly wondered if he ever found peace or if life was just filled with memories and yesterday’s hoop dreams.

Memories when he lit up Tulsa basketball for two years, memories of when he was the bringing crowds to their feet in Wichita, memories that were surely brought to life if he read Lutz’s words about him in February when he ranked him the No. 1 all-time City League player in Wichita. (Ross, a mystery man who’s kept out of the public eye all these years and been extremely difficult for media to track down, is reportedly still living and working in Wichita.)

“Go down the list of basketball attributes, and Ross gets an ‘A’ in all,” Lutz wrote in his blog. “He was a prolific scorer, but his mentality was the pass first, shoot second. He didn’t shy away from rebounding, despite a spindly frame on a 6-6 body. And Ross played defense because his coach, Bill Himebaugh, wouldn’t allow him not to.”

For a moment, Ricky Ross was a young, McDonald’s All-American again, back on top where he belonged. But after reading Lutz’s remarks, I soon became saddened.

I just couldn’t help wonder and ask myself: What might have been?

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.”