Danny Manning had impressive NBA career and persevered through three ACL surgeries

Danny Manning, who won a bronze medal with the U.S. Olympic team in the summer of 1988, was expected to make an indelible mark in the NBA after being selected No. 1 in the 1988 June NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers. Immediately after winning the lottery the previous month, L.A. general manager Elgin Baylor proclaimed on national television that Manning was the Clippers’ franchise player, a team searching for greatness and salvation after missing the playoffs for 12 years.

"This is the happiest moment I've had since I've been associated with basketball,” the Hall of Famer Baylor told the Los Angeles Times. “It's a great moment for the L.A. Clippers. My prayers worked. I had everyone praying every day and night. This is terrific."

Manning started from day one for head coach Mike Schuler and averaged 16.7 points and 6.6 rebounds before he tore his ACL after just 26 games.

“The doctors told us that he would never play again and that his career was over,” Manning’s wife, Julie, told Jazz HomeCourt Magazine in 2001.

But Manning defied the odds knowing that his former KU teammate Archie Marshall underwent the same surgery and returned to action. The former KU All-American was a solid player the next two seasons, averaging 16.3 points in 1989-90 and 15.9 points in 1990-91. Still, he was not 100 percent and battled tendinitis in his knee.

Manning’s career underwent a dramatic transformation during the 1991-92 season when he regained his health and his former KU coach Larry Brown replaced Schuler as Clippers’ head coach. With Brown directing the offense Manning’s way, he averaged a career-high 19.3 points per game. He also averaged career bests in rebounds (6.9 rpg), steals (1.65 spg), blocks (1.49 bpg) and field goal percentage (.542, No. 8 in NBA) while finally leading the Clippers to the playoffs.

Manning’s best was yet to come.

The following year in 1992-93, Manning was the talk of the NBA, becoming the first Clipper since Marques Johnson (1986) to play in the All-Star game. He led L.A. in scoring (22.8 ppg) and set a club record for total points with 1,800 as the Clippers advanced to the playoffs again before being ousted in the first round for the second-straight year.

“(Manning’s) the closest thing in this league to Magic Johnson,” New York Knicks coach Pat Riley said.

But Manning and Brown had their problems. It was difficult for Manning to play for the same demanding coach twice in his life, and he insisted on a trade after one game when Brown harped on him for not crashing the boards.

Brown left the Clippers after the season to become the Indiana Pacers head coach, while Manning continued to shine in Los Angeles. He was selected as an All-Star again in 1994 and averaged 23.7 points in 42 games.

However, the Clippers feared they’d lose Manning to free agency next season so shipped the franchise’s all-time leading scorer to Atlanta in February of 1994 for future Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins. Manning led the Hawks to the best record in the Eastern Conference and paced the team with 20.0 points per game in Atlanta’s first-round playoff loss to Brown’s Pacers.

He then landed in Phoenix the next season in hopes of winning an NBA championship, while selflessly taking a paycut to achieve that dream

As the team’s No. 2 option behind Charles Barkley, Manning was more comfortable in that role and excelled in the Suns’ freewheeling attack. He helped lead Phoenix to the best record in the NBA (36-10) before disaster struck again when Manning tore his right ACL in practice on Feb. 6, 1995. Phoenix was eventually eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.

Danny Schayes, a member of that Suns’ team, believes Phoenix would have won the championship with Manning in the lineup.

“I think so,” Schayes told me. “We were a dominant team that year. But those were the breaks of the game. He had a terrific year for us. It’s certainly a shame that it (injury) happened.”

“He was just a key part of our team,” Schayes added. “He was one of those guys that played every position well. He made everything happen from wherever he was on the court.”

Schayes commented that Manning fit in great with Phoenix's free-flowing offense.

“He was certainly athletic, (but) he was not a guy who relied on his athletic ability to get the job done,” Schayes said. “He was always the guy who thought the game and why he was so good for us is because we played a freelance style, which allowed guys like me and him and Danny Ainge, guys who knew how to play, to really excel together. And those of us who had that same kind of individual style, we could kind of read each other’s thoughts. It was very cool.”

Ten months later, Manning became the first player in NBA history to return to action after blowing out ACL’s in both knees. However, he was never the same and labeled a role player for the first time in his career.

Still, he earned the NBA Sixth Man Award with the Suns in 1998 after averaging 13.5 points and 5.2 rebounds. But Manning suffered heartache when he blew out his knee again near the end of the season. He could have easily retired, but returned to play four and a half more seasons with Phoenix, Milwaukee, Dallas and Detroit.

“He wasn’t ready to quit,” Julie Manning told HomeCourt Magazine. “He was just determined to do it. Besides, basketball is in his blood, he has to do it.”

Without fanfare, his agent Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports released a statement announcing Manning’s official retirement from the NBA on Sept. 12, 2003.

"It has been a pleasure and a honor to represent Danny Manning,” Bartelstein said. “He exemplifies everything you look for in a professional athlete.”

Manning answered questions that day on nba.com about his playing career. He wrote that his top professional highlight “was winning the Sixth Man Award or being named an All-Star. But probably most of all, it was being able to play for so long after three knee surgeries. ... I was blessed with great doctors, medical staff and trainers. It's just a lot of repetition. You want to get your muscles to fire up like they are supposed to. You need a little stubbornness to get through it all.”

And then Manning gave his farewell:

“Thanks to all my friends for having kind words for me. To my wife and two children for their support. And to the fans, the few Danny Manning fans out there (laughs), I really appreciate all your support.”

Manning retired after 15 years and 883 regular-season games with career averages of 14.0 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, while shooting 51.1 percent from the field. No, certainly not Hall of Fame numbers, but Manning left an indelible mark as one of the greatest competitors in sports history, one of the few athletes to come back from three reconstructive knee surgeries. 

“I give him tons of credit, ” Schayes said. “He still had a great career for undergoing three major knee (surgeries). There aren’t many guys that can say that.”

Ted Juneau, Manning's coach at Lawrence High School and one of his best friends, agrees.

“You blow your knee out three times. I don’t think any of us can really imagine what that’s like,” Juneau told me in 1998. “It speaks a lot about courage and a lot about pride and the work it takes and his ability to do that. That’s probably the one thing that amazes me about him.

“No one understands how hard he worked to be as good as he was,” Juneau added. “People don’t understand the amount of work that he put into being a very good player, and the pride he took in doing that. He has pride in everything he does, and I think he’s always going to be successful because he’s very, very competitive. He doesn’t want to lose. He’s always willing to work very hard to achieve his goals.”

Manning’s career will perhaps be remembered most for his all-around game and versatility. So says Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, Manning’s teammate with Phoenix.

“If you go back and think about his game,” Barkley said, “the biggest advantage he had, he was so versatile. I don’t even know what position (he had). He was one of those guys who didn’t have a position. That’s pretty remarkable to be in that situation. Was he a power forward? Was he a small forward? He was just a very unique player.”

Hall of Famer and TV analyst Bill Walton called Manning “one of the most graceful players of his era.”

He was a “graceful” and “unique player” who never felt comfortable as the go-to scorer. Juneau said it just wasn’t in Manning’s makeup to dominate games consistently with his scoring.

“I think when it’s crunch time, no one wants to win more than he,” Juneau said. “He’ll do what it takes, but he’s not going to ever be someone that demands the attention.”

Lafayette Norwood, the former KU assistant coach under Ted Owens, agrees.

“Danny didn’t take over as a senior in high school here (Lawrence High in 1983-84),” Norwood said. “In fact, with the talent he had, he could have shot even additional shots he didn’t take. But he rather played (team) ball. It takes a special person to play like that. Kids today, you got some kids, coach says shoot the ball, they’ll just shoot it anytime without in regard of his teammates.”  

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On Nov. 23, 2008 at Sprint Center, Manning was the center of attention and headline act at his College Basketball Hall of Fame induction. Some of his former Jayhawk teammates were here, including Jeff Gueldner, Mike Maddox and Chris Piper.

“We were taking bets on whether he’d show up tonight,” Gueldner cracked about the private Manning. “We thought he might do this thing via teleconference.”

Seriously, Gueldner said:

“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Danny is a class act from a players’ standpoint, from a fans’ standpoint.”

Ed Manning, Danny’s dad and assistant coach at Kansas during the Brown era, was overwhelmed with emotion.

“It’s just great,” Ed said with a huge smile. “I’m thrilled to death. I’m happy for him. It’s just a great honor for him to be up there with these super guys. I’m almost lost for words.”

Ask anybody in the basketball “know” about Manning’s pro career, and they usually say the same statement: he likely would have been an NBA Hall of Famer if not for the injuries.

“Knee injuries prevented him from probably being a 10-time type All-Star,”KU coach Bill Self said. “He scored (over 12,000) points as a pro and was never healthy. He would (have gone) down as one of the best.

“But to me, collegiately, he does go down as one of the best. We think of Bird, Jordan or Magic and the greatest players of what they accomplished in the pros, but when you break down what they accomplished in college, Danny’s career is up there with all those guys.”

Former NBA player Brad Lohaus thought Manning would be a Hall of Famer, if not for the injuries.

“(That) kind of really curtailed what he could have done,”  Lohaus said. “We had the same agent so I’ve known Danny for a lot of years, one of the great college basketball players ever and he would have been one of the all-time pros but the knees just don’t hold up.

“He had a great NBA career. Compared to his college career, it kind of takes a back seat. But he’s very special. He was really quick. He’s so big, you don’t realize how quick he was. That’s why he was so good. He could handle the ball at 6-10, shoot the ball, smart player. He had it all.”

Former Suns’ teammate A.C. Green said Manning was a joy to play with and the consummate teammate.

“Some guys over the years, you just really enjoy being around,” Green told me in 1999. “He’s kind of one of those off the court guys that you can hang out with because he’s real down to earth, a real person. So I’ve always enjoyed being around Danny, and I really enjoyed playing with him on a daily basis because he’s a battler. He’s got a license to battle and likes to go to work and win games. I have nothing but really admiration for Danny.”

Even today and in recent years, Manning’s name comes up among NBA coaches and fans.

“Manning was a phenomenal player, until his knees took over,” a Suns’ fan posted on azcentral.com in 2009. “It's a shame to think about how great he could've been.”

Manning, though, doesn’t dwell on the past or all the “what-ifs?” He’s at peace with himself.

“I guess at times they’re nice to hear,” Manning said about Brown predicting he’d once become one of the all-time greats.

“But the bottom line is things happen for a reason. I’m very happy with my career. Everybody has obstacles, everybody has journeys that have different turns. I enjoyed my journey. It’s just time for another phase in my life, which is coaching and moving forward.”

Brown always said during Manning’s KU career that he was the “best player I ever been associated with.” 

“He’s what college athletics is all about,” Brown once told the Lawrence Journal-World. “He deserves every single thing he’s gotten.”

Including induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

“It’s a pretty special thing,” Brown said two months before Manning was enshrined. “If you look at our team (in 1988), you realize how special a player he was because he carried a lot of us. He had a great career with a lot of adversity in the pros.”

“He had a great IQ,” Brown added. “He grew up with his dad, who was a pretty bright basketball player and the ultimate team guy. He taught Danny early on how to respect the game and how to play the right way. For a guy his size, in a lot of ways he played like a guard. 

“Everybody used to compare him to Magic, which is probably the highest compliment you can have. I think when they were doing that, they were talking about the fact how he made players better, just by doing the little things.”

Brown smiled.

“I can’t imagine a college player ever being better than him or accomplishing more than he did,” Brown said. “He’s as good a college player as I ever saw.”

Danny Manning and Larry Brown's "tradeoff" led Jayhawks to national title in 1988

This story talks about a “tradeoff” Danny Manning and KU coach Larry Brown made, which former voice of the Jayhawks Tom Hedrick once told me about. Hedrick said this was a defining moment of the 1988 championship season and led KU to the title. Tom, as nice, genuine and positive a person as you’ll ever meet, always has great stories to share with me. This was one I had never heard, and am very surprised that Manning or his ‘88 teammates have never publicly talked about it. I wrote about this in an article in 2007 regarding a story on Brandon Rush.

I also go into detail about another defining moment that season involving a fight between Manning’s teammates Clint Normore and Mike Masucci in the locker room and Manning failing to break it up, as reported by John Feinstein in his New York Times bestselling 1988 book,  A Season Inside.

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For Daniel Ricardo Manning, his College Basketball Hall of Fame induction in 2008 was a long time coming since he first arrived on the KU campus in fall of 1984. A great deal had changed since then. He was still the quiet, humble and genuine person he had always been, but now much more confident and at ease with the media.

Manning never asked for fame or adulation. But he’s handled it gracefully his entire basketball career. Not that being the star was ever simple.

“If Danny had his way, he would be able to play the way he does but no one but the other guys (players) would know about it,” his father and then-KU assistant coach Ed Manning told the Washington Post in 1988.

“But that’s not the way life is. Being the best isn’t always easy and it isn’t just playing the game. Danny has to learn that.”

For four years at KU, Brown and Ed Manning pushed him to be the best, to take responsibility for greatness, to live up to his potential, to believe in himself, to become a true leader and dominant player.

The fiery Brown constantly harped and yelled at Manning in practice.

“Danny and Larry probably had pretty much a love, hate relationship,” said Ted Juneau, Manning’s high school coach, one of his best friends, and godfather to his son, Evan.

“Danny’s a pretty sensitive kid, and Larry’s kind of in your face. I think in some ways, that was tough on Danny.”

But like Manning, Brown wanted to be liked. He had a soft side off the hardwood.

“You can be scared of Coach Brown for a while,” Manning told Kansas City Magazine in 1985. “I know I was. But then, you talk to him in his office and you feel like you’re part of his family.

“It’s a special feeling.”

“Special” was a word Brown and other hoops experts used frequently to describe Manning’s game. He was a multidimensional 6-10 forward who could dribble the ball like a point guard, lead the fast break, make wispy passes like Magic Johnson, while kill you in the post with his patented and soft jump hook.

Manning was expected to change the game and revolutionize the forward position.

“He does more than anybody since Bird and Magic,” then-Indiana Pacers scout Tom Newell told Sports Illustrated during Manning’s sophomore year in 1986.

"When he's 24, 25, people will just sit back and marvel at this guy. He's a whole new concept in basketball."

In his first college game against Maryland, Manning showed he could bang with All-American Len Bias and recorded a double-double (12 points and 12 rebounds). Manning finished second on the team in scoring that 1984-85 season at 14.6 points and led the team in rebounding with 7.6 boards per game. He was named Freshman of the Year by Basketball Times and NBC-TV.

As a sophomore, he still didn’t want to step on the toes of KU’s three star seniors — Ron Kellogg, Calvin Thompson and Greg Dreiling — but finally came alive in Big Eight play. Manning averaged 20 points per game in the conference and was selected as a consensus second-team All-American.

His play was making scouts, opposing coaches and writers shake their heads in wonder. The Dallas Morning News wrote this glowing assessment just before Manning played in his first Final Four in March of 1986:

“The game has gotten too good for its own good, one senses. If the sun always shines, then what makes a good day? If everyone can play this game, then where do we find our stars? Thankfully the game has been rescued from its drift toward a conformed excellence. It happens when one attends a Kansas basketball game and beholds an original. It happens when a 6-foot-11, 19-year-old catches the ball, turns towards the basket and shoots. It happens in the basketball world of Danny Manning.”

Unfortunately, in Manning’s worst game of his college career, he scored just four points and fouled out in KU’s loss to Duke in the national semifinals.

Still, it was a magical season for Manning (16.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg), who became the first Jayhawk ever to score more than 1,000 points after his sophomore season.

With Dreiling, Thompson and Kellogg completing their collegiate careers, Manning became KU’s go-to player his junior season, albeit a reluctant star and averaged 23.9 points per game. He was named a consensus first-team All-American and scored 30 points or more nine times, including a career-high 42 versus Southwest Missouri State in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

While KU lost in the Sweet 16 to Georgetown, many Jayhawk fans thought KU could win the national title in Manning’s senior year in 1987-88 with the addition of highly touted junior college transfer Marvin Branch, in addition to talented juco guards Otis Livingston and Lincoln Minor. Basketball Times predicted KU would win it all.

However, Manning’s farewell season began like a nightmare as Kansas struggled with chemistry, injuries and academic problems. KU was 12-8 and seemed headed towards the NIT instead of a national championship. 

Manning and the Jayhawks made a remarkable turnaround with the insertion of sophomore guard Jeff Gueldner in the starting lineup at shooting guard and Kevin Pritchard at point guard after Livingston and Minor didn’t cut it at the point. After losing four straight in late January and early February, KU won nine of its next 11 games entering the NCAA Tournament. 

But the defining moment in KU’s road to the national championship truly happened when former voice of the Jayhawks Tom Hedrick saw Manning at a barbershop in Lawrence on Feb. 1, 1988.

 “Danny didn’t go to the hole until the last 10 games of his senior year,” Hedrick told me. “He did that with a tradeoff. The Jayhawks were 12-8 and 1-5 (1-4) in the conference, and I only said two things to him. I said, ‘How are you coming?’ He said, ‘I can’t wait for the season to end.’ I started to laugh. Then I said, ‘Does it bother Kevin Pritchard that Larry Brown yells at him a lot?’ He said, ‘It bothers him a lot. But I’m going to take care of that.’ So he went to see coach Brown that afternoon and made a tradeoff. He said, ‘OK coach, you quit yelling at Kevin and I’ll go to the hole. I’ll score more. That’s what you want. This is what I want.’ That’s again what a team leader Danny Manning was. Well, it made them a championship team.”

Hedrick calls Manning and Jo Jo White the “two best team players I ever saw here (KU).”  He said Manning put the team first when he had that pivotal conversation with Brown.

Manning could be dominant, but Brown wanted more. After Manning burned Iowa State for 39 points in KU’s 82-72 victory at Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 13, 1988, the perfectionist Brown wasn’t exactly satisfied.

“A great player would have had 50,” Brown said.

 

John Feinstein, the New York Times bestselling author of his 1988 book, A Season Inside, had full access to Manning and the KU basketball program during the 1987-88 season. He either didn’t know about the “tradeoff” between Manning and Brown regarding Pritchard, or ignorantly failed to mention it.

However, Feinstein wrote about another defining moment that season, which happened when Brown became “furious” at Manning for failing to break up a fight with punches thrown in the locker room after practice between teammates Clint Normore and Mike Masucci, a rumble which came before KU’s crucial 64-63 victory at Kansas State on Feb. 18.

Feinstein wrote that Brown “felt he should have broken the fight up, that his sitting by and just being one of the guys was exactly the reason why he had never become the leader Brown insisted he had to be.”

“You are not one of the guys!” Brown screamed at Manning in his office. “How many godamm times do I have to tell you that?!”

Manning had, indeed, heard that stern message from Brown many times, but the KU coach’s mood soon mellowed as he emotionally talked to Manning about David Thompson, his superstar player when he coached him with the Denver Nuggets.

“He never wanted the responsibility of being the best player,” Brown said. “David wanted to be one of the guys and people protected him. They made things easy for him. Whatever David wanted, he got. Everyone wanted to keep David happy.”

Thompson, who Feinstein wrote that “many who saw him play at North Carolina State still insist that ... (he was) the most gifted basketball player ever, “became a cocaine addict, hurt a knee, and was out of basketball before he turned thirty.”

Feinstein continued: “Brown wasn’t really trying to tell Manning that he was going to end up like David Thompson. The analogy went only so far as the refusal to take responsibility for being the best player."

“The best player has to be the leader, Danny,” Brown said. “It isn’t a matter of choice. By the time you’ve been in the NBA for two years, you’re going to have to be the leader. You won’t have any choice.”

Feinstein reported that “Manning and Brown talked for a while that day. Brown told him not to worry about his statistics, that if he was only the second player chosen in the NBA draft instead of the first he would still be a very wealthy young man. Manning told Brown that he thought a little less yelling would be positive for the team. Each listened to each other. When it was over, each felt better.”

“I’ll tell you what, Danny,” Brown said. “I don’t want to yell so much. You get on the guys sometimes when they mess up in practice and I won’t have to do it. Do it your own way, but do it.”

Manning heeded Brown’s call after that conversation and the one about the “tradeoff” regarding Pritchard. The KU star refused to let his team lose. When the Jayhawks entered the Big Dance, Manning and his teammates were on a mission with help and divine guidance from Fellowship of Christian Athletes president John Erickson.

“We had different people come speak to our team throughout the year,” Manning said. “Coach Erickson would speak (and) coined a little motto for us, ‘Life by an inch is a cinch. Life by the yard is hard.’ That is kind of what we took in the tournament. 

“Survive and advance.”

The Jayhawks kept advancing with Manning leading KU to victories over Xavier, Murray State, Vanderbilt, Kansas State, Duke, and then Oklahoma in the national championship game. Manning averaged 27.2 points during that magical six-game run and finally became the true leader Brown always envisioned.

Brown couldn’t have been more thrilled with Manning’s evolution.

“Danny was a skinny kid the last time we played in the Final Four,” Brown said after the championship game. “He was a man tonight.”

Of course, Manning has great memories of his college swan song against OU, when he had one of the best national title games in history with 31 points and a career-high 18 rebounds. But he has even fonder memories of what transpired afterwards.

“It was just sitting in the locker room and enjoying each other’s company knowing for us seniors it was going to be the last time we were going to be able to hang out with these guys,” Manning said. “You know, give each other a hard time just one last time. That was the best part of the championship for me. It was a good time and a great run for us.”

Aside from the national title, Manning said not one game in particular stands out from his college career.

“I just remember running out from the tunnel,” he said about Allen Fieldhouse. “That’s probably the biggest thing that sticks out, the chills you got and how excited you were to play in the fieldhouse.”

Recalling Danny Manning's College Basketball Hall of Fame induction

These have certainly been better days for Jayhawk legend Danny Manning. He was fired as head coach in April by Wake Forest after three straight losing seasons and compiling a dismal 78–111 (.413) record in six years, including a more woeful 30-80 (.273) record in ACC play. This was not the plan Manning, AD Ron Wellman, who hired him, and all Wake fans envisioned when he began his tenure in Winston Salem in 2014 after leading Tulsa to its first NCAA Tournament that year since 2003. Manning guided the Golden Hurricane to a 21-13 record, including a 13-3 mark in Conference USA (tied for regular-season title), and then capturing the C-USA postseason tournament.

But the ACC proved to be too mighty for Manning to handle, and he suffered with many transfers and players who opted to pursue professional careers. He had only one winning season at Wake in 2016-17, posting a 19-14 record and an NCAA Tournament berth with future NBA lottery pick John Collins, where the Demon Deacons lost in the First Four to K-State.

Manning, who reportedly received a 15M buyout from Wake, will likely land on his feet again and receive another head-coaching job, although it might be at low-major school. He developed a reputation as KU assistant coach as arguably the best-big man coach in the college game, helping send countless Jayhawks into the NBA, including the Morris twins, Darrell Arthur, Cole Aldrich and Jeff Withey.

This fact, along with winning at Tulsa, might be enough for some college to take a chance on Manning again or for an NBA team to hire him as an assistant.

In this three-part series, here’s a look back on better fortunes for Manning, as I write about my high school classmate's induction into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and his college and NBA career.

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Danny Manning once said the four players in basketball history he’d most like to play with were Elgin Baylor, Earl Monroe, Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson.

Those four are among the all-time hoops greats and enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

When Manning was just a freshman at the University of Kansas in 1985, KU coach Larry Brown destined his prodigy for immortality and an indelible place reserved with the legends like Russell and Baylor in Springfield.

“This kid has a chance to be thought of in light of the best when his career is over,” Brown said. “He is the most complete young player I’ve ever seen. He is unlike any player I’ve ever been around. 

 

“He’ll be the best.”

Thirty-five years later, Manning is not considered “the best” or one of the all-time NBA greats. Three ACL injuries in the pros robbed him of stardom, yet he still had an impressive 15-year career, finishing with 12,367 points, 4,615 rebounds, 2,063 assists, 1,000 steals and 753 blocks. Manning was a two-time All-Star (1993 and ‘94) and won the NBA Sixth Man Award with the Phoenix Suns in 1998 before retiring in 2003 with the Detroit Pistons.

On the collegiate level, though, Manning had few peers. The Sporting News ranked Manning the 12th best college player of all time in 2002 in Mike DeCourcy’s book, Legends of College Basketball,while in Dick Vitale’s 2008 book, Fabulous 50 Players and Moments in College Basketball, the celebrated announcer pegged Manning as the fifth-best player during his 30 years of covering college basketball for ESPN.

The 12th all-time leading scorer in NCAA history (2,951 points), Manning was a two-time All-American and the consensus National Player of the Year in 1988. He led KU to the Final Four in 1986 and national title in '88 while named Most Outstanding Player. Manning was later named the Big Eight Player of the Decade.

So how fitting and deserving that this Jayhawk legend be honored at Sprint Center in Kansas City in 2008 with his induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

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Twenty years after leading KU to one of its greatest moments in school history in Kemper Arena with a commanding 31 point, 18-rebound performance against Oklahoma in the national title game, Manning was back home in Kansas City to receive college basketball’s greatest individual honor.

KU coach Bill Self had the privilege of introducing Manning for induction that memorable evening. 

Self called “Coach Danny Manning one of the greatest ambassadors the University of Kansas has ever known.” 

He recalled Manning burning his Oklahoma State Cowboys for 35 points as a freshman in 1985 with Self playing the back of the two-three zone, and how he used to “towel him off and fetch water for him” as a KU graduate assistant in 1985-86.

“Everybody talks about Danny and the Miracles and him going for 31 and 18 in the national championship game and how he put that team on his back,” Self said. “That totally embarrasses Danny. Danny is so proud of his teammates, so proud of the contributions of everybody. He’s very humble, deflects praise.”

Dazzling highlights of Manning’s college career soon showed on the big screen before Self announced: “Ladies and Gentlemen, Kansas’ finest, Danny Manning.”

The crowd gave a roaring ovation as Self put a Hall of Fame medal around Manning’s neck. Manning walked over to emcees Dan Shulman and Seth Davis and took a seat on the stage.

Shulman praised Manning immediately.

“Danny, I think when this Hall of Fame came into being and people thought of the kind of place this Hall of Fame was meant for,” Shulman said, “you were the first guy people thought of, because if you had not had injuries, we all know how differently things could have been on the pro level.

“But on the collegiate level, you were the first guy (on everybody’s minds).”

Manning was humbled by the love.

 “I had a lot of wonderful people in my life pushing me, my parents and my high school coach, my family,” he said. “I got some teammates sitting up there and I’m glad they’re here. I’m just very fortunate and very blessed to be in this situation.”

Two months before his induction, the selfless Manning first told me he could not accomplish this great honor alone.

“I’m honored, privileged, humbled,” Manning said. “I had a chance to play for a great coach (Brown). We had wonderful staffs. I played in front of the best fans in the country. I had the best teammates anyone could ask for. I received a lot of attention, but my teammates were the guys that put me in position to do what I what I could do. They were very unselfish in their thoughts and their actions. I just want them to know that I appreciate all their efforts and all the battles that we’ve gone through.

“This is something that hopefully we can all cherish together.”

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.”

Cedric Hunter was one of the all-time CBA greats

After concluding a remarkable career at KU in 1987, where Cedric Hunter helped lead Kansas to the 1986 Final Four and became the school’s and Big Eight all-time assist leader, the 6-0 point guard was not selected in the 10-round NBA Draft. I was disappointed since I was hoping a team in the latter rounds would take a chance on this great ballhandler, defender and playmaker.

But it didn’t happen.

Instead, Hunter enjoyed a legendary 10-year CBA career, where he retired in 1997. He was one of the all-time CBA greats, ranking No. 1 in assists (3,815), No. 1 in steals (912), and No. 2 in games (466) and minutes (16,396). And he also ranks No. 8 all time in scoring with 6,205 points.

Hunter played for the Topeka Sizzlers, Santa Barbara Islanders, Omaha Racers, Sioux Falls Skyforce and, last, the San Diego Wildcards. He also played briefly in the WBL (6-4-and-under league) for the Las Vegas Silver Streaks, where I watched him on TV.

His KU coach Larry Brown was always a big fan and believer of Ced. Brown, who followed his CBA career closely, talked about Hunter’s NBA chances during his Hawk Talk radio show during the 1987-88 season.

“I’m in touch with him,” Brown said. “He’s doing extremely well with Topeka. The bottom line is people don’t think he can shoot the ball. That’s a tremendous drawback. I really feel with the expansion, he’ll have an opportunity to try out with somebody. He’s got to get with the right team. New Jersey told me they would have taken and brought Cedric up this year because they needed a defensive guard, but they had too many kids on injured reserve and weren’t allowed to do that. I feel comfortable that he’ll have a chance to try out next year.”

Hunter finally got to realize his NBA dream when the Charlotte Hornets signed him to a 10-day contract on Feb. 15, 1992. I was friends and worked with Hunter’s girlfriend and the mother of his daughter. She was hoping he’d be a big success with Charlotte.

“I hope he doesn’t come back (from the NBA),” she said at the time.

Charlotte, who only signed Hunter since they had injured guards, released him five days later. Hunter played in one game with Charlotte, recording one minute and no statistics.

And that was it for his NBA career. He never played in the league again, but at least this former KU standout got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a brief stint in the NBA.

I went to this daughter's first birthday party in Lawrence and spoke briefly with Ced’s dad, Alfred, as we carried out the ice together. He told me Charlotte was impressed with Hunter. But they couldn’t have been that impressed if they released him so soon, but maybe they liked his game but just didn’t have room to keep him.

Still, Hunter should be quite proud of his legendary CBA career and carving his name as one of all-time greats. He should also be commended for playing in hard conditions, low pay, long bus rides to faraway small towns and second and third-class hotel accommodations. The CBA was a very difficult life without much fanfare.

My friend once told me that Ced’s agent “gets it done.” I always wondered, though, if his agent “gets it done,” then why didn’t he give Cedric an opportunity to play overseas for some real money. Maybe he did, and Ced declined. I don’t know. My only guess is that Cedric remained in the CBA for so long since he wanted to play in the United States and have a better chance of being called up by an NBA team. In any case, he certainly made the best of himself in the CBA for so many years and should be admired for his great perseverance.

He also dramatically improved his free throw shooting in the league. A career 52.1 percent free throw shooter at Kansas, Hunter shot a very impressive 81.2 percent for his CBA career at the charity stripe. Maybe shooting all those technicals for Brown at KU really boosted his confidence and carried over to the CBA.

Hunter also credits playing in the WBL for Las Vegas for helping his overall game and making him a better player. Sports Illustrated wrote on July 24, 1989 that Hunter was only 5-10, two inches shorter than his 6-foot he was listed as at Kansas.

"When I went to the CBA after summer ball, I felt fast running the break, faster making decisions," he told SI. "It seemed like the game got easier. When you're playing around quicker guys, you learn to make quicker decisions. It keeps your game fine-tuned."

After playing with Topeka since leaving KU, Hunter was traded from the Sizzlers to Santa Barbara for future considerations and an undisclosed amount of cash in February 1990 in a charitable move by Topeka coach Mike Riley.

"I've always talked about the future and building toward something in this league, and I saw an opportunity to do something positive for Cedric in the final days of this franchise. It's apparent we won't be back," Riley told the Tulsa World on Feb. 13.

I met Riley about a decade later when I was covering a KU basketball game in Allen Fieldhouse and the former Sizzlers’ coach was working as a scout for the Vancouver Grizzlies. Riley couldn’t have been nicer as we talked about my interest in scouting and former KU great Paul Pierce. He said coaching Hunter was a pure joy and that he thought he was returning to KU to complete his degree.

Hunter never received his degree from KU, but has gone to have much success after retiring from the CBA as a behavioral coordinator at Boys Town in native Omaha, Nebraska.

Hunter, who has never returned to Lawrence and KU for any KU basketball reunions, was inducted into the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. This was certainly a well-deserved honor for the former Nebraska prep legend. Here is what his bio said:

“Cedric Hunter dribbled through one of the greatest eras of basketball in Nebraska High School history. The Omaha South guard who lettered in all four years, averaged more than 23 points per game as a junior and then scored 27.3 points per game as a senior and was selected the captain of the Omaha World-Herald’s All-Nebraska squad. He went on to play at Kansas, starting eight games as a freshman and 107 in his four-year career. He finished with 1,022 points for the Jayhawks and set the school’s (all-time and) single-season record for assists. He went on to play for the Charlotte Hornets before a long career in the CBA/WBL where he set career records for assists and steals.

Thanks for the memories, Ced. You will never be forgotten by KU and CBA fans!

Cedric Hunter was one of the most underrated and best point guards in KU history

In this three-part series on former KU standout point guard Cedric Hunter, I reflect on his high school, college and pro career and his life after professional basketball.

...

Cedric Hunter was a high school star out of Omaha South who led the state in scoring his junior and senior years, including 27.3 points per game as a senior. He was named all-metro and all-state, while honored as a Converse All-American. However, he played center in high school and was lightly recruited due to his small stature at just 6-foot.

Despite manning the center position in high school, Hunter’s prep coach Bob Whitehouse had no doubts Hunter could become a great point guard in college.

“There won’t be any trouble with him making the transition to point guard,” Whitehouse said in the KU Media Guide before Hunter’s freshman season in 1983-84.

In one of the smartest decisions of then-KU coach Larry Brown’s coaching career, he offered Ced a scholarship after a track and field meet in Omaha, without ever seeing him play basketball in person. Brown was impressed with Hunter’s supreme athleticism, and thought he could impact the KU program. Hunter was part of Brown's first recruiting class, along with Mark Turgeon and Chris Piper.

Boy, was Brown right about Hunter! All he did in four years at KU (1983-87) was become the school’s all-time and Big Eight assist leader with 684 dimes, a record that stood for 10 years until KU’s Jacque Vaughn broke it in 1997.

Hunter averaged 5.8 assists per game for his career with an impressive 2.14 assist-to-turnover ratio. He also averaged 1.3 steals and 8.5 points per game (career-high 11.6 ppg his senior year in 1986-87) and recorded 1,022 career points in 118 games while averaging 30.2 minutes per contest.

For many people who said he couldn’t shoot, including KU coach Bill Self, who was a graduate assistant during Hunter’s sophomore year, Ced shot a scorching 53.5 field goal percentage for his career, including an eye-popping career-best 56.2 field goal percentage his sophomore season in 1985-86, where the unsung hero helped lead KU to the Final Four and most wins at the time in school history (35-4). That team remains one of the best in KU annals with Hunter at point guard, Ron Kellogg and Calvin Thompson at the wings, Danny Manning at power forward, and Greg Dreiling at center. The team went eight deep with Archie Marshall, Mark Turgeon and Chris Piper serving as instrumental reserves.

Self told the Kansas City Star in January 2019 that Hunter “couldn’t shoot a lick.” No offense to Self and many other detractors who felt the same way, but just look at the stats. No, Cedric didn’t have very good range (1-7 from three-point range his senior year), but he could simply knock down the wide-open 15-to-17 foot jumper. Opponents dared him to shoot, and Ced made them pay. Time and time again. I saw virtually all of Ced’s home games in Allen Fieldhouse in person and watched whenever KU was on TV, and he could shoot it from medium distance. So Self and others were completely wrong.

Hunter actually set a Big Eight record in 1986 by shooting an incredible 73.1 percent from the field in league games and was 8-of-8 from the field against Oklahoma that year, when he scored a season-high 19 points. He also shot 7-of-7 from the field versus Missouri in 1985. Beginning with his senior year, Hunter remarkably shot better than 70 percent from the field in 20 different games during his career.

His only weakness, besides his lack of perimeter range, was his free throw shooting. Hunter shot just 52.1 percent for his career, a very poor percentage, especially for a point guard. Brown said that Hunter looked at the ball while he shot, a no-no for a shooter. However, Brown believed in Hunter so much that he often had him shoot technicals to boost his confidence. More often than not, as I recall, Hunter made his free throws then. What a joy it must have been for Hunter to play for a coach who believed in him to shoot technicals, despite his poor free throw shooting.

Despite Self’s remarks about Ced’s shooting, he had tremendous respect for Hunter’s game. Hunter guarded Self during the KU coach’s career at Oklahoma State.

“I loved Cedric,” Self told the Kansas City Star on Dec. 23, 2019. “Coach (Larry) Brown did as well. He could guard anybody, had unbelievable length (39-inch arms), was explosive. He was not a great shooter, but maybe as good a point guard this place has seen, as good a point guard who doesn’t score the ball. Talk about a pure defender and setup guy, he was as good as anybody. You did not want him guarding you. You’d rather have anybody guard you than Cedric. He could lock you up.”

Self then further gushed about Hunter to the Omaha World Herald:

"Cedric probably was the best non-shooting player I've ever been around."

Self added to the Star on Jan. 28, 2019:

“Gosh was he great. Long arms, best on the ball defender, guys loved playing with him.”

Indeed, Hunter’s teammates deeply “loved playing with him.” 

Just ask Piper.

“Cedric Hunter was probably one of the most underrated point guards, I think, that KU has ever had. He was phenomenal and could really break everything down,” Piper told Mark Stallard in his 2005 book, Tales from the Jayhawks Hardwood.

Hunter drew great respect and admiration from his coaches, teammates and opponents alike. Brown talked on his Hawk Talk radio show during the 1985-86 season about Hunter’s defense against Duke All-American guard Johnny Dawkins in the preseason Big Apple NIT on Dec. 1, 1985.

“He got 20 I believe against us,” Brown said. “He came up to me after the game and said Cedric did the best job as any guard he’s played against since he’s been at Duke, and I thought that was a heck of a testimony. He got a lot on the break against us, and he’s just a tremendous athlete.”

Hunter improved each year, averaging 4.2 points his freshman season (he was declared academically ineligible after semester break), 6.7 points his sophomore year, 9.1 points as a junior, then 11.6 points his senior season. He also averaged a career-high 5.1 rebounds per game as a senior, pretty good numbers for a 6-foot point guard.

The KU Basketball Media Guide wrote in 1985-86 that “Brown feels Hunter is one of the most improved players he has ever coached.”

Hunter, who had a career-high 16 assists versus Oklahoma in the Big Eight postseason tournament in 1986, was the consummate point guard who ran the break as well as any guard in the country. My dad, who played hockey growing up in Toronto, was a huge fan of Ced’s, and said he reminded him of a hockey player on skates with the way he ran and orchestrated the break. Hunter always got the ball in the scorers’ best shooting position, and made the game so much easier for all his teammates.

Indeed, Piper was right. I’ve always thought “Electric” Cedric Hunter was one of the most underrated and best point guards KU has ever seen. He deserves all credit that is due for his remarkable career playing under the shadows of such stars as Manning, Kellogg, Dreiling and Thompson.

Chris Piper's childhood hoop dreams and his recruitment to KU

Most people know Chris Piper for his role as starting forward on KU’s 1988 national championship team. After KU’s thrilling 83-79 victory over Oklahoma, then-North Carolina coach Dean Smith said Piper played the best post defense he had ever seen. Quite the compliment from the legendary Smith, a Hall of Famer and one of the best coaches to ever live.

But to me, I’ll always remember the skinny forward as Chris Stephenson, my T-Ball teammate who I grew up with in Lawrence. Chris was one year older than me, and I remember also playing two-on-two football with him at Andy Lawrence’s house nearby my home on Park Hill Terrace, along with my friend Clark Sehon, whose dad was a major league baseball scout.

Chris was a humble, genuine kid with straight blond hair who his friends and classmates affectionately called “Snagglepuss.” My defining memory of Chris from childhood came at recess at Broken Arrow Elementary School. Chris, a sixth grader, would always volunteer to be on my fifth-grade team during heated bombardment games between the two grades.

More often than not, with Chris leading the way, our fifth graders would beat the mighty sixth graders. When I met Chris for a 45-minute interview in 1999 for Jayhawk Insider, I asked him why he always volunteered to be on the fifth-grade team. It was a question I had long wanted to ask him.

“I think I always enjoyed a challenge more than anything,” Piper told me. “I always liked overcoming uphill odds to be honest with you. Playing on the sixth-grade team, we’d be the favorites, but playing on the fifth-grade team against the sixth-grade team, we’d be the underdogs. I always enjoyed that. I’d much rather go into something that I don’t have a clear cut chance of winning and have to battle and do it to win it than go in it with a sure victory wrapped up. I remember I always tried to get on the opposite team of Robby (Zinn, the best athlete in school who played college basketball at Vermont) because he’d always be on the team with all the guys that were going to win. I’d always get on an opposite team, which happened to be the younger class because then we’d become the guys that overcome the big odds and beat the sixth graders. I’ve always enjoyed that. I don’t like the easy way, I guess. Maybe that’s a personality flaw. My wife would probably say so.”

Chris, who was our playground hero back then at Broken Arrow, definitely overcame “uphill odds” as a lightly recruited high school player who earned a basketball scholarship from new KU coach Larry Brown. And then, battling against players who were McDonald’s All-Americans like Mark Randall and Mike Maddox, all Piper did was start 69 of 70 games his junior and senior seasons and was one of the best defensive players KU had in years.

Piper is tied with seven other KU players for most career games played in the NCAA Tournament (16), and finished his four years (he redshirted his first season) averaging 3.9 points and 3.2 rebounds while shooting 49.9 percent from the field and 68.4 percent at the free throw line in 128 games.

Not great numbers, but his game transcended pure stats. He was the consummate team player who persevered through injuries, a great defender, a glue guy, and nobody worked harder. Above all, he was a national champion.

Piper’s calling card was defense, which endeared him to Brown.

“I’m not the dumbest guy in the world,” Piper said. “I knew I had to play defense to be on the team. I always took it as a matter of pride.”

Piper, who played sparingly as a freshman, improved tremendously the following season and was a key backup on the 1986 Final Four team. 

Of course, his greatest KU memory is winning the national title. When Danny Manning grabbed the final rebound that magical evening at 10:09 p.m. on April 4, 1988 at Kemper Arena and the buzzer sounded, KU had beaten OU 83-79 and was national champions. Piper came running to Manning, yelling hysterically.

Piper revealed his thoughts at the time about the feeling he’ll never forget.

“Probably the same thing that went through my mind when (Lawrence High School) coach (Ted) Juneau said I got a scholarship,” Piper said. “What’s the greatest thing that you could possibly win in your life and figure out how you’d feel when you won it?’ That’s probably the feeling I had.”

Juneau said his former pupil is a great testimony about the triumph of the human spirit. Juneau remembers all the doubters about Piper when he coached him during his junior season, which happened to be Juneau’s first year as LHS head coach.

“People were saying, ‘You got to cut him,’” Juneau recalled. And I’m thinking, ‘He looks like one of the best players we have.’ Larry Brown took a chance on him to bring him to KU. Hard work paid off for Chris, just the sheer will. He should be an inspiration for a lot of kids who get cut or don’t think they can play.”

Piper led Lawrence High School to its first state title in 1983 over Shawnee Mission South since 1948 and scored a game-high 27 points on 12-of-13 shooting. The LHS 1983 yearbook later noted the contest was “as fine a game as Lawrence has ever seen.” 

The 6-8 forward, who was an all-league and all-state selection, averaged 14.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per game while shooting an impressive 56.7 percent from the field a a senior.

During my interview with my childhood classmate in 1999, here is Piper’s recollection of growing up in Lawrence and his early beginnings as a hoops player and unusual recruitment to KU.

In his own words:

“It was in third grade, we moved in (to Lawrence) from Lincoln, Neb. Born in Manhattan, but I lived in Lincoln. So I covered all the Big Eight. My stepfather had a job opportunity here and that’s why we came down. My dad lived in Manhattan for a long time so there’s a lot of ties there as well. My Mom still lives there (Lawrence). We lived right off of Ousdahl on 19th Terrace. Actually, you can see the fieldhouse from our kitchen window. Pretty close. I was a Nebraska football fan, but that slowly died being here in Lawrence. I remembered I had all the Nebraska ‘71, ‘72, ‘73 stuff. Yeah, once you got here in Lawrence, you couldn’t help but be a Kansas fan. That’s what I evolved into. 

 

“I don’t remember much about KU in the early years, but I do remember buying Hawks Nest tickets when we were in high school that high school kids could buy for cheap. You’d sit up in the crows nest, wherever the corner rafters were. I remember that. Fortunately, for us, in high school, tickets were easy to come by. Unfortunately, for KU, they weren’t that great at the time. I was never a real huge sports fan to be honest with you, not until I suppose I really got into high school when I got more involved in sports.

“I think the first  memory I have of KU is probably Booty Neal. When I think about KU in the past before I got here, I thought about Booty Neal because everybody would get pumped up when he came into the game and shoot the deep ball. Really, I was not a huge sports fan. I’d watch the games, but I couldn’t tell you much about them. My parents didn’t have tickets to it. I’d go whenever I could go with my friends or something like that. It wasn’t very regularly.  

“I didn’t play organized basketball until...I probably played on some Biddy Ball teams. I was never very interested in basketball, baseball was always my favorite sport. Basketball really didn’t become an interest until probably the eighth grade, and that’s mainly because most of my friends were playing it.

“I started trying to play, and I got cut in the eighth grade. Then I made it in ninth grade because they let me. It was down to me and one other guy, and they ended up taking me. I was the last man. I think Rick (Werner) was before me. I don’t remember. I barely made it then. Maybe he (Coach Ron Garvin) was thinking something good would happen down the line. I really had never played basketball other than when you go out for a team. I don’t think you had too many opportunities if I remember correctly. I don’t remember anything, not at all, probably because I never played. Never played at all. I know I wasn’t very good, that’s for darn sure. 

“I think I went from 6-2, 6-3 to probably 6-5 my sophomore year, and finished high school at 6-7. I wasn’t very good my sophomore year, either, but I could run up and down the floor, which was always a benefit for me. When I was a kid, we’d always do things that involved running in pickup games or whatever. That probably helped for my size to be able to run up and down the floor. But I still hadn’t played a whole lot of basketball. It was right then when I got interested in the game for me than just because my friends were playing it. I think between my sophomore and junior year, I started really playing it because I wanted to play and getting more involved and trying to get better at the game itself. Robby Zinn, Paul Johnson, Eric Lienhard, and Jamie Steinhauser —all those guys played all the time. I went to the varsity (junior year).  I probably wasn’t quite ready for varsity. In fact, I know I wasn’t. I wasn’t ready for it mentally because I wasn’t very confident with my ability at all. That probably held me back quite a bit. I probably could have done a lot more if I had more confidence in myself.  t was kind of bad for me for a while, because all my friends were still playing JV. But by the end of the year, what was going to be our senior team were now playing on the varsity as juniors. That was a good way to finish the season.

“I just saw the state championship game last Friday night for the first time. They were playing it at the reception. It was pretty funny to watch. Some guys had some yearbooks, clippings and stuff showing what we did throughout the year. To be honest with you, I don’t remember scoring as much as I did my senior year. I was kind of surprised.  Heck, I never scored more than 10 points probably in college. I had some games that were 20 points or more in high school, which really surprised me. That was a lot of fun that year. We just had a great group of guys. All best friends. Playing together made it real easy. We just had a lot of fun. The nucleus of our team —Robby, Paul, and Eric, and (Kevin) Armitage — those guys had played since grade school and through St. John’s (elementary school) and upwards. It was a lot of fun to play. We were a good team. We shouldn’t got beat to be honest with you that year. We were better than that. But I think we doubted ourselves sometimes as well. It all ended up good in the end.

“I had no interest from any major colleges. Indiana State (Larry Bird’s college) sent me letters, but nobody ever contacted me from them. I just think I happened to be on the mailing list of theirs. Guys that really recruited me were Dodge City, Hutch Juco, and Washburn. At the time, I did not know what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to play basketball, and if I remember right, I was probably leaning toward Washburn, maybe because Tom Meier and Robin Riley going there from Hayden. I knew those guys as players, and it was close and it wasn’t a juco. I didn’t think I wanted to go juco. The reason I didn’t want to go juco was I didn’t think I was good enough to play Division I because nobody kind of contacted me. So I thought if there was no end in sight, why waste your time in juco. That was my thought at the time, which was probably not correct.

“All of a sudden, Juneau says, ‘Hey, Kansas wants to talk to you.’ So I went up and had a meeting with coach Brown. I did not know who coach Brown was, never heard of him really. Paul Johnson had said ‘Yeah, Larry Brown’s coming up from the New Jersey Nets, great coach.’ Of course, Paul’s a basketball nut. I didn’t know who Larry Brown was because I wasn’t really a big sports fan. Coach Brown (was) quiet and nice. I came out of the meeting and didn’t know what he wanted me to do. I assumed they wanted me to walk on. So I told coach Juneau. I said ‘Hey, I think they want me to walk on.’

“Coach said he would call them. I went back to class. I was sitting in Calculus class. I think it was (teacher) Mr. (Ray) Wilbur if I remember correctly. Coach came up to the door and told Mr. Wilbur he needed to talk to me. He put me outside and said, ‘No, they want to give you a full scholarship.’ So I said, ‘Obviously yes.’ There’s no question that’s what I wanted to do. He said they wanted to redshirt me next year. I said, ‘That’s great.” That was it.

“I later found out that Kay Johnson (KU athletic director Monte Johnson's wife) had been the one that said, ‘Hey, there’s a guy that played for Lawrence High.’ They took a chance on me and it worked out. I think coach Brown was probably concerned that I wouldn’t want to redshirt, but for me just the opportunity to play at a Division I school, then play at Kansas at home, hell, I’d redshirt five years if I had to.

“Just pure elation. I mean God, I was on cloud nine. I couldn’t believe it. I was going to play at Kansas. I don’t think you could put it into words. It was just the best feeling possible to not knowing what you were going to do and wondering if you were going to be able to go to go to a good school, to be able to go to the best. Walked on? Probably not, because I don’t think I had the confidence to know I could play there. I doubt it. And I don’t think I could have swung it financially either.”