For the love of Jared

This following 2005 article in Kansas City Sports & Fitness is one of the most inspirational stories I’ve ever written in nearly 25 years in the writing profession. It was about a wonderful man named Tom Coones, who competed in the Kansas City Mid-America chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training. Tom was the first person in the Mid-America chapter to win the TNT Triple Crown award. At the time of our interview, Coones, who first ran the New York City Marathon in 1991, had participated in 10 events (eight marathons and two triathlons) and was set to complete the 100-mile bike ride in June in Nevada.

He competed for his son Jared, who was diagnosed at age 2 with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). He was devastated after hearing the diagnosis, but decided to channel his tears and heartbreak into a positive channel and compete with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training. At the time of this story, Tom had raised about $100,000 since 1991.

Sadly and painfully, Jared died on Oct. 5, 1998. But his dad persisted in his fight and continued to compete in the program. He told me he runs “in memory of my son,” but I wrote  he “also competes for the 700,000 Americans living with blood cancer, including the local “Honored Patients” he’s matched up with. It is Jared, though, who provides his greatest inspiration.”

I have so much respect and true admiration for Tom Coones, who pushed the limits of his body and the human spirit to compete for his son and all those living with blood cancer. He competed each time wearing Jared’s picture button by his heart.

Here’s how I ended the story:

“What’s really neat is people will come up to me and say, ‘You’re Jared’s dad,’” Coones said.  “That’s the best thing anybody can say to me.”

Tom, you are my hero and a hero to so many people, including Jared, whose spirit and soul will live with you forever. I encourage many more people to get involved with the The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training. It is an amazing program that is working to save countless lives. 

I was deeply humbled and flattered when Tom called me up after the story came out and left a heartfelt phone message:

"I wanted to let you know that I thought you did a great job with the article. My wife even commented how nice a job of telling our story you did. Thank you for helping us spread the word out about TNT. Hopefully we will get some participants from the article. Thanks again for taking the time to put the article together. I hope our paths cross again. Warmest regards, Tom.”

I appreciated Tom’s kindness so much. Here is that 2005 story in Kansas City Sports & Fitness on Tom Coones.

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“Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.”

--Morrie Schwartz in Mitch Albom’s runaway bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie.

Sept. 28, 1990. 

 

For Tom Coones, this date is indelibly etched in his mind. That’s when his 2-year-old son Jared was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). Coones was immediately overwhelmed with tears and heartache.

“I think the emotions were just shock and disbelief,” Coones recalled recently from his home in Olathe. “It was devastation. My first thought was that he was going to die soon. It was hard to come to grips with that.”

However, his devastation and sadness quickly turned to hope once he found out that over 80 percent of children with ALL survive. Coones and his wife, Jayne, hoped and prayed that Jared would be one of these kids. 

About six months later, Coones read a company newsletter about The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training (Kansas City Mid-America chapter) looking for people to train and run the New York City Marathon in November 1991. TNT is the world's largest endurance sports training program, and the leading fundraising campaign of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Participants receive personalized coaching and training to run or walk a marathon, cycle a century bike ride or do a triathlon. In return, the competitors raise funds to invest in research to find cures for blood cancers and help improve the lives of patients and their families.

Coones, 45, felt getting involved was the perfect way to help Jared and hopefully find a cure for leukemia. So he ran the New York City Marathon in 1991, and hasn’t stopped running and competing since. Nearly 14 years later, Coones has participated in 10 events (eight marathons and two triathlons), and when he completes the 100-mile bike ride June 5th in Lake Tahoe, Nev., Coones will become the first person in the Mid-America chapter to win the TNT Triple Crown award.

“That’s kind of special,” said Coones, who has raised about $100,000 since 1991.

And he does it all with love for Jared, who battled valiantly for eight years before his death on Oct. 5, 1998. While he runs “in memory of my son,” Coones also competes for the 700,000 Americans living with blood cancer, including the local “Honored Patients” he’s matched up with. It is Jared, though, who provides his greatest inspiration.  

Whenever he hits the “wall” in training or competing in a marathon or triathlon, he thinks of his late son. He remembers the day Jared was diagnosed, his fearless courage, his magnetic smile, his laugh, his love for pumpkins and total zest for life. Coones touches the button by his heart with a picture of Jared and recalls his pride and joy who never complained once about his chemotherapy treatment, even when undergoing a bone marrow transplant in 1994. He’ll close his eyes, call Jared’s name out loud, and say a prayer and ask him “for some strength and courage to keep moving.”

 

 So Coones takes that next step. He pushes on. He celebrates Jared’s life and memory.

 

“I couldn’t even begin to compare any kind of physical discomfort of training or even doing one of these events to what Jared went through, and all patients, what they go through,” Coones said. “If it somehow helps maybe pushing us towards getting a cure, I can do that. That’s my contribution.”

Coones, help desk manager for Yellow Roadway Technologies, urges others to join the TNT family and become part of the mission and change their lives forever. Kristen Johnson, development director for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Mid-America chapter, feels blessed to have such a caring person as Coones contributing to the cause.

“He’s a real unique individual,” Johnson said. “He’s an amazing human being.”

Coones, who has made a lifetime of friends training and competing these past 14 years with TNT, admits he questioned himself about doing another TNT event after Jared passed away. When Jared was alive, Coones said running a marathon affirmed that his son “was doing good and continuing to stay strong.”  He didn’t know if he had the strength or will to compete in the marathon in San Diego without Jared, just a year after his death.

But he did.  

 

“My wife and I had talked about it, and we knew that Jared would want me to keep going and to know that our work isn’t done yet until we can stop this disease,” Coones said softly.

He now paused for a few moments; his voice began to crack. “Going back in 1999 with him in heaven was hard,” Coones said.

Life hasn’t exactly been easy for Coones these past three years, either. Jayne, who walked a marathon in Oregon for TNT in 1997, has had a “pretty challenging ride herself” since being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. Jayne has had two recurrences of the cancer since then, and currently goes in for treatment once a week. Coones said his wife showed the same strength and courage in fighting cancer that Jared had.

 

 “In some ways, he really prepared us for this battle and journey that Jayne’s in right now, just everything that he went through,” Coones said.

Coones, who never dreamed of running a marathon before joining TNT, uses his training as a way of dealing with these tough times. He has greatly improved his life in how he copes with his emotions.

“When Jared was going through his fight, having that physical outlet probably helped me more than I realized,” said Coones, who has two kids: Meghan, 15, and John Jared, 4. “It kept me strong when I needed to be there for my family. I think I’ve found that to be true now as I’ve continued.”

With all that Coones and his family have endured, he views each day as a great gift. Coones has learned to savor the moment, to enjoy each breath, and live each day with hope and wonder.

 “Overall, I think, without a doubt, it’s really increased my perspective and strengthened my faith, and just helped me appreciate what’s important in life — your family, your friends, and relationships you develop,” Coones said. “That’s really what it’s about.”

After completing the 100-mile bike ride in Lake Tahoe, Coones is aiming to tackle the New York City Marathon again next year. After all, he promised Jared many years ago that they’d both run in New York when he turned 18, which is the required minimum age to run the New York City Marathon.

“That was my goal, my dream,” Coones said.

 So Coones plans to be in New York and run for Jared, who would have been 18 next year. He could have it no other way. And he’s not going to hold back and stop there. Not now, not after all these years. He has to keep running, biking, and swimming. Coones wants to continue Jared’s legacy and spirit, and keep stretching the unlimited possibilities of the mind.

“I can’t imagine not doing it,” he said. “Until we get to that point where we can say we’ve stopped the disease or there’s a cure, maybe that will be the time when I can stop participating. It still helps me. Even after six years since his passing, he’s still a big part of my life. I know he’d want me to be out there.”

And each time he competes, Coones will wear Jared’s picture button by his heart, so he’s never too far away.

“What’s really neat is people will come up to me and  say, ‘You’re Jared’s dad,’” Coones said.  “That’s the best thing anybody can say to me.”

Kim Seeley overcame diabetes to make her mark in the fitness world

I used to write about fitness competitors for Kansas City Sports & Fitness Magazine. I met some amazing people who pushed the limits of the human boundaries and excelled in fitness. I even got an opportunity to interview Tonya Knight at her home in Kansas City and write a long feature on her, the famous bodybuilder and 1980s cover girl who appeared on the TV show American Gladiator. Tonya, who was pregnant at the time, told me how thrilled she was to have a baby after years of being unable to become pregnant while competing.

However, the most inspirational fitness competitor I ever wrote about was Kim Seeley, who overcame type-two diabetes to make her mark in the fitness profession. I interviewed Kim in 2001 at a restaurant in the KC Country Club Plaza. She was charming, very kind, and personable. She told me her story, opened up to me about her childhood regrets, and spoke about her perseverance and how fitness had transformed her life. I believe I was the first person to feature Kim in a publication, after she finished an impressive 10th place at the nationally televised Ms. Fitness show in Las Vegas and first at a regional show in Colorado.

She told me her dream was to achieve her pro card.

“That would be my ultimate goal to become pro,” Kim said with a smile.

Her dreams came true four years later in 2005 when she received her pro card at the USA’s in Las Vegas, where she placed second. Success couldn’t have come to a nicer and more dedicated person and athlete. In the December 2005 issue of hardfitness.com, the author wrote that Kim “has always been a dedicated competitor despite her diabetic problems. She is an example of what the fitness world needs.”

Kim wrote in that issue about her journey to receiving her pro card and how she wanted to be an example for others:

“After I earned my pro card, I vowed to become a voice for diabetes education. I figured this was what I was meant to do. I have been given the opportunity to speak at conferences in regard to athletic training and diabetes management. I get countless emails from both type ones and two’s. I have had the pleasure of mentoring some up and coming type one diabetic figure competitors. There is so much you can do with a pro card beyond the 2 minutes on stage. It’s our day to day lives where most of the benefits unfold. Some girls journey ends with a pro card . . . but for me, my journey has just begun.”

Kim’s journey since then then has been one of true inspiration as she rose to the top of the fitness profession. I was so happy for her and so grateful our paths crossed in 2001 during our interview at that restaurant on the Plaza. Thanks Kim for sharing your truly remarkable story with me and for the kind thank-you call after the article was published.

Here is that 2001 story on Kim Seeley in Kansas City Sports & Fitness.

...


Kim Seeley was a promising athlete and track star when she became first diagnosed with diabetes at 13. A rebellious teenager, she wound up quitting track and eventually began a vicious downward cycle of drinking and partying in college.

“Because the disease was so hard to handle with taking shots, eating, having low blood sugars, high blood sugars, I quit every athletic endeavor that I wanted to be involved in,” Seeley said. “For a lot of years, I was not healthy. I was not happy with my physique. I was not happy with my health at all.”

She adds softly and poignantly:

“As poorly as I was in control of my disease, I didn’t particularly want to die either.”

So Seeley decided to change her life forever. She began lifting weights five years ago, and for the past three years, she’s been competing in fitness contests. Not only has Seeley transformed her appearance, but the fit and toned beauty is now one of the top fitness competitors in the Midwest. Seeley recently finished an impressive 10th place at the nationally televised Ms. Fitness show in Las Vegas.

“That was my greatest thrill,” said Seeley, who remarked that her goal entering the national show was to place at least 15th. “They have all the competitors standing out there, and they call you by your state first. When they said, ‘And from Missouri,’ I knew I was the only person from Missouri. I was so overwhelmed. That right there was the best feeling ever. It was pretty awesome.”

Seeley, who just completed her heavy competition season (June-September), is taking a couple of weeks off before lifting weights and training again. She’s in the gym five days a week for two hours each during the off season, and works out five days a week for four hours during heaving training periods. The strawberry blonde, blue-eyed Raytown, Mo. resident (5-5, 132) said she’d like to gain five more pounds and switch fitness organizations from Ms. Fitness to NPC (National Physique Committee).

“That would be my ultimate goal to become pro,” Seeley said, smiling.

And don’t count her out. Seeley, 32, is used to defying the odds and triumphing over the human spirit. She feels she has great ground to make up from quitting sports and succumbing to her disease nearly 20 years ago.

“It’s a huge regret,” Seeley said. “Maybe that’s why I’m so strong founded about his now to be successful. I regret that painfully. Once I got control of the disease, I said, ‘I’m going to be the athlete I always thought I could have been or should have been as a kid.’ I’m doing it late. It’s never too late to live out your dreams.”

Yes indeed.

Seeley began competing in regional fitness shows in 1999 after working out in the gym and reading Oxygen magazine. A light flashed in her mind.

“I remember seeing the pictures of these women,” Seeley said. “I thought these are beautiful women that are sexy. I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s what I want to look like.’’’

Seeley realizes how far she’s come since her first Ms. Fitness national show in Las Vegas three years ago, where she placed 38th out of 45 women.

“I wasn’t dead last, but I learned an awful lot,” Seeley said, laughing. “It was horrible. I went in there not knowing anything. I was the only person who used the tanning bed instead of the tanning products. I was the only person in my routine that didn’t smile because I was so scared.”

Despite her relatively poor performance, Seeley was determined to improve. Now, she’s ecstatic about the results.

“I’m very confident,” she said. “It’s like a complete miraculous change. It’s taken time. I tell any new fitness competitor that it doesn’t happen over night. From that first year to my third year, I’m very confident in whatever I do.”

Seeley’s comfort and confidence have grown since hiring two personal trainers and a professional choreographer from Hollywood. This vigorous training helped propel her to 10th place in Las Vegas recently and first place at a regional show in Colorado a few months ago.

“I was literally jumping up and down,” Seeley said about winning the Colorado show. “I had no idea that I had done that well. I was shocked that I had won.”

While Seeley admits it’s very difficult managing her diabetes and competing in fitness shows, she said it’s not impossible. She urges all people to adopt fitness as a way of life.

“My health is a lot better, tons better,” Seeley said. “I plan on living a lot longer, and I think fitness plays a huge role in my longevity. It’s completely changed my life and I don’t ever want to stop. I encourage other people to get their butts in the gym and get fit as well. ... It comes from within. You got to want to do it for yourself, not for your husband, not for your wife, because that’s not going to last if you do it for someone else. It has to be completely for you.”

After years of saying, ‘I can’t’ because of diabetes, Seeley now adopts the phrase, ‘I will.’ She’s learned many invaluable life lessons about herself from overcoming adversity.

“No matter what’s happened to you in your life or what’s been dished to you, you can find a way to achieve your goals and dreams to never give up,” Seeley said. “It’s never too late. I don’t think most people believe in themselves enough to push forward. People make excuses for themselves, and I was the biggest excuse maker of all. The person who is sitting here today is not the same person who was sitting in this same place four or five years ago. I’m a totally different human being.”

Michelle Reiter was a great role model and ambassador as a Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader

I had the great pleasure and fortune to write features on some Chiefs players and cheerleaders in the late 1990s. I had a wonderful long sit-down interview with offensive lineman Glenn Parker at a car dealership as he talked about his charity work with Special Olympics and what being named Chiefs MVP meant to him. He couldn't have been any nicer to me.

The cheerleaders I interviewed were great ambassadors and role models as well who did so much service work in the community. They credited then-Cheer Director Elaine Hart for shaping them and the influence she had on their lives.

My favorite interview and feature was on Michelle Reiter in 1999 for Kansas City Sports & Fitness. We had a great interview at the old Borders in Lawrence. I was immediately impressed with Michelle. She smiled throughout the interview and was just such a genuine and kind person. I loved how she talked about how her upbringing by her parents in Beloit helped shaped her as a human being, how they taught her to respect “all people, no matter if it’s someone who owns a large corporation or is a janitor for that building.”

That’s the kind of values Michelle has. She treats other people how she’d like to be treated, something that I believe all people should do but don’t always. I reconnected with Michelle many years ago on Facebook when she lived in California. We’ve corresponded ever since from time to time, and she now lives and works in Kansas City. I can honestly say Michelle is one of the kindest, genuine and positive people I’ve ever met. I'm proud to call her my friend. I love how she always wishes me a Happy Birthday on Facebook each year, and that makes me feel special.

I was also humbled by the very kind testimonial Michelle wrote about me on LinkedIn in 2016 regarding how she pleased she was with my story on her in 1999 and the way I conducted the interview:

"I had the privilege to be interviewed by David for a story he wrote on me as a Kansas City Chiefs Cheerleader for the Kansas City Sports & Fitness magazine. David did a great job interviewing me and made the conversation flow easily. He was very professional, asked great questions that were portrayed well in the article, and had a nice, easy-going personality which made people feel very comfortable. I enjoyed reading the article and felt that it was an excellent representation of myself and the Kansas City Chiefs Cheerleading organization. I highly recommend David for his professionalism, creative writing talents, and his strong work ethic." 

She also completely flattered me when she wrote on Facebook in 2018 that I was an “inspiration” and thanked me for “sharing your talents.”

Thanks so much for your kindness Michelle and for our interview back in 1999. Meeting and knowing great people like you has made my longtime writing career much more rewarding and gratifying!

Here is that story I wrote on Michelle in 1999 for Kansas City Sports & Fitness.

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Michelle Reiter’s life changed forever when she was selected as a Kansas Chiefs cheerleader five years ago.

Reiter, who didn’t even think she’d make the team, feels blessed to be representing the Chiefs on and off the field. She loves lending a hand to the community and helping such worthy causes as the Fox 4 Love Fund for Children.  

“We do hundreds of appearances each year,” Reiter said. “There’s way more to it than just dancing and performing. That’s what I thought it was when I first got into it. But as you do it more and more, you just realize what a life-changing event it is.” 

Reiter credits Elaine Hart (Chiefs Cheerleader Director and owner of HARTBEAT Productions) for help shaping her identity and challenging all the cheerleaders to “find our own inner strength and spirituality.”  

“I think that’s good because it relates well to us in what we do in being servants to the community and ambassadors for the Chiefs,” Reiter said. “She’s a wonderful person.”

Reiter, 25, can certainly identify with the significance of HARTBEAT Productions’ motto — “Leadership from the Heart.” She mentioned that Hart actually had a little analogy this year in saying “High Five from the Heart.”  

“Each finger represents something that we do, like integrity or reaching out to the community,” Reiter said. “It’s all from the heart.”  

Reiter, who smiles when saying the cheerleaders sometimes give each other high-fives, now uses the leadership skills she’s developed with the Chiefs in her job as interim fitness director of the KU FIT program at Kansas University. Reiter receives a “real high” in seeing people adopt fitness as a way of life, and is constantly encouraging her staff of instructors and personal trainers to raise the self esteem of each participant.  

“I stress that not everyone is at the same aerobic level,” Reiter said. “I tell them just to encourage each and everyone in the class to hang in there if they’re not doing so well. Maybe it’s just a glance or touching someone’s shoulder during class and saying, ‘You can do it.’ Just taking the extra time to touch the most people in class as possible.”

As the youngest of six children growing up in Beloit, Reiter has always made time for others. Her parents taught her to respect “all people, no matter if it’s someone who owns a large corporation or is a janitor for that building.” She was also impacted throughout the years by such mentors as her two older sisters, Shannon Bollman (former director of KU FIT and ex-Chiefs cheerleader), college professors, Dr. Kenneth Cooper (he first coined the term “aerobics” in 1968), and, of course, Hart.  

 

Thus, it shouldn’t be surprising that Reiter keeps the following inspirational quote in her office: “In the end, leaders are much like eagles...they don’t flock, you find them one at a time.”

And what does this personally mean to Reiter? Her voice now grows soft with meaning:

“In your life, lots of people come in and out. But there are certain ones that really influence you and change your life.”

My tribute to former great KU assistant coach Sam Miranda

In Part II on Sam Miranda, I write about my tribute to him after he passed in 2009. This was published in Jayhawk Illustrated.

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The news hit me hard and sharp, jolting me wide awake in the late night hours on May 29.

It was near 3 a.m. when I went online and read that former KU assistant basketball coach Sam Miranda had died of cancer the previous day at age 78. I stayed awake the rest of the evening and the next day with Miranda occupying all my thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

Miranda was not just a Jayhawk assistant under Ted Owens from 1964-77. He was a legendary recruiter and master teacher who won over recruits and players with his supreme salesmanship, enthusiasm, persistence, tireless work ethic, honesty, and demanding tough love.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Miranda in November of 2000 for a Where Are They Now? feature for Jayhawk Insider magazine. I’ve often thought of that interview the last decade and how much fun I had hearing Miranda’s recruiting stories. And I thought Sam enjoyed reminiscing about his KU days maybe just as much.

He was full of energy that night, full of life, full of love and passion for his family and Kansas basketball. While he was no longer affiliated with KU after he resigned in 1977, Miranda never once stopped believing, cheering, and supporting the school he gave his heart and soul to for 13 years.

He laughed some while recalling his recruiting stories of former Jayhawks like Rick Suttle, Roger Morningstar, Tom Kivisto and Dale Greenlee — four of my first KU basketball heroes and stars on the 1973-74 Final Four team.

These were players I put on a pedestal; they became larger than life to me as a very impressionable 7-year-old boy growing up in Lawrence. They could simply do no wrong. At the time, I gave no thought as to how these players arrived at KU or who was responsible in recruiting them. Heck, I was too young to think about that. I just watched in awe and wonder as Suttle and company drove KU on a magical ride to the Final Four. 

Years later, I became a diligent student of KU basketball history and read voraciously every book and article I could find about the Jayhawks’ past. That’s when I learned about Miranda’s influence on KU basketball, how he started the Illinois pipeline to Kansas and got Jo Jo White to sign with Kansas without ever seeing him play in person. 

Then I had the good fortune to interview Miranda and many of his former players in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and learned even more about this unsung hero of Kansas basketball.

In 2000, he was voted by a blue-ribbon Jayhawk panel as the best assistant coach in Kansas basketball history.

 “There’s been a lot of fine, fine coaches, and whomever that panel was, I appreciate their thoughtfulness very much,” Miranda told me in our interview in 2000. “That’s a fine honor when you think of 103 years of Kansas basketball, and to be selected as the top person, that’s quite a good feeling.”

Miranda’s basketball roots were planted in Collinsville, Ill., where he was Prep Player of the Year for the St. Louis metro area his junior year of high school in 1947 and named first-team All-State in 1948. Miranda, who was inducted as a player into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1973, became a star guard at Indiana under legendary coach Branch McCracken. He earned second-team all-Big Ten honors as a junior in 1951 and was named first-team Little All-American in 1951 and 1952.

Miranda’s dribbling ability gained national acclaim; in 1950, he was selected to demonstrate ball handling skills in a General Mills educational sports film. After his senior year in 1952, Miranda toured against the Harlem Globetrotters as a member of the College All-Star team.

 He spent two years in the U.S. Army before embarking on a coaching career in the Illinois high school ranks for eight years, where he built lasting relationships and contacts with his players and fellow coaches. Miranda then became an assistant coach at New Mexico for two years before new KU head coach Ted Owens hired him as his top aide in 1964 after taking over for Dick Harp.

Miranda actually first met Owens (KU assistant at the time under Harp) for about five minutes when he was an assistant at New Mexico during a trip to Lawrence, where he was scouting the Jayhawks in preparation for the Lobos game with Kansas in Albuquerque on Dec. 19, 1963.

New Mexico won, 59-54.

“That was the biggest game and biggest win the University of New Mexico ever had up to that point by far,” Miranda said.

After that 1963-64 season, Miranda stopped at an interstate restaurant north of Chicago on a recruiting trip and picked up the paper and read that Harp had resigned and Owens was the new KU head coach.

“I just thought at the time, ‘Man, what a great break for Ted. A relatively young person to get that kind of job,’” Miranda said. “And then about four or five days later, I got a call from him in regards to (joining his staff). He wanted to recruit the Illinois and St. Louis area, where I had some success recruiting. He came out to Albuquerque and we visited a night or so. I came back the next weekend (to Lawrence) and looked around and decided to come to KU.”

Miranda went right to work, securing a commitment from fellow Collinsville native and high school All-American Rodger Bohnenstiehl, and then soon lured White from St. Louis.

He was just beginning. 

Focusing primarily in the Illinois and St. Louis area, Miranda brought in a boatload of talent from Illinois the next 13 years. In fact, the 1974 Final Four team comprised 10 players from Illinois, including seven of the top eight.

"I was from Illinois and knew it was a great basketball state," Miranda once told writer Taylor Bell of the Chicago Sun-Times. "I knew a lot of high school coaches. I figured we had to outwork people. I was on the phone every night from 7 to 10 talking to players in Illinois. We had practice on Friday afternoon. Afterward, I'd catch a flight in Kansas City, fly to Illinois, see a game, visit with parents, 

go to dinner, then fly back on a 12:45 flight to Kansas City."

Miranda simply outworked his competition. He was quite passionate about recruiting. 

“I enjoyed recruiting,” Miranda told me. “It’s a challenge. You go in a home the summer time prior to their senior year. You’re in there with all the big schools and you’re trying to be one of the five to come out and visit your school. When you walk out on a summer evening, you know if you’ve done a good or bad job. It’s an exhilarating feeling when you walk out and you’ve done a good job of recruiting and get the kid to commit and say, ‘Yes, I’ll come visit Kansas.’”

Bell said Miranda was peerless in his profession.

“Since I began covering high school sports in the 1950s, I've become acquainted with the process and some of the best football and basketball recruiters who ever persuaded a highly impressionable teenager to leave his family, friends and hometown for a name on a map that the youngster didn't know existed. In some cases, there wasn't even a name,” Bell wrote.

“Sam Miranda was the best of all. ... Miranda built Kansas into a Final Four program in the 1970s by recruiting many of the best high school players in Illinois, including Springfield's Dave Robisch, East Aurora's Tom Kivisto, Collinsville's Rodger Bohnenstiehl, Kenwood's Donnie Von Moore and Kewanee's Tommie Smith. He set the standard for recruiters who followed him. He wrote the book. Nobody worked harder. In an era where there were virtually no restrictions on recruiting, Miranda literally camped out on a recruit's doorstep. Before anyone else, he understood the two most important axioms of recruiting: 

“1. The first coach in the door usually is the one who signs the kid.

2. You must learn who will make the final decision—athlete, father, mother, grandmother, uncle, high school coach, AAU coach—and form a close relationship.”

Miranda spoke to me about that recruiting philosophy.

“In recruiting, I always thought in any family, there’s basically one person who is the key person in recruiting the youngster,” Miranda said. “You recruit the young man and then you recruit the person who is going to help (him) make that decision.”

In Suttle’s case, Miranda won over his mother’s respect. Suttle was leaning towards Jacksonville, which had been to the Final Four in 1970, before eventually signing with KU.

“I recruited him hard for three years,” Miranda said. “Finally in the end, (Suttle’s mom) said, ‘You’re going with Sam. That’s it.’ ... She just had confidence in us.”

Miranda landed White through the confidence and trust of his high school coach, Jodie Bailey.

“About the third or fourth time I was back to see Jo Jo, we’re at a restaurant talking and I’m going over why I thought he should come to Kansas and everything,” Miranda said. “Jodie Bailey was sitting there and he said, ‘Jo Jo, that sounds good to me.’ And that was it. That kind of sealed it.”

There was another reason why White signed with Kansas.

"I went to Kansas because I couldn't talk to any other coaches. I was always on the phone with Sam," Bell reported White once saying.

While Miranda was instrumental in recruiting and signing countless prospects over the years, he selflessly credited Owens for KU’s recruiting success.

“Of course, the head coach is naturally the vital guy because he’s got to make an impression,” Miranda said. “I don’t care how good an assistant coach is in recruiting, if the head coach doesn’t make a great impression, it’s going to be hard to get the kid. And Ted always did a great job recruiting.”

With his fierce coaching personality, Miranda was the perfect blend to Owens. As former Jayhawks like to say, Owens was the nice “good cop,” while Miranda played the “bad cop” role.

“Owens was the nice guy that tried to be mean,” Morningstar said. “We all kind of laughed at. Coach Miranda, you never looked at crosswise. He had the fear of God in all of us.”

But he also had the unyielding respect and love of all his players.

Just ask Morningstar.

“He was a great guy and meant so much to a lot of us,” Morningstar wrote me in an email after Miranda’s death.

Just ask former KU center Roger Brown.

 

Brown was one of countless post players who made huge strides under Miranda’s tutelage. Brown credits Miranda, who worked primarily with KU’s big men — as a key factor in his development.

“He said (during the recruiting process) he was going to be out there every day working with me,” Brown said during an interview in 2002. “I didn’t take him seriously. I just took it in passing, but when I got there and realized how intense he was as a coach and that he was true to his word, I said, ‘OK, then.’

“He spent a lot of time with me and Dave (Robisch) every day. I think that was a big factor in my development. I think that was a major thing that he gave attention to all the players, especially the big men.  I think that was instrumental.”  

Just ask Von Moore.

“If it wasn’t for Sam I would not have ever gotten off the bench at Kansas,” Von Moore commented last April in Suntimes.com after a story on Miranda. “I can still hear those familiar words: ‘Don't you think we should put Donnie in the game.’ Every time he said it Ted would put me in the game. He taught me how to play the game and believed in me. But most importantly he taught me honor, dignity and respect. He was my role model and I carry a part of him with me to this very day. When I coach and when I teach. 

“What a gift. Thanks Sam.”

Just ask Greenlee.

“Sam Miranda is one of the finest men I have ever known,” Greenlee commented in Suntimes.com in May. “I had broken my ankle my senior year of high school playing football, so all of the colleges that had been recruiting me for basketball backed off. My high school football coach in Rockford, Illinois, Bill Swaby, grew up with Coach Miranda in Collinsville, and got Sam to take a look at me. Coach showed faith in me and allowed me to come to KU for a fantastic four years of my life. Best break I ever had. Thanks Coach Miranda, for everything. 

“You're the best!”

Just ask Bohnenstiehl.

“Sam was a great man to play for,” Bohnestiehl said during an interview in 2003. “He made you work. He was very disciplined. You had to work hard.”

Just ask White.

“Ted is like a second father to me, he and coach Miranda,” White said after his jersey retirement ceremony at Allen Fieldhouse in 2003. “They (Miranda and Owens) were more than just coaches. 

They were friends to us, they were our confidant. Our relationship continues on, far beyond the KU days.”

Indeed, many of Miranda’s former players kept in touch and met with him when they visited Lawrence. Miranda cherished the lifetime relationships he built with his players and was so proud of their post-KU accomplishments.

 “I think the association with the players is probably the most important thing for any coach, really, particularly after your finished coaching,” Miranda told me. “The players that you do get and how they perform and how they work hard and how they do a great job for the university and their teammates is always something to reflect and look back on.”

“(It’s a) good feeling to see the guys go on and be successful in sports and out of sports.”

After the 1976-77 season, two Final Fours (1971 and ‘74) and 23 years in the coaching profession, Miranda left KU and went to work for Maupintour Travel. He was an outside sales manager for 17 years before retiring in 1994. 

He lived in Lawrence ever since with his wife, Polly.

“It’s been a very satisfying life,” Miranda said in 2000.

Miranda left an indelible impact with everyone he met along the way. One reader of the Respublica.com captured the sentiments of all who knew Miranda with a comment on the Illinois community blog’s website after Miranda’s death.

“Every basketball town, every town, deserves a Sam, but too few have them.”

Sam Miranda was one of the best assistant coaches in KU basketball history

I had the good fortune to interview former KU assistant coach Sam Miranda in 2000 for a Where Are They Now? story for Jayhawk Insider. We had a wonderful conversation as Miranda mesmerized me with stories of recruiting the likes of Jo Jo White, Rick Suttle, Dave Robisch and Tom Kivisto.

A Collinsville, Ill., native and former standout guard at Indiana who was inducted as a player into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1973, Miranda was responsible for recruiting the Illinois pipeline. Seven of the eight top players on the 1974 Final Four team hailed from Illinois, my heroes like Suttle, Kivisto, Roger Morningstar, Dale Greenleee and Norm Cook.

Miranda, who served for 13 years as KU head coach Ted Owens’ loyal assistant and was part of two Final Fours and five Big Eight championships, was voted by a Jayhawk blue-ribbon panel in 2000 as the best assistant coach in KU history, an honor that deeply humbled him.

“There’s been a lot of fine, fine coaches, and whoever that panel was, I appreciate their thoughtfulness very much,” he said. “That’s a fine honor when you think of 103 years of Kansas basketball, and to be selected as the top person, that’s quite a good feeling.”

I was very saddened when he passed at age 78 in 2009 and thought of him constantly. However, I also felt some comfort knowing I got a chance to interview him and hear his favorite KU memories and how his life turned out during our talk in 2000. I still have very fond memories about our interview. 

Sam was a very demanding and tough coach, but his players deeply loved and respected him. Miranda cherished the lifelong relationships he built with his players, including White.

After his jersey retirement ceremony at Allen Fieldhouse in 2003, where Miranda and Owens stood next to Jo Jo at midcourt as White’s No. 15 jersey was unfurled in the rafters, I asked Jo Jo how he felt about Sam and Ted.

“Ted is like a second father to me, he and coach Miranda,” White told me. “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 mentioned Miranda at his Hall of Fame induction in Springfield, Mass., in 2015 as being a very influential figure for him at KU, along with Owens.

In this two-part series, I first recall my Where Are They Now? story on Miranda in 2000. Then, in Part II, I will include my heartfelt tribute story about him when he passed in 2009.

Sam, thanks for the memories and recruiting so many of my childhood heroes, players that brought me so much joy and wonder growing up in Lawrence and attending KU games with my dad with our season tickets since 1973 before I began covering KU hoops in 1998 for 20 years.

...

When Sam Miranda became the assistant basketball coach at Kansas in 1964, he soon made a call to a high school coach in St. Louis, Mo.

“I asked him, ‘Who do you think is the best player in St. Louis?’  He said, ‘Sam, the best player in St. Louis by far is Jo Jo White. You don’t even have to see him. If you can can get him, take him.’”

Miranda immediately launched a recruiting blitz on this phenom guard from McKinley High School. He called White three or four times a week and visited his family at home in the summer.

“About the third or fourth time I was back to see Jo Jo, we’re at a restaurant talking and I’m going over why I thought he should come to Kansas and everything,” Miranda said. “Jodie Bailey (White’s high school coach) was sitting there and he said, ‘Jo Jo, that sounds good to me.’ And that was it. That kind of sealed it.”

White, of course, eventually signed with Kansas and became arguably the best guard in Big Eight history. For Miranda, he was just  beginning. Throughout his 13-year tenure as Ted Owens’ top assistant and chief recruiter, Miranda was instrumental in signing countless high school standouts. Names like Rodger Bohnenstiehl, Dave Robisch, Tom Kivisto, Roger Morningstar and Rick Suttle still dance in his mind.

A native of Collinsville, Ill., Miranda had especially good success recruiting in the Illinois and St. Louis area (seven of the top eight players on the 1974 Final Four team hailed from Illinois).  

“I enjoyed recruiting,” Miranda said recently from his home in Lawrence, Kan. “It’s a challenge. You go in a home the summer time prior to their senior year. You’re in there with all the big schools and you’re trying to be one of the five to come out and visit your school. When you walk out on a summer evening, you know if you’ve done a good or bad job. It’s an exhilarating feeling when you walk out and you’ve done a good job of recruiting and get the kid to commit and say, ‘Yes, I’ll come visit Kansas.’”

 

Regarded as one of the most honest, knowledgeable, and talented assistants in the collegiate ranks, Miranda was recently selected by a blue-ribbon Jayhawk panel as the top assistant coach in Kansas history.  

 

“There’s been a lot of fine, fine coaches, and whoever that panel was, I appreciate their thoughtfulness very much,” he said. “That’s a fine honor when you think of 103 years of Kansas basketball, and to be selected as the top person, that’s quite a good feeling.”

Miranda has many warm feelings about his KU days, including the great 1966 team. He can’t possibly forget the NCAA tournament regional finals that year against Texas Western, when the officials ruled that White had stepped out of bounds just before a game-winning shot in OT.

“I don’t know if KU’s ever had a better team,” Miranda said. “We had four or five guys who played NBA and ABA (White, Walt Wesley. Riney Lochmann, Ron Franz and Bobby Wilson). The ones who didn’t — Bohnenstiehl, Delvy Lewis and Al Lopes — were all outstanding college players. I honestly believe we would have won the national championship.”

After the 1976-77 season and 23 years in the coaching profession (eight in high school and 15 at the college level), Miranda left KU and went to work for Maupintour Travel. He was an outside sales manager for 17 years before retiring in 1994. 

Miranda admits now that he might have erred in not going after a couple head-coaching positions during his tenure at KU.

“You got to do what you think is right at the time,” he said. “I just thought at the time I would stay at KU. It was probably a mistake.”

However, Miranda loved his job at Maupintour and is at peace with himself living in Lawrence with his wife, Polly.  

“It’s been a very satisfying life,” he said. 

It’s a life made richer with the lasting relationships built with so many former players that he recruited to Mount Oread. Miranda’s voice becomes more lively now as he reflects back to the late 1960s and his recruitment of Robisch, a standout center from Springfield, Ill. who had just broken all of the scoring records in the Illinois state tournament. 

“Everybody in the country wanted him,” Miranda said. “We (Miranda and Owens) go back to see him just to make sure we’re in the picture, still fighting for him. So we sit down and visit quite a while. His dad, who was a Lutheran minister, said, ‘Coach, I’m going to excuse ourselves. Dave and I are going to go out on the back porch and talk a little bit. We’ll be right back.’ They came back in 10 minutes or so and his dad says, ‘Well, Dave and I have talked, and we’ve decided he’s going to come to Kansas.’” You could have knocked us over with a feather because we’re back there just to stay in the picture, and he commits that night!”

And Miranda’s reaction that moment?

“We felt pretty darn good about it, naturally,” Miranda said, laughing. “We kept our composure and congratulated him.”

A Closer Look at Sam Miranda:

Years at KU: 1964-1977

Career Notables: Member of two Final Fours and five conference championships...instrumental in recruiting the Illinois and St. Louis area pipeline...selected best assistant coach in KU history by blue-ribbon Jayhawk panel.

Family: Miranda and his wife, Polly, have four daughters (Joanna, Sueanna, Sarah, and Laurie) and seven grandchildren.

Education: 1952, B.S. Physical Education, Indiana University (Miranda earned second-team All-Big 10 basketball honors as a junior and was a member of the College All-Star team his senior year in its annual tour against the Harlem Globetrotters). 1956, M.S. Education, Southern Illinois.

Since Leaving KU: Miranda worked for Maupintour Travel for 17 years as an outside sales manager before retiring in 1994.

Currently: Miranda is retired and lives in Lawrence.

Hobbies: tennis, yard work, and spending time with grandchildren.

Favorite KU Memories: 1966 squad and 1971 and ‘74 Final Four teams...Whipping No. 4 Long Beach State at halftime, 32-8, on Dec. 1, 1970 (KU won 69-52). “They couldn’t even get a shot off...The crowd was screaming and yelling. We just played tremendous.”

On the Jayhawks Today: “I think they’re outstanding. Roy Williams does a fabulous job. He’s probably the best coach Kansas has ever had — on and off the floor.”

Otto Schnellbacher was one of the greatest athletes in KU history

It’s not often in your life when you have the priceless opportunity to interview and write a story on one of the greatest athletes in KU history, KU football’s first All-American and one of the rare athletes in sports history to play both in the NFL and NBA.

But that’s what happened to me on a November day in 2000 when I did a phone interview with Otto Schnellbacher, one of the true giants in KU sports history. Otto was in New York at the time watching KU basketball in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

We had a wonderful interview, as Otto fondly recalled his KU days, how he got started in football at Kansas, his favorite Jayhawk memories, his NBA and NFL career, and what he’s been up to since retiring from the NFL in 1951.

He was a phenomenal athlete but an even better person. I was saddened when he passed in 2008 at age 84 of cancer in Topeka, where he lived most of his life.

His death and storied accomplishments were written about in the New York Times and on ESPN.com. He is a proud member of KU's Ring of Honor and was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1972 and also the University of Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.

Perhaps above all, Otto was an extremely loyal Jayhawk to the last day of his life.

Don Fambrough, the former KU football player and head coach and teammate of Otto's, spoke fondly of him after his death to the Lawrence Journal-World on March 10, 2008.

"This is a tough one," Fambrough said. "Otto was from the little old town of Sublette and he used to tell me stories of the dust storms out there. His mother would stay up all night long and put wet towels over their faces so they could breathe. I've always been partial to Kansas kids. They're tough kids who've had to work hard for everything they've gotten. That was Otto."

Here is that Where Are They Now? story on Otto Schnellbacher, an interview I’ll always fondly remember.

...

Otto Schnellbacher arrived at KU in 1941 as a “very farmish young man” from Sublette, Kan. He was recruited by Phog Allen on a basketball scholarship, which just included books and tuition. So to make ends meet, Schnellbacher waited tables at Delta Chi fraternity for room and board, and also worked at Memorial Stadium on game days.

“They notified me that I had a football job and I was on basketball scholarship, and they were going to have to fire me,” Schnellbacher said. “So I went to see Phog and he said, ‘Well, go out for football and you can keep your job.’ That’s how come I went out for football at KU. It turned out to be pretty good for me.”

A legend was born.

Hailed as the “Double Threat from Sublette,” Schnellbacher became one of the greatest athletes in KU history. He excelled on the gridiron and hardwood, and was one of just three Kansas players to serve as captain in both basketball and football. Schnellbacher earned all-conference in basketball four years and was a two-time All-Big Six selection in football. He capped off a scintillating football career in 1947 with 58 total receptions for 1,069 yards — both marks stood as school records for 22 years. 

Schnellbacher’s greatest accomplishment was helping lead KU to the Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 1948 (KU’s first bowl) and being named Kansas’ first All-America selection (along with Ray Evans).

“Ray Evans was a super player and super individual,” Schnellbacher said. “There was no finer individual that ever lived. That makes me feel very proud to be included with Ray.”

Schnellbacher, whose KU career was interrupted in 1943 (World War II), admits his sports preferences changed after he spent three years in the service.

“When I first went to KU, basketball was by far my favorite sport,” he said. “By the time I left there, I think football was my favorite sport. ... I think a lot of it has to due with the type of success you have. My last year, I had much more success in football than I did in basketball. We weren’t that whippy as a basketball team (KU went just 9-15 in 1947-48).  I knew my future was in football.”

Schnellbacher actually wound up being drafted in both sports. He played four years of professional football (he shifted from a split end to a defensive back) with the New York Yankees of the All-America Football Conference and the NFL New York Giants, as well as playing one year with the NBA Providence Steamrollers and St. Louis Bombers in 1948-49. 

 

He was named football All-Pro two times before retiring in 1951, leading the NFL in interceptions that year with 11.

“I thought it was great,” Schnellbacher said. “I wasn’t going to go into coaching or stay in sports, so it was time to quit after four years and make my home in Topeka.  I could have played more, but I had enough.”

Schnellbacher has lived in Topeka ever since.  

“I wanted to stay near Lawrence,” he said. “Lawrence was a little bit too small and Kansas City was too big. Topeka was just right in size for me.”

Schnellbacher, who worked in the insurance business for American United Life and Indianapolis Life before officially retiring in 1988, is now extremely active in volunteer work with his church and such deserving agencies as Let’s Help and Concerned Citizens for Topeka against Hate. He’s also president of the Topeka Jayhawk Club and follows the crimson and blue faithfully.

In fact, he was recently in New York to watch the basketball team in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

“Since I lived there back in the 40s and 1950 and ‘51, I know the town,” he said. “We had a great time. We went up to West Point and Bear Mountain.”

Of course, Schnellbacher’s fondest memories of the 1940s center around Mount Oread. He remains forever grateful to Allen for steering him into football and molding him into the person he is today.

“Phog Allen was the greatest thing to ever happen to my life,” Schnellbacher said. “He was just a super human being. He was very supportive and helpful with ideas and motivated you to do things right and be somebody, and try to do things right in a positive way in the world. He was a very fine motivator. Roy Williams has the same traits.”

And about that Jayhawk moniker as the “Double Threat from Sublette?

“I didn’t care what they called me,” Schnellbacher said, laughing. “I didn’t mind, as long as they called me something.”

A Closer Look at Otto Schnellbacher:

Years at KU: 1941-1943; 1946-48

Career Notables: Football All-American in 1947... Co-Captain of 1947 Orange Bowl team and captain of 1947-48 basketball squad (one of three KU athletes to serve as captain in both sports)...Led KU in receiving in 1942, ‘46, ‘47...All-Conference in basketball four years.

Family: Schnellbacher and his wife, Jane, have seven children and 13 grandkids (he and his first wife, who died over 10 years ago, had three children. Schnellbacher’s second wife, Jane, had four children).

Education: B.S. Education, 1948.

Since Leaving KU: Schnellbacher played one year in the NBA (1948-49) with Providence and St. Louis and four years in professional football (AAFC New York Yankees and NFL New York Giants) before retiring in 1951. He then moved to Topeka and worked in the life insurance business until 1988.

Currently: Schnellbacher, who still has his insurance license, is retired and lives in Topeka.

Hobbies: Playing golf and following the Jayhawks. 

Favorite KU Memories: The 1942-43 basketball team (22-6 and Big Six Champions) and 1947 Orange Bowl squad. “Back in those days, they only had four bowls — Orange, Sugar, Rose and Cotton. So to get to the Orange Bowl was quite a thrill.” 

On the Jayhawks Today:  “The basketball team is going to be great this year. It’s already on its way...I’m a fan of Terry Allen and I hope for his success. I think we got to give him some time to recruit some better personnel.”

Former Jayhawk Jeff Dishman was a fierce battler on and off the court

                                                             KU Libraries Digital Collection

I first met Jeff Dishman in the summer of 1981 at Allen Fieldhouse, still an impressionable teenager about to enter my sophomore year at Lawrence High School. Dishman was hanging out around the trophy area outside the court when I approached him and asked: “Are you a KU recruit?” He replied: “I signed with KU.” My friend Phillip and I then had a very nice conversation with the new KU signee and rebounded for him as he shot free throws. It was quite a thrill for me rebounding for the new Jayhawk. He was as kind and nice as can be.

KU assistant coach Bob Hill came over to Dishman and spoke briefly with him. Hill would go on to become head coach in the NBA with the Knicks, Pacers, Spurs and Sonics.

My friend’s dad drove us home that dreamy hot afternoon as I dreamed of Dishman creating his hardwood magic at Allen Fieldhouse. I began making up nicknames for him during the drive home, counting the days when he would suit up and don the crimson and blue.

A Medicine Lodge, Kan., native and junior college star at Hutchinson Community College, Dishman battled valiantly for two years as an undersized 6-5 power forward. He never backed down competing against the likes of North Carolina superstar Sam Perkins in his first college game (he even drew a foul on Perkins while driving the left baseline) and the Big Eight stars.

Unfortunately, Dishman played on two losing teams at Kansas, which marked the end of Ted Owens’ 19-year head coaching career. He averaged 33.2 minutes per game his first season (junior year) while his minutes dropped to 21.4 minutes as a senior as Owens went with the youth movement.

“(Owens) had some heat on him,” Dishman told me in a Where Are They Now? interview in 2003. “He was banking on the future. He was basically saying, ‘This is going to be kind of a building year,’ and he ended up using that year trying to build it and playing a lot of younger guys (KU had three highly touted freshmen in Kerry Boagni, Ron Kellogg and Calvin Thompson). I was a much better player my senior year (Dishman averaged 5.7 ppg) than my junior yea (9.3 ppg), but my minutes were diminished because Ted had basically said, ‘I’m going to go with the youth movement.’ You’re not happy about it when it’s happening. I took it. When you look back on it, you understand it, because the guy was trying to save his livelihood.”

Despite two losing years, Dishman cherished his KU experience.

“After you get done at KU, you think about some of those games and you think about some of the good times and stuff,” Dishman said. “I can’t tell you every score. I can’t tell you every loss or win, but I can tell you the camaraderie and the friendships you develop over the years and the stuff that happens on road trips and the fun you had and those kind of relationships you develop. That’s the thing about college basketball.”

Dishman was a fierce battler on and off the court. Diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1986, he had his bladder removed the following year and has been cancer free since 1987 at the time of our interview. He gained a greater a appreciation of life through his battle.

Dishman boasts career averages of 7.4 points and 5.1 rebounds in 56 games while shooting 45.4 percent from the field and 69.2 percent at the free throw line. He led the team in free throw percentage his senior year in 1982-83 (82.9), where he was also a co-captain and earned Academic All-Big Eight honors.

“I couldn’t ask for two better examples of hard work and discipline,” Owens said at the time about Dishman and fellow co-captain Mark Summers.

Dishman is currently working as a financial advisor at Stifel in Topeka.

No, Dishman certainly isn’t one of the all-time KU greats, but his accomplishments at KU can never be forgotten as the consummate team and role player. I will always respect him for the great, genuine kindness he showed me and my friend when I first met him that summer of 1981. And I had a wonderful Where Are They Now? interview with him as well.

Here is Dishman recalling growing up in Medicine Lodge, B.H. Born, and his major college basketball dreams during our 2003 interview.

"Bill Forsyth (from Medicine Lodge) played at KU also. Us three (B.H. Born is the other) are the guys that played at KU. B.H. and I have met a couple two or three times and had some nice conversation. In fact, I saw him in Medicine Lodge about three years ago. He was down, they were retiring his jersey and stuff at the school and putting him in the Kansas Hall of Fame. It was nice visiting with him. I really enjoyed that. B.H. was the guy back in the day. He was really quite a dominant force back in his day playing for Medicine Lodge High school. I heard a lot about B.H. whenever I got in high school. I heard he got a lot of scoring records, had scored a lot of points and went on to play at KU. 

"Of course, I knew of KU because growing up Wilt Chamberlain was always one of my favorite players, and I always enjoyed watching him play. When I was in junior high, he was still a fairly dominating force in the NBA Then, hearing about B.H. Born, it eventually became a pretty good fit for me to go to KU. You hear stories on how many points he scored. He was pretty much an unstoppable post player and struggled a little bit because he was behind (Clyde) Lovellette. After Lovellette, everyone thought it was going to be a down year, and B.H picked up the slack. I remember hearing about all the stories, and people around town talking about B.H. Of course, he was a little bit bigger guy than I was at that time. In small towns, word travels pretty fast. He had quite a reputation as being a pretty strong, physical player. When you’re in Medicine Lodge, you’re so far removed from big-time basketball. 

"My thought was I’m going to do whatever I can possible do to try and get there. Obviously, you hear about those guys. You watch Wilt on TV and you hear about B. H. Born. To me, I had some goals to play major college. And if KU was one of them, that would be great. I kind of had to take a little bit longer route to get there. You’re so far removed when you’re in Medicine Lodge from being around big-time basketball that you don’t know if you can get there or what it’s going to take for you to get there. By me going to the junior college route, it kind of opened my eyes a little bit and let me figure out how hard it was going to be to get there. I had a lot of work to do. In fact, I was more highly recruited in football than anything. I had more major colleges looking at me for football. All the junior colleges and small four years were looking at me as a quarterback, basically. I put up some nice numbers in high school. We went to the state playoffs and had a nice senior year, but my love was basically basketball. I think probably looking back on it, football would have been a better avenue for me to get in the pros. I kind of had more of a build for a football player. But I just had that basketball in me. I don’t know if it was because of watching Wilt play or B. H. Born, or all the great athletes you’d see on TV. I just had this interest in basketball more so than football. Maybe kind of like a Tony Gonzalez type deal, love to play basketball, but football, he’s kind of done it right. He loves to play basketball, and football is something he’s really good at. Even though he’d love to be in the pros probably more so than the NFL, he’s a premier tight end. I was kind of a tweener like he is, I mean a big strong body. In the NBA, you got to be really tall and big. He just doesn’t fit the mold for what his game is. I was kind of the same way. A lot of people that played pro football, I know they got a great deal there. 

"(I have) no regrets. I had a great time at KU. I met a lot of great people, and had a lot of great relationships and memories. When you’re playing at one of the premier programs in basketball in the country and you get to do that, I don’t know if you’d trade that for anything. I wanted to play major college basketball no matter how I had to get there, basically my way to get there was through Hutchinson juco. I really liked Hutch and wanted to go to Hutch.”

Now, here is my 2003 Where Are They Now? story.

...

Jeff Dishman’s life story is about hard work, discipline, perseverance and heart. From defying the odds and earning a basketball scholarship at Kansas, where he fought like a warrior as an undersized 6-5 power forward for two trying seasons, to at 26, contending the battle of his life in cancer, Dishman has always tested his will and triumphed over the human spirit.

His inspirational roots were planted in little Medicine Lodge, Kan., where Dishman grew up and developed a passion for basketball. As a 6-5 high school post player, though, Dishman didn’t exactly have the college basketball world beckoning at his doorstep. So he took the next route of going to Hutchinson Community College in hopes of achieving his dream of playing major college basketball.

After working on his wing skills and achieving All-America honors his sophomore year, Dishman decided to follow his heart and become a Jayhawk. KU was, quite simply, a perfect fit. After all, B.H. Born was a Medicine Lodge native as well who starred at Mount Oread in the 1950s.  

“Once KU came into the fold and I came to visit, it was pretty much a done deal,” Dishman said.

Soon after Dishman arrived at Kansas, an unexpected happening occurred. Center Victor Mitchell left the team, which forced power forward Kelly Knight into the five spot and Dishman was pegged as the new four man. Recruited as a shooter to back up small forward David Magley, Dishman was now counted on to log major minutes and guard bigger players at power forward.  He excelled in his new role. Dishman averaged 9.3 points and 5.9 rebounds in 33 minutes per game in 1981-82.

“I suppose being a naive kid from Medicine Lodge, I think I felt like I’d have an impact,” Dishman said. “I don’t know if I thought I’d play 33 minutes per game. I don’t know if anybody really thought that would be what we would end up doing, but our bench was not very deep. The drop-off was pretty dramatic. I don’t know maybe if playing three or four minutes less a game might have helped us out down the road. By February, our legs were pretty much gone.”

While KU started the season off well, disaster happened when the already thin Jayhawks lost Knight with a sprained ankle just before conference play. He was out four weeks.

“That really killed us,” Dishman said. “I don’t know if we ever got our confidence back. Kelly came back, and was never quite the same that year. It was disappointing.”

Dishman, 42, started the season slowly, but came on strong down the stretch. A tweener with good hops, he was a fabulous role player who did the dirty work inside and got the ball to Tony Guy and Magley. Unfortunately, KU, which had advanced to the Sweet 16 the previous season in 1980-81, finished the year at 13-14. Coach Ted Owens was under some fire to bring a winner back to Kansas. 

He named Dishman and Mark Summers co-captains for 1982-83.

“I couldn’t ask for two better examples of hard work and discipline,” Owens said.

Dishman took his role as senior co-captain very seriously.

“I was probably more of a leader by example than by being a rah-rah guy,” he said. “I was more a guy who would lead them in wind sprints, be first in line in for drills, and bust your butt and do those type of things.”

Dishman started the first seven games that season before assuming a backup role. His best game of the year was at Nebraska on Feb. 5, where he had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Overall, Dishman said his senior campaign was very trying.

“(Owens) had some heat on him,” Dishman said. “He was banking on the future. He was basically saying, ‘This is going to be kind of a building year,’ and he ended up using that year trying to build it and playing a lot of younger guys (KU had three highly touted freshmen in Kerry Boagni, Ron Kellogg and Calvin Thompson). I was a much better player my senior year (Dishman averaged 5.7 ppg) than my junior year, but my minutes were diminished because Ted had basically said, ‘I’m going to go with the youth movement.’ You’re not happy about it when it’s happening. I took it. When you look back on it, you understand it, because the guy was trying to save his livelihood.”

Owens ended up being fired after leading Kansas to another down season (13-16). Despite going through two losing years, Dishman said he loved playing for Owens and relished his KU experience.

“After you get done at KU, you think about some of those games and you think about some of the good times and stuff,” Dishman said. “I can’t tell you every score. I can’t tell you every loss or win, but I can tell you the camaraderie and the friendships you develop over the years and the stuff that happens on road trips and the fun you had and those kind of relationships you develop. That’s the thing about college basketball.”

After his collegiate career ended, Dishman spent the 1983-84 season as a graduate assistant under new KU coach Larry Brown. He then taught and coached high school basketball in Bartlesville, Okla., for a year before playing a season overseas in the Persian Gulf. Dishman returned to coaching for the next six years (1986-92) at Mission Valley High School southwest of Topeka, where he was also the athletic director. He then switched careers and worked for five years selling building materials for a wholesale company. In 1997, Dishman changed directions again and became a financial advisor for U.S. Bank Piper Jaffray. He manages stock and bond portfolios for people.

“It was a chance for me to get off the road,” he said. “I had been traveling every day, and now I work two minutes away from my house. The first two years were really good, the last three have been really difficult with the market and all. I’m enjoying it.”

He also loves being back in coaching. Dishman took over the head-coaching job at Hayden High School in Topeka this past year, where he is rebuilding a program that went 2-19 a year ago. He said he accepted the position, in part, to “give back to these kids, and try to teach them something about the game and life in general.” Dishman, who was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1986, certainly has many lessons to teach. He had to have his bladder removed the following year, and has been cancer free since 1987.

 

Dishman said that cancer helped give him a greater appreciation of life and taught him to keep matters like coaching in perspective. He now revels in the day-to-day moments which capture his imagination.

“What you figure out is there’s a lot of other important things out there than winning or losing a ball game,” Dishman said. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like losing. But in the scheme of things, winning a high school basketball game or losing is not life or death like some people would like to make it. It is important, and that’s how I coach. I coach it to be very important. I also try to strive and tell my kids that you need to go at these things full force with your mind, your body and your soul, because you never know when those things are going to be taken away from you.  They can be taken away from you at the snap of a finger. They need to live life to the fullest every day.”

And that’s exactly what Dishman does. He’s at peace with himself 20 years after playing his last basketball game at Kansas. Dishman played hoops like he battled cancer. With passion. With determination. And with heart.  

“I’m a very optimistic person,” Dishman said. “I guess I always thought you could work hard enough to get things right, and if you do that long enough and hard enough, eventually you’d get to where you want to be. I never had a quit attitude whatsoever, and that’s how I practiced and that’s how I played. If I was overmatched, I’d still give it all I had. I just wouldn’t throw up my hands and say I can’t do this, because that’s not my nature. And I think that’s how you attack a deal like cancer. You just have to say,  ‘Hey I got to fight this thing, because the other alternative is not very good.’ You got to keep as positive mentally and emotionally as you possibly can, too. You can’t be thinking the worse is going to happen. You got to be thinking the best can happen.”

A Closer Look at Jeff Dishman:

Years at KU: 1981-83

Career Notables: Career-high 21 points versus Michigan State on Dec. 5, 1981, and career-best 11 rebounds against Rollins on Jan. 9, 1981...Co-Captain in 1982-83...Led ‘82-83 team in FT percentage at 82.9...Academic All-Big 8 in 1983.

Family: Wife, Tammy, and son, Caleb, 14.

Education:  1984. B.S. Education. 

Since Leaving KU:  Dishman served one year as a graduate assistant at KU before coaching high school basketball in Bartlesville, Okla., in 1984-85. He then spent a year overseas playing basketball in the Persian Gulf. Dishman returned to coaching from 1986-92 at Mission Valley High School near Topeka, while also serving as athletic director for five of those years. He left coaching and spent the next five years selling building materials for a wholesale company. In 1997, he accepted a job with U.S. Bank Piper Jaffray.

Currently: Dishman is a financial advisor for U.S. Bank Piper Jaffray, and also the head boys coach at Hayden High School in Topeka.

Hobbies: Golf.

Favorite Memories: Shocking Oklahoma in the first round of the Big 8 Tournament on March 8, 1983 (KU won, 87-77). “We kept running a play for Calvin (30 points) to get open. We kept running the same play over and over again, and they never could get it stopped. And, of course, then our whole deal on the other end was stopping Wayman Tisdale. I think we held him to his lowest season total (13 points). I remember it being a  total team effort, and Calvin stepped up and hit some big shots. 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 don’t think, have a shot against them at that point in our season. It was a good memory.” ... Battling North Carolina and freshman Michael Jordan on Nov. 28, 1981 (KU lost to UNC, 74-67). “We stretched them as far as they could go. We had a shot, but then Kelly Knight fouled out with five minutes left...Michael really didn’t stand out on that team at that point in time, but we heard about him because of his vertical jump and his athleticism that everybody had been talking about. It was on ESPN, and that was one of their first games that year. ESPN was just getting started, and so it was a pretty big deal.”