6 University of Kansas

sonal influence, and I talked about it with the Y.M.C.A.
secretary.”

He told me of the Y.M.C.A. college, and I was all for
stopping my ministerial.career right then, and going to that
college. However, I was dissuaded, and received my minis-
terial degree, but have never held a pastorate.” .

Dr. Naismith and Alonzo Stagg entered Springfield Col-
lege together, and by reason of excellent preparation, both
finished the work in a year. Naismith was retained for two
years in the College staff, and it was during this period that
he invented the game of basketball.

When he had entered McGill he had disregarded gym-
nasium work, relying on his farm-boy physique, but took
to heart the warning of a couple of upper classmen. Later,
when the gym instructor died unexpectedly, Naismith suc-
ceeded to the job, and when he went to medical school in
Denver, again found a gymnasium position that paid the way.

In the summer of 1898, Chancellor Snow of the University
of Kansas was seeking a man who could combine the duties

of instructor in physical education and of chapel leader. He ~

chanced to tell his quest to Stagg, who recalled his Y. M. Col-

lege schoolmate, and he recommended Naismith. The chapel
leading ceased after a few years, but the interest in basketball
continued.

A team was soon organized at the University, and that
very winter games were played with nearby teams. The
game had been introduced at the University of Iowa by a
Y. secretary, so it was easy to interest mid-west colleges in
the sport, and it became one of the recognized sports as soon
‘as the old Missouri Valley conference was formed.

Dr. Naismith has made many studies of the effects of the
game on the player, and has taken an active interest in its
improvement. He is “honorary chairman for life” of the
National Rules Committee for the United States and Canada.

‘In February, 1936, basketball teams throughout the nation

observed “National Naismith night,” at which contributions ~

were made to send Dr. and Mrs. Naismith to the Olympic
games.

 

 

Basketball Records hs
Dr. FORREST C. ALLEN

“Director of Athletics and Basketball Coach, University of Kansas

Director American Olympic Basketball, 1936

Twenty conference championships in 26 years of basket-
ball coaching, with additional highly successful seasons for
two other sports, is the record established by Dr. Forrest C.
Allen, director of athletics at the University of Kansas, Law-
rence, and basketball coach all that time, and two years in
his student days. He is the dean of basketball coaches in the
United States, and has been selected as director of the Amer-
ican basketball team entered in the Olympic games at Berlin.

Dr. Allen was playing basketball with the Kansas City
Athletic Club in 1905 when it won three games straight from
the Buffalo Germans, then touring the country as “world’s
champions.” In a game at Independence, Mo., in 1903, Dr.
Allen first met Dr. James Naismith, inventor of the game of
basketball, and then coach at the University of Kansas. The
next year Allen entered the University, and in the season of
1908 was coaching the Kansas team, which finished the season
as champion, with 7 games won and 2 lost.

The next year he coached to another championship, 10 to
2, and at the same time was coaching the Haskell Indian
“National Aboriginal” team, which won 19 of 24 games, and
travelled 5000 miles. He likewise coached Baker University,
20 miles away, to a successful season.

He then entered medical school, studying especially how
to guard against, and to relieve athletic injuries, and in’ the
fall of 1912 became coach of all sports at Missouri State
Teachers College at Warrensburg. His football, basketball,
and baseball teams that winter completed the seasons un-
defeated, and the basketball championship started a seven-
year series of conference championships.

In the fall of 1919 he became director of athletics at the
University of Kansas, and before the basketball season was
over was coaching that sport. In the 1920 and 1921 seasons,
Missouri won the championships, but in 1922 Dr. Allen