Soft Touch With Basket Shots
‘Makes Engleman of K. U. \)°
Threat to Scoring Marks

By HAROLD CLAASSEN,
Associated Press Sports Writer.

LAWRENCE, Kans., Feb. 11.—
Howard Engleman will.pitch you
‘pennies, marbles, softballs, basket

balls. or chalk—just. as. you prefer.
And to show why he is the leading

scorer in the Big Six basket ball race

with an average of 20 points a game

the Kansas forward floated up a)
dozen softballs to a 3-inch sill above
@ door without a miss.

He did it with all the ease of
tossing pennies at a crack—with the
Grand Canyon as that crack.

It is this acute sense of co-ordina-
tion—his “soft touch,’ Coach Phog
Allen calls it—that makes Engleman
a threat to every Big Six scoring
mark.

On the basket ball court Engle-
man’s shot is every bit as soft. The
ball seems to cuddle up against the
bankboard for a full second, peek

|into the hoop and then flutter
| through the netting.

Engleman’s Shot Deceptive.

Allen also adds that Engleman’s
shot is one of the most deceptive
in his 20 years of coaching because
of the speed the senior forward dis-
plays in going down the floor.

And the lazy speed of the ball
isn’t increased one bit if it is re-
leased with the player off balance.
Against ‘Missouri he stuffed in a
_two-pointer while falling. Against
Wichita University he fired while
eae on the floor. He connected,

0.

|him as a col

 

It was at. the latter. contest that
his. mother,.Mrs. Beulah Engleman
of Arkansas City, Kans., defied a

jinx and watched her son perform.

When Howard was a prep star she
seldom saw him play because “her
presence ‘invariably coincided: with
his team’s defeat, -

Only once pr ‘eviously had she seen

ege player—in the loss
to Hank Iba’s Oklahoma Aggies two
years ago. :

“Howard’s teammates do all the
work and then throw him the ball,”
she said after watching her curly-
haired son pour in 24 points that
brought. his season’s total for 10
games to 191,

Record Appears Certain.

It looks a cinch for Engleman to
cop the Big Six scoring record.
Frank Groves of Kansas State set
it at 154 points for 10 games in
1937. Howard has flicked in 102 in
five games—which leaves him five
in which to add only 56 more he a
new mark.

During much of the 1940 season
he was a substitute because of an
injured knee. But it healed in time
for “him: to: Win: N.C; AS A: “all-
America honors in the drive which
lifted Kansas to a.runnerup berth |
behind Indiana.

Engleman, main reason Kansas
is leading in the conference race
with only a single setback, also is
effective off the basket ball court.
He’s president of the school of busi- |
ness. and the No. 1 man on the!
Jayhawk tennis team.