110 YEARS OF KANSAS BASKETBALL
Max Falkenstien sits at his desk in 1971. Falkenstien called the names of Jayhawk greats from Clyde Lovelette to Brandon Rush during his 60 years broadcasting Kansas basketball games on the radio.
'A long story,' but told so well
Announcer Max Falkenstien was courtside for 60 of Kansas basketball's 110 years
BY ERIC JORGENSEN
Editor's note: The following article originally appeared in The University Daily Kansan on Feb. 28, 2006, the day before Max Falkenstien's final broadcast of a Kansas men's basketball home game.
When Max Falkenstien went on the air to broadcast his first KU men's basketball game, Dean Smith was starting high school, Wilt Chamberlain was a gangly 9-year-old in Philadelphia, Roy Williams' birth was four years away
and Bill Self would not be born for more than a decade and a half.
It was 1946, Max was 21, and the Oklahoma A&M Aggies — now Oklahoma State — were playing the Jayhawks in a game featuring two legendary coaches, Hank Iba and Phog Allen. Iba's Aggies defeated Phog's Jayhawks on the way to a national championship.
Sixty years and more than 2,100 basketball and football games later, Max, 81, broadcast his final home game when Kansas played Colorado in Allen Fieldhouse on March 1, 2006.
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN