SPORTS UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, May 3.1993
9
Kansas years bittersweet for Wilt
Story continued from, Page 1.
"I think it will all come together pretty soon. Every one on this end is doing what they can."
to commemorate basketball's 100th anniversary in October 1991, men's basketball coach Roy Williams, Bob Frederick, athletic director, and Doug Vance, assistant athletic director, announced the retirement of the jerseys of Most Valuable Players in the Final Four, National Players of the Year and, in the case of Charlie Black, four-time All Americans.
"We had never retired any jerseys, and we needed to do it," Frederick says.
Charles T. Black, B.H. Born, Paul Endacott and Lynette Woodward join Charlie Black, Lovellette and Manning on the field house wall of fame
When the department ordered new basketball jerseys for the 1991-1992 season, it ordered extras, later stitching them with the numbers that were to hang on the field house wall.
During individual retirement ceremonies at men's home basketball games throughout the season, the framed jerseys were awarded to the players honored and their banners were presented. Except for Manning and Wilt.
Manning could not return because of his Los Angeles Clippers schedule. Wilt did not respond.
Says Frederick: "We have written him. We have called him. But we have never gotten any response. But some mutual friends have gotten a response from him, and he indicated he wanted to come back."
Manning showed up for ceremonies last December, but Wilt's jersey and banner still wait for his return.
"The jersey is framed and sitting in my office," says Richard Konzem, assistant athletic director. "So is the banner. We're ready."
But is Wilt ready?
Billing, the Lawrence resident who knows him best, thinks so.
Wilt's records
Other friends are not so sure
Other friends are not so sure
Says David Shaw, co-author of
Wit's self titled 1975 autobiography,
"Once he makes his mind up, he does
not very often change it. He was reluctant
for years to go back for the retirement
of his Philadelphia 76ers jersey."
Harvey Pollack, an administrator with the Philadelphia Warriors and Philadelphia 76ers since the NBA's inception in 1946, was instrumental in getting Wilt to return for the retirement of his 76ers jersey in 1991.
"I tried to get him to come back for years," Pollack, the 76ers public relations director during Wilt's era. "I was a travesty that other numbers were hanging from the Spectrum, and Wilt's was not."
Wilt Chamberlain set some of the most important records of all-time at Kansas and in the NBA. These are just a few.
Pollack said Wilt had misgivings about returning because of a long-standing feud with former owner Irv Koslof, who refused to give Wilt part ownership of the team which Wilt believed he had been promised by Koslof's partner Ike Richman before Richman died. Koslof is gone, and two different owners have since controlled the team.
"I don't know what the circumstances are there," Pollack says. "But if there is something that happened that makes him dislike Kansas and
NBA
Pollack said: "Hey Wilt, you wanna come back where you made your fame? This ownership had nothing to do with you." And finally Wilt did come back. "They treated him royally when he came back," Pollack says. "Anything he asked for he got. He's the greatest player in the history of the 76ers — probably the greatest player in the history of the league."
Pollack, who talks to Wilt about once a month, said he had no way of knowing whether Wilt would return to Kansas. He said Wilt split his time between his home in Los Angeles and Boca Raton, Fla., where he operates Wilt Chamberlain's Restaurant.
Points, career 31,419
Rebounds, career 23,924
Field goals made, career 12,681
Scoring average, career 13.0
Passing rate, % 72.7
Kansas
Kansas Scoring average, career 29.9 Rebounds, season 510
The retired KU jerseys
n assistant athletic director Richard Konzem's office in Allen Field House, Wilt's No. 13 jersey waits for his return to <ansas. If Wilt comes back, the jersey will be presented to him.
8 Charles T. Black 1921-24
10 Charles B. Black 1941-43
16 Paul Endacott 1920-23
16 Clyde Lovellette 1949-52
23 B.H. Born 1961-54
23 D.H. Born 1949-85
1828 Maria Engelhard 1978-83
- Charles B. Black missed two seasons because of World War II.
Source: Kansan staff research
still botheres him at this point, I don't know how you're going to get him back. It doesn't mean anything to have his Kansas number retired. It's hanging in the Forum in Los Angeles, in the Spectrum in Philadelphia, and the Hall of Fame. What big deal is it to have his number hang at the University of Kansas? He left early. He didn't graduate. He had no real glory. They didn't win the championship.
Shaw says to know Wilt is to know why he has not returned.
"It does not surprise me," he says.
"He is a guy who believes in moving forward and not reliving the past."
---
Sometimes Wilt's past was painful.
Wilt arrived at Kansas for his freshman season in 1955-1956 after a storybook at
Philadelphia's Overbrook High School.
Coach F.C. "Phog" Allen outrecurred hundreds of cash-wielding schools to get Wilt, mainly by recruiting his 5-9 % mother and 5-8 % father. But Allen had help.
Cancellor Franklin Murphy led the way in breaking down racial intolerance in Lawrence and at Kansas when segregation was the rule and not the exception.
Murphy hoped outstanding African American athletes might be brought to Kansas to promote racial tolerance by their contributions on the court and field.
"That was one of the useful by-products," says Murphy, now in his mid-70s and Chief Executive Officer of the Times Mirror Corporation in Los Angeles. "But that wasn't the main reason we recruited him. The main reason was that he was the most talented high-school basketball player in the nation. At that time there weren't many Black players in football and basketball anywhere in the country and, for that matter, in the Big Eight. I was interested in our recruiting Black athletes and if I felt there was a young man capable of going to the University and capable of being an athlete we recruited him. I'll admit that."
Murphy and Allen enlisted the help of prominent African-American Kansas alumni to encourage Wilt.
Dowdal Davis, publisher of the Kansas City Call, the newspaper of the African-American community, visited Wilt's home in Philadelphia with Allen. Murphy and Allen also enlisted the help of concert singer Etta Motten and Lloyd Kerford, owner of a thriving quarry business in Atchison, to encourage Wilt to attend Kansas.
King told the Kansan in 1957 that "Wilt is a young man who thinks he might do a lot to improve racial rela-
Wilt followed LaVannes Squires, the first African American basketball player at Kansas, by three years. Maurice King, who arrived the year before Wilt, was the only other African American on the team.
tions."
There is no question, former Chancellor Murphy says, agreeing that Wilt had a substantial effect on breaking down racial barriers in Lawrence, at Kansas and in college athletics.
Shaw says he cannot remember how often Wilt talked about the racial climate at Kansas while working on the autobiography.
"It has been 20 years. The best record I have is what is in the book."
---
deshpake.dept.
• Chamberblain could not be reached for comment. A list of questions was sent via certified mail to St Goldberg, an Encino, Calif., attorney who represents Chamberblain, with a request that the questions be delivered to him. Chamberblain did not respond.
and the book will have to do
"He has been very non-communicative for the last year or so," Shaw says "He and I are still friends, but sometimes he doesn't even return my calls, which didn't use to be the case." Shaw's situation is not untrue.
"Getting to talk to Wilt and see him, would be a major accomplishment in itself, because he is very hard to get a hold of," says Jerry Waugh, Harp's assistant coach during Wilt's Kansas career, and now Kansas women's golf coach.
Trouble for Wilt began before he ever reached campus. After driving all night from Philadelphia for the beginning of his freshman year at Kansas, Wilt stopped in a Kansas City cafe for food.
"I'm not sure Wilt wanted people using him," he says. "He resented that. I'm sure he had a good relationship with the Chancellor, but I think he would have resented the thought that that was the reason he was here. Wilt would resent being used. He did not want to play that role. He wanted to be an athlete, and that was it."
Waugh says that if the University wanted to use Wilt in part as a vehicle to break down racial intolerance, Wilt was an unwilling participant.
Confused and irate, Wilt drove straight to Lawrence and banged on Phog Allen's door at midnight.
A life-long Philadelphia who had never strayged from the Northeast, Wilt received a rude awakening. The waitress told him he could only be served in the kitchen.
"When he answered I said, 'Do you know what the hell just happened to you?'
me?"' Wilt says in the autobiography
Allen called someone to bring Wilt hamburgers from a local restaurant, but Wilt wanted to go himself. The autobiography continues.
"I asked him to tell me where the greasy spoon was, and 'I'll go my self.' Wilt recalled, "but he came on real solicitations about how tired I probably was and how it was the least they could do for me and all. Well, I found out later why he was so eager to have someone else get the hamburgers for me; even the greasy spoon was segregated, and he knew if I found that out, I'd probably say, 'F-- Kansas,' and head back to Philadelphia before the first day of classes.
"Well, it took me about a week to realize the whole area around Lawrence, except for one Black section in Kansas City, was infested with segregation. I called on a few of the alums who had recruited me, and I told them in no uncertain terms what they could do with Kansas if things didn't get straightened in a hurry.
"A couple of them told me, 'Look Wit, you just go wherever you want. You sit down in those restaurants and don't leave until they serve you. That's exactly what I did. It took me about two months, but I went into every damn place within 40 miles of Lawrence, places I didn't want to go into. I'd just sit there and glower and wait. Finally, they'd serve me. I never got turned down or badmouthed or anything, and when I got through, other Blacks would follow我."
Racial strife was only the first of Wilt's problems. In a sad twist of irony, Wilt never played a varsity game for Allen, the coach who so zealously sought him.
Alen was still coach during Wilt's freshman season, but under NCAA rules then, freshman were ineligible for varsity competition. After endless fanfare and anticipation, Wilt began his sophomore season in 1956-1957. But coach and prodigy had been separated by legislation.
The University then had mandatory retirement at age 65, and Allen, after a bitter struggle between alumni and administration, was forced out the door.
Nationally renowned KU economics professor John ice earlier had been forced into retirement, and the alumni's efforts to keep Allen seemed paradoxical to Murphy.
"I was the one who said, You mean to say we retired John Ice and we are keeping the basketball coach?" says former Chancellor Murphy. "No way. Everyone got treated the same in my view. But that isn't to say that I was not very fond of Phog. He was a wonderful human being."
Shaw says Wilt still might be bitter from Allen's forced retirement.
Dakaric Transbank / KANSAN
"I think Wilt felt somewhat betrayed by that."
Betrayed or not betrayed, Wilt began his sophomore season by scoring 52 points and grabbing 31 rebounds in the season opener against Northwestern. Those marks still stand today as single-game school records. He averaged 30 points in leading the Jayhawks to the NCAA title game that season.
loss.
Although Wilt was named NCAA tournament MVP, the award was no consolation for the North Carolina
"I've always been more bitter about that loss than almost any other single game in my whole college and professional career," Wilt says in his book. "I guess it's because that the game that started the whole 'Wilt's a loser' thing that's been thrown at me."
---
the 1957-1958 season would be Wilt's last at Kansas. Tired of being triple teamed and abused
being tripped could also be used by opponents, he told Harp and Waugh in spring 1958 that he would not be back.
Frahrsted from running the length of the court with half the other team on his back. Wilt says in his autobiography that the game he was forced to play was more like an earthquake evacuation than basketball.
"Even in current basketball," Harp says, "when you look at the greatest wrestling matches on the floor, it's in the pivot area. And that certainly was the case with Wilt."
Harp also believes some referees might have let Wilt absorb physical punishment because they believed he had an inherent advantage on the court.
"They thought, 'We're not going to give him anything. He already has seven feet,'" Harp says.
Basketball had become such drudgery that Wilt was afraid another year at Kansas could leave him so disillusioned that he would quit the game and never try the NBA.
"Deep inside, I knew I didn't want to miss that opportunity. So I quit Kansas instead," he says.
"I had a pleasant talk with the chancellor, Franklin Murphy, and he said he thought I was making the right decision. So did Bob Billings."
as bitter as some of this might sound now. Wilt writes that he did not leave Kansas on bad terms.
Billings refused to comment on his relationship with Wilt during their playing days.
"That relationship is kind of personal," he said. "I've resisted that for 30 years, and I'll probably continue."
But one person who will talk about her relationship with Wilt is long-time friend Joann Edwards, whose late husband Roy, along with other alumni, was instrumental in recruiting Wilt to Kansas. Wilt and the Edwards family developed a particularly close relationship during his Kansas tenure.
shortly after the retirement of his 76ers jersey in 1991, Wilt called Joan Edwards in Kansas City to thank her for a telegram she sent him congratulating him on the honor.
"We hadn't heard from him in years, then two years ago he called me out of the blue," Edwards said. "He said. 'Hi, Mrs. Edwards, this is Wilt.' I said, 'What do you mean? You're pulling my leg. He said, 'No, it's me.' We talked for a good hour. We just reminisced about when he was in school and how he used to come to our house.
"He was really a fine young man, always a perfect gentleman, someone the University should be very proud of. And I'm sure they are. I told him I thought he'd be very proud of KU and the progress they have made. I told him he would be pleased with the progress Lawrence has made and
Wilt Chamberlain
1936 Born in Philadelphia.
1955 The Kansas freshman team beats the varsity for the first time ever, thanks to Wilt's 41 points.
1956 In his first varsity game at Kansas, Wilt scores 52 points and grabs 31 rebounds against Northwestern. Those totals are still school records.
1957 Wilt averages 30 points per game and propels Kansas to the NCAA Championship game. North Carolina wins in three overtimes, but Wilt is named tournament MVP.
1958 In Wilt's last season at Kansas, the Jayhawks fail to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
1958 Wilt signs with the Harlem Globetrotters.
1960 Wilt plays for the Philadelphia Warriors in his first NBA season. He leads the league in scoring and rebounding.
1962 Wilt scores 100 points in a game against New York. No other pro has accomplished the feat. He leads the league in scoring during the season, averaging 50.4 points per game.
1973 His autobiography is published.
1974 After 14 years in the NBA, Wilt retires.
1975 Wilt's last known visit to Lawrence.
Source: Kansas staff research
the banners commemorating the numbers of the seven retired Kansas basketball jerseys hang on the south wall of Sien Field House. If Wilt returns to Kansas, his banner will be placed with the others.
He seemed genuinely pleased when his number was retired in Philadelphia. If there is anything more I can do to help him here, I would be happy to doit. Hope that we get him back. It would certainly make my family very happy. We'd love to see him and it would be wonderful for the University. You just never know — I bet he'll be back."
now it has changed. He was very interested. He acted to me like he was planning to come back.
"I hope he does come back and has the opportunity to spend a little time here, because I realize from reading his books that he had some negative feelings about the community. I think we are a long way from that. I hope he has the opportunity to come back and see what Lawrence is like."
"I don't know what else we could do." Frederick says. "Obviously it would be a significant story nationally, and I think that a lot of people around here would feel good about it. Joann Edwards is a close friend of his and a close friend of mine and she says he is going to work it out."
Times have changed in Lawrence since Wilt's era, Frederick says:
Although he had been drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors in high school, Wilt could not play in the NBA until 1950 because his NCAA eligibility had not expired. So he signed with the Harlem Globetrotters.
"I think the real motivating factor for Wilt was that he wanted to get into the pros and make some money. He was anxious to get ahead," Waugh says.
"He has always been very closed," Waugh says. "He was not close to a lot of people. Bob Billings was very close to him, but Wilt wasn't very open in terms of his feelings and frustrations. Wilt still has a feeling that people took advantage of him and never fully appreciated him while he was here. Deep down, from the beginning, he has always felt taken advantage of."
Whatever Wilt's reasons, Kansas wants him back and the University is doing everything it can to encourage his return.
But it would be a lonely clim
Others are trying too.
Scott McMichael, assistant director of the Williams Fund and director of the K-Club, was a key player in the retirement of Gale Sayers' football jersey in 1991. Using Sayers as an emissary, he has made contact with Wilt.
McMichael says the department is making continual progress encouraging Wilt to return, but that Wilt's return ultimately will depend on Wilt.
"It would be an exciting time for everyone," McMichael says. "I think his relationships and some of the people we have here hopefully will override some of the negatives that he may or may not hold against the University, and he'll come back. I think time heals a lot of wounds."