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Summer Session Kansan Fridav, July 11. 1958
'Phog Allen Finally Names 1923 Team As His 'Greatest'
Phog Allen, the retired but not retiring Kansas basketball coach, broke long-standing precedent by declaring his unbeaten Missouri Valley champions of 1923 "my greatest team."
"I've been asked to name my greatest team literally hundreds of times," said the man who guided Jayhawk cage fortunes 39 years. "I always said give them 10 or 20 years and I could name one after seeing what sort of success its members made out of life.
FORREST C. (PHOG) ALLEN
"After coaching all those years and reflecting in retirement I'll have to say the 1923 team is the greatest They have achieved remarkable success in the bigger game of life. They have come through like the champions they always were."
Allen's selection is an impressive one. Tus Ackerman is manager, North Central Department, Equitable Life Assurance Society, Chicago, Ill. Charlie Black No. 1 is in the Industrial Relations Department. Glass Container Division, Owens-Illinois, Toledo. Waldo Bowman is editor, Engineering News-Record, New York. Bill Crosswhite is counsel for the Internal Revenue Service, Washington, D.C.
Paul Endacott is president of Phillips Petroleum in Bartlesville, Okla. A. V. Engel is general commercial manager, Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co., Los Angeles. Byron Frederick is a Kansas City, Mo. optometrist. George Glaskin is with Community Oil Co., West Union, Ohio. Ward Hitt is with Sears
& Roebuck in Kansas City, Mo,
Andy McDonald is Manager of
Athletics, Southwest Missouri State
at Springfield, Mo. Bob Mosby is
vice-president, Cook Paint and
Varnish Co., Detroit. Adolph Rupp
is head basketball coach at Kentucky,
the current NCAA champions.
Dan Stratton is manager, Alumnium Cooking Utensil Co., New York. Verne Wilkin is manager, Union Central Life Insurance Co., Kansas City, Mo. A. E. Woestemeyer is business manager of the Lawrence Board of Education. And John Wulf is president of the Publishers Business Service Inc., Chicago.
They could play basketball too. Most of them were members of the 1922 squad which began a still-unequalled 34-game streak of conference victories in the old Missouri Valley by stunning Missouri's two-time undisputed champions in the final game of the season at Columbia to lock the Tigers into a title-tie at 15-1.
Too, this outfit may have been the cradle of Kansas' traditionally supreme effort on the court which has endured right down to the present time through men like Ted O'Leary, Frosty Cox, Fred Pralle, Jerry Waugh, and Bill Hougland.
In '23 they became the first undefeated champions in conference history (the Valley played on a north-south divisional basis from 1908 thru 1915) at 16-0. Those two teams thus originated the greatest title run in Kansas or league history, the 1924, 25, 26, and '27 clubs also bagging undisputed flags. Hugh McDermott's first of two unbeaten conference kings at Oklahoma finally halted the streak in '28 with an 18-0 season.
"We knew we had to win this game at Columbia if we were to win the championship. With five minutes left we were six points behind. Endacott and Black got three quick goals and we were tied 16-16 with three and a half minutes left.
The scene for this was the opening conference match with Missouri at Columbia. Let Allen take over from there.
"Missouri didn't call time and we went on to a 21-16 lead. Then they got a basket and free throw and it was 21-19 with just under two minutes left.
"The next tip called for Endacott to go up the middle to the goal. But Missouri guessed the play and tied him up. In those days you could catch the ball in jump situations. We called it bulldogging.
"E. C. Quigley was refereeing the
game and he tossed up 16 consecutive held balls. Endacott jumped and fought for the ball everytime. When the whistle blew he and a Tiger still were at it. His only thought was to protect that twopoint lead. There was no thought of himself. I've never seen such an exhibition.
"The other players helped him to the dressing room. When I came in he was sitting on a bench in a crouched position, his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands. I walked up and slapped him on the back. 'Wonderful work, Emday,' I said. The other players stopped me. 'Don't do that; he can't get his breath.'
"Upon examination I found that the intercostal muscles, due to overexertion, had cramped. It was then that we fully realized what he had given."
Endacott still is a member of Helms Foundation's All-Time team, the only Kansan so enshrined. A guard, he was Helms Player of the year in '23. He was an All America selection that year as well as in '22. Black earned that accolade in '23 and '24, adding Player of the Year the latter season. Ackerman was All America in '24 and '25. He and Endacott both were Lawrence boys; Black from Alton, Illinois.
KU May Host NCAA Again
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo— (UPI) — The National Collegiate Athletic Association's midwest regional basketball tournament will return to Lawrence or be played at Manhattan under recommendations made yesterday.
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The championship finals again will be played at Louisville, Ky., NCAA basketball committee chairman A. C. (Dutch) Lonborg said.
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Mr. Lonborg said the final decision on the Kansas site for the midwest regional would depend on whether KU or Kansas State qualifies for the playoff, and on the school's willingness to act as host.
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