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RETIRED JERSEYS
KANSAN.COM
From the editor's desk
▶ AMIE JUST
@amie_just
It goes without saying just how special it is to play basketball for Kansas. It's an opportunity only offered to a select few.
Nearly 800 Kansas men's and women's basketball letterwinners have played in Allen Fieldhouse,Hoch Auditoria or Robinson Gymnasium in the program's 118 year history.
But the scrupulous fraternity of retired jerseys is even more elite, as only 32 people's efforts — thus
far - have warranted the retirement of their jersey.
The 32nd jersey retirement occurred on Wednesday, as Brandon Rush's No. 25 now hangs in its rightful place in Allen Fieldhouse.
It's important to note that Kansas retires jerseys. Kansas doesn't retire numbers — at least it hasn't yet. If that were the case, Kansas basketball players wouldn't be left with many numbers to choose from. (That's also why there are three No. 25s dangling in Allen Fieldhouse, as Rush joins B.H. Born and Danny
Manning in that trio.）
The "long-standing" tradition of retiring jerseys isn't as established as one would think. Kansas first intended to retire the jerseys of Clyde Lovellette, Manning, Born, Charlie B. Black, Paul Endacott, Wilt Chamberlain and Charlie T. Black during the 1991-92 season. (Chamberlain's jersey was retired in 1998).
Originally, players needed to be named college basketball player of the year, most valuable player of the NCAA Tournament or be named All-American four times
to have automatic jersey retirement. In 1997, the criteria loosened for Ray Evans, an All-American in both football and basketball.
Before the 2002-03 season, induction criteria was expanded again to include consensus firstteam All-Americans, two-time firstteam AllAmerica selections and Academic All-American of the Year.
Only one non-player has a jersey retired: Max Falkenstien. A jersey bearing Falkenstien's name and the number "60" was added to the rafters in 2006 after his 60 year broadcasting career
calling Kansas football and basketball games.
Of the 32, there are stories that are told again and again, like the career stories of Chamberlain and Mario Chalmers. And then there are others, like Angela Aycock, an All-American Kansas basketball player who, after retiring from her WNBA career, became a nun in the Russian Orthodox Church.
In honor of Rush's jersey being officially memorialized in the Kansas basketball mecca alongside other Kansas legends, here are the stories of the 32 retired jerseys.
Photo courtesy of University Archives
AL PETERSON Center, 1925-1927 No.36
▶ MICHAEL SWAIN
@mswain97
Al Peterson was one of Phoq
Allen's best centers.
Playing for the Jayhawks from 1925- 27, Peterson garnered first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference awards all three seasons, and was a two-time firstteam All-American in 1925
and 1926. His 1926 firstteam All-American honor was a consensus selection, marking the 10th time a Jayhawk was tabbed to that list. He and his teammate Gale Gordon were both named consensus firstteam All-Americans that season.
From 1925-27, Kansas won three conference titles in a row, continuing the success that fellow Kansas legends Paul Endacott, Charlie T. Black and Tusten "Tus" Ackerman had in the seasons before them.
Peterson led the Jayhawks in scoring in both
Peterson led the Jayhawks in scoring in both the 1926 and 1927 seasons. He averaged 9.1 points and 10.3 points in those years, respectively.
By the end of his career, the 6-foot-3 Peterson played in 53 games and scored 461 points for an average of 8.7 points per game. He only lost five games in those three seasons.
At the end of the 1927 season, the Lawrence Journal-World asked James Naismith to select an "All-Modern KU Basketball Team" from the 1923-27 teams. Naismith came back with Paul Endacott, Tus Ackerman, Charlie T. Black, Gordon
the 1926 and 1927 seasons. He averaged 9.1 points and 10.3 points in those years, respectively.
and Peterson.
The University yearbook, the "Jayhawker," celebrated their success, writing "Peterson, Gordon, and Schmidt are too strong a combination for the opposing teams to overcome in the offensive part of the game. Without question, this trio is one of the smoothest and fastest scoring combinations ever unleashed on a college basketball floor."
His No. 36 jersey was lifted in the rafters on Jan. 15,2003,the same day as Gordon.He,like Gordon, is enshrined in the Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame.
- Edited by Casey Brown
HOWARD ENGLEMAN
Forward, 1939-1941 No.5
KELLY BRITTON
@KellyB302
In 1938, Kansas brought a man on campus who was not only an extraordinary basketball player, but also an extraordinary student and human being; his name was Howard Engleman.
Howard "Rope" Engleman was born on Nov. 20, 1919 in Elmer, Missouri. He was listed at 6-foot and 170 pounds, and played forward. Given the nickname "Rope" because of his very curly, blond hair, he attended Arkansas City High School, where in his junior and senior seasons he would lead the Bulldogs to second-place and third-place finishes in the state tournament.
After graduating from Kansas in 1941, Engelman fought for the Navy in World War II. While fighting in the Pacific theater in 1945, he sustained injuries when a kamikaze plane hit his ship and he got caught
Over the course of his three-year career, Engelman would become only the second player in Kansas history to be a consensus first-team All-American, while also racking up a selection on the all-tournament team in 1940 and two selections to the All-Big Six in 1940 and 1941.
Engleman graduated from high school in 1937, and would enter Kansas in 1938.
In his 1940 season, Howard would lead the team to a Big Six Conference championship, and then took the Jayhawks all the way to the NCAA tournament championship game for the first time in school history, being selected to the 1940 NCAA Final Four all-tournament team before the Jayhawks lost to Indiana.
He would end his playing days for the Kansas on a high note, not only averaging the most points per game in school history up to that point, with 16.1 points per game on the way to earning first team All-American honors, but also being recognized as Kansas' 1941 scholastic honor man of the year. For the second year in a row, Kansas would win the Big Six.
Photo courtesy of University Archives
After graduating from law school, Howard worked as an attorney until his retirement. Engleman was almost 90 years old when his No.5 jersey was finally hung from the rafters on March 1,2003.
These injuries would not stop Engelman, however, and he returned to the University as a law student. He would become a freshman coach for Phog Allen, and would later on get a chance to coach the varsity team. When Allen became sick in the 1946-47 season, Engleman took over as coach for half of the season, leading the Jayhawks to an 8-6 record during his tenure.
in the flames.
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It was a special moment for the Jayhawk great, as he addressed the crowd with his well-known sense of humor while wearing his old letterman jacket. This was not the last time Engelman would be honored, as in 2006 he was also enshrined into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Engleman passed away Jan. 12, 2011, the last surviving member of the 1940 Kansas Jayhawks team that made the championship game of the NCAA tournament.
However, what he was remembered for was more than just his abilities on the basketball court. Engelman was an incredibly smart person, but he was even more funny than he was smart; even during his speech at his enshrinement into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame he was cracking
jokes, including this gem:
"When they were putting together this group, they wanted Jack Mitchell [Former coach of the University of Kansas football team] most of all, of course, and they called Jack and said, "could you make it?" and Jack said, "On one condition, that is that you also induct Howard Engleman," and Ted Hayes [Former Director of the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame] said, "Howard what? How is that spelled? Who is it?" One of them [hall of fame board] volunteered there was an Engleman at K-State on the debate team. Richard said, "No, I'm sure that he went to KU, but we'll have to do some research. So, he got Harold Bouchard and Max Falkenstien [Former radio sports announcer for KU] himself to go back through all the old records, finally they made the report, which was that the records don't go back that far."
Although Engelman earned his fair share of awards on the court for the Jayhawks, enough to earn him a spot in the rafters on its own, his selection has just as much to do with what he did for the school as a whole.
He was not just a standout basketball player, but a standout person as well. The metaphorical rope which connected Engleman to life may have been cut, but the physical rope holding his jersey up in the rafters will never fray, much like Engleman's spirit and personality never did.
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