'Phog Allen wanted to coach Chamberlain
The grand old man of Kansas basketball missed his biggest dream as a KU coach.
Dr. Forrest C. "Phog" Allen, who learned the game from its inventor, Dr. James Naismith, and went on to become the all-time winningest collegiate basketball coach with 771 victories, never got to coach the one player he would have cherished most—Wilt Chamberlain.
Dr. Allen was forced into retirement in 1955 because of a mandatory regulation regarding his age, then 70. Chamberlain was a sophomore at Kansas the next year when Dick Harp took over the Jayhawk helm.
Wilt Chamberlain was Dr. Allen's big dream.
"I didn't want to coach another year just for the victories," he said, "I wanted to take Wilt and stuff that 10-foot high basket rule down the rules committee's throat.
"And I would have if I'd had the chance," he contends.
A firm believer that the basket should be four feet higher than the tallest player, Dr. Allen never saw eye to eye with the rules committee.
"I once wrote a book called 'Dunking Isn't Basketball,'" he explained. "With Wilt I could have proved that to the rules committee."
He said Kansas could have scored 80 points on any team in the country and "80 points in
those days weren't what they are today." He also believes Chamberlain would have averaged 50 points a game.
"Wilt can do anything with a basketball," according to Dr. Allen. "He's sound in all phases of the game, shooting, rebounding and ball handling. He was a perfect physical specimen and had a lot of determination when he was here.
"With his nine-foot stride I could have played him outside as well as in. Now, when he's under the bucket, a quick bullet pass to an imaginary point 11 feet off the floor, Wilt jumps and stuffs it."
The good doctor leaves no doubt that he thinks he could have gone all the way with Chamberlain.
"Ive always said, give me two coeds, two Phi Bite Kappas and Wilt Chamberlain and I'll beat anybody, anywhere."
Dr. Allen is as active today at the age of 80 as he was when he coached the Jayhawks into national basketball prominence.
He uses a cane now, but he still maintains his osteopathy practice in Lawrence and never misses a Kansas home game or the annual Big Eight Conference holiday tournament.
Daily Kansan 19
Tuesday, March 1, 1966
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