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2,000 VICTORIES 17
The march to 2,000 victories
As the Jayhawks approach the historic mark, The Wave takes a closer look at how they got this far
Danny Manning led the Jayhawks to a National Championship in 1988. This year's team has a chance to reach 2,000 victories during the Biq 12 Tournament in Kansas City, Mo.
Weston White/KANSAN
By Kathleen Gier kgier@kansan.com
Editor's Note: The Wave continues its look at the Jayhawks' road to 2,000 victories. This week, The Wave tracks the team's history from the 1952 National Championship team through the 1988 National Championship team.
First NCAA National Championship and Olympic Gold
In 1952, Kansas was led again by Dr. Allen. The team featured future University of North Carolina coach Dean Smith along with Charlie Hoag and Clyde Lovelletle. On its way to the championship, Kansas beat Texas Christian University, Saint Louis University and Santa Clara University. In the final, Kansas defeated St. John's 80-63 for its first NCAA National Championship, and Allen's third national championship as a coach.
After the season, Allen was named coach of the year and invited to be an assistant coach for the 1952 Olympic team accompanied by seven of his own players. The team won the gold after defeating team Russia in Helsinki, Finland.
A New Home
On March 1, 1955, Kansas christened the brand new Allen Fieldhouse in a game against the Kansas State Wildcats. Even though Kansas State center Roger Craft scored the first basket in the new fieldhouse, the Jayhawks went on to win their first game in their new home with a final score of 77-67. The team was led in scoring by Gene Elstun who finished with 21 points. He was followed by Lew Johnson with 20 points and Bill Brainard with 16 points. More than 17, 228 fans, including former players and the entire Kansas Legislature, watched the Jayhawks' victory.
1,000th Victory
The Jayhawks captured this 64-48 victory against Oklahoma State University on Feb. 4, 1969 without KU great Jo Jo White. White's replacements, sophomore Pierre Russell, and senior Phil Harmon combined for 26 points. Sophomore Dave Robisch took over and scored 23 points, while all three of the Cowboys' big men fouled out.
This game kept the Jayhawks a half-game behind Colorado for the conference title.
Lawrence Journal World writer, Chuck Woodling, pointed out in an article after the game that, "More important than winning 1,000 games and staying with Colorado, however, was the fact that the Jayhawks proved they could win without White."
After a season plagued with injuries, disciplinary issues, and two players transferring away, Kansas coach Larry Brown turned to the football team midseason and picked up Clint Normore. The basketball team had 11
The 1988 Championship Team
losses heading into the tournament. Kansas faced Xavier, Murray State, Vanderbilt, Kansas State and Duke in its first five games.
"They had great players, individually they had one of the great players in all of college basketball, when you have that and when you have your teammates making plays that 50 percent of the time they don't play that well, but that night they played, some of them beyond their ability," said Bud Stallworth, who played for Kanas in the 1970s. "At some point in time you catch that lightning in a bottle and that is what happened."
Then the Jayhawks were matched against Big 8 rival — Oklahoma — in the
50th NCAA Championship game. The game was tied 50-50 after a rough first half.
"The first half was probably the most intense 20 minutes of fast court basketball for all the marbles I had ever seen," Stallworth said.
The Jayhawks fought hard the second half and won 83-79 to avenge the earlier season loss to the Oklahoma Sooners. After that season, Danny Manning was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player and the Naismith National Player of the Year.
"It's not that the 1988 team won the championship, it is we won another championship" Stallworth said.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE WAVE FEBRUARY 10,2010