Skip to content

Skip to navigation

• 
• 
• 
• 

advertisement

In the over 100 years of Kansas basketball history, the Jayhawks have had only eight head coaches. That kind of consistency and tradition have made the program one of the greatest in all of college sports. Here is a brief history of the legends...

Dr. James Naismith (1898-1907):

Credited with being the father of basketball, Naismith invented the game to give his Springfield (Mass.) College student-athletes an organized way to stay in competitive shape between football and baseball seasons.

In its infancy, the game bore little resemblance to what thousands of Jayhawk faithful witness each year in Allen Fieldhouse. Essentially, the player with the ball remained stationary, and would pass the ball to another player. Moving with the ball was not allowed, but a player who received a pass while moving was allowed a couple steps to come to a stop. Eventually, it was deemed legal for a player to pass the ball to himself, therefore he could remain in motion as long as a "pass" was completed every few steps.

Naismith is also credited with inventing the football helmet. As a student at Springfield College, he worried about protecting his ears, so he cut a football in half lengthwise and secured it to his head.

Naismith joined the Kansas faculty in 1898 and began its basketball program. Ironically, the "Father of Basketball" is the only Kansas coach to compile a losing record. His 55-60 career mark left him with a .478 winning percentage. It was left to others to perfect the sport he created.

Naismith died in 1939 and was interred in Lawrence Memorial Park, in Lawrence, Kan. His memory lives on at the school where he spent most of his career, and in the National Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Mass.

Dr. F. C. "Phog" Allen (1907-40, 40-56):

Coached from 1907-09 and again from 1920-56. A student at KU, Phog Allen was coached by the game's inventor. Allen took the game that Naismith invented and turned it into what we recognize today, and is the icon most closely associated with Kansas Basketball history.

Allen lettered in basketball three years in a row (1905, 06 and 07), and returned to coach the team following his graduation. During that same time, he was also the head coach of Baker University and Haskell Institute, splitting his time between the three area schools.

He left coaching for a while, only to resurface in 1912 as "coach of all sports" at Central Missouri State. In his seven-year stint there, his basketball team won championships every year and compiled an astounding 102-7 record.

Allen returned to his Alma Mater in 1919, to take on the duties of athletics director, football coach and basketball coach. In his remaining 37 years at the basketball helm, his teams racked up 24 conference titles, three Final Four appearances, one National Championship and two Helms Foundation National Championships (awarded in 1939 for the 1922 and 1923 seasons).

Records of KU Coaches
Name	Years	Record	Pct.
James Naismith	1898-1907	55-60	.478
F.C. 'Phog' Allen	1907-40	590-219 (total)	.729
W. O. Hamilton	1909-19	125-59	.679
*Karl Schlademan	1920	1-0	1.000
F.C. 'Phog' Allen	1940-56	590-219 (total)	.729
**Howard Engleman	1947	8-6	.571
Dick Harp	1956-64	121-82	.596
Ted Owens	1964-83	348-182	.657
Larry Brown	1984-88	135-44	.754
Roy Williams	1988-2003	418-101	.805
*Schladleman coached the first game in 1920.
**Engleman finished the 1947 season after Dr. Allen was ordered to rest after the 13th game.

He owns the longest tenure as a KU head hoops coach (39 years) and also owns the most Kansas victories (590). His .729 winning percentage ranks third behind KU's two most recent coaches, Roy Williams (.807) and Larry Brown (.754). In his career, he won a total of 746 college basketball games, a record that was broken by one of his own students, Dean Smith.

He left his mark in other ways, being instrumental in getting basketball recognized as an Olympic sport. Allen also helped create the NCAA Tournament, brought about in 1939 because of betting scandals associated with the NIT tournament at the time.

Allen retired in 1956, shortly after Allen Fieldhouse was opened and dedicated in his honor. He stayed in Lawrence, continuing his medical practice. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959.

He passes away on September 16, 1974, at the age of 88 and is buried in Lawrence Oak Hill Cemetery, not very far from the final resting place of Dr. Naismith.1,771 - 745 (.704)

W. O. Hamilton (1909-19):

Hamilton's tenure as head basketball coach is exactly in the middle of the seven in terms of both years at KU (10) and winning percentage (.679). Three coaches are above and below him in each of those categories.

Hamilton joined the Kansas faculty in 1909 to coach both basketball and track, as well as to take on the duties of athletics director when Phog Allen left the school. He served a similar capacity at William Jewell College (Liberty, Mo.,) and Kansas City's Central High before coming to Kansas.

His years here achieved five conference basketball championships, and KU's first All-American honor in any sport: Tommy Johnson for basketball in 1909. Two more All-Americans learned under Hamilton: Ralph "Lefty" Sproull in 1915 and A.C. "Dutch" Lonborg in 1919.

Dick Harp (1956-64):

A long-time assistant under Phog Allen, Harp got his chance as head man when Allen was forced into retirement in 1956. In those two years he compiled a 121-82 record, and led the Jayhawks to two conference titles and two NCAA tournament berths. However, his winning percentage (.596) is higher than only that of Naismith.

Harp's era includes the Wilt Chamberlain years, highlighted by a Final Four appearance in 1957. Despite Chamberlain's best efforts, Kansas bowed to undefeated North Carolina in triple-overtime, 54-53. Chamberlain went on to earn All-American status, as did Bill Bridges.

Harp, a KU alumnus, also has on his resume three varsity KU letters, one of which was earned in a 1940 Final Four loss to Indiana. Harp is one of only five people to have played and coached in an NCAA title game.

After leaving Kansas, Harp served as the director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for 13 years. He later helped out a fellow Kansas alum as an assistant coach at North Carolina for Dean Smith from 1986-1989.

Ted Owens (1964-83):

Holding the second-longest tenure as a Kansas basketball coach, Owens is second only to Phog Allen in both years at KU and total wins. However, his winning percentage (.657) ranks fifth among the seven Jayhawk coaches.

Before coming to Kansas, Owens spent four years as head coach of Cameron State Junior College in Lawton, Okla. While there, his teams never won fewer than 20 games each season, and compiled a total 93-24 record. Owens accepted a position as assistant under Dick Harp in 1960, and advanced to the head spot on Harp's departure.

Although at Kansas for 19 years, his teams received invitations to the NCAA Tournament seven times, twice making it to the Final Four. Harp's teams won six Big Eight Conference titles during that span.

Owens earned Big Eight Coach of the Year honors five times and was named National Coach of the Year in 1978 by Basketball Weekly. He coached five All-Americans: Jo Jo White, Darnell Valentine, Dave Robisch, Bud Stallworth and Walter Wesley.

Larry Brown (1984-88)

Although Brown was a Kansas head man for the shortest span of all the coaches, his teams made the NCAA tournament in each of his five years. That includes two Final Four appearances, and the National Championship in 1988. Brown also reached the NCAA Championship game as head coach of UCLA in 1980, but lost to Louisville.

His .754 winning percentage at Kansas is second only to that of Roy Williams. After just five seasons as a Jayhawk, Brown left for the ranks of professional basketball.

Brown, who has coached the ABA's Denver Nuggets and Carolina Cougars and the NBA's New Jersey Nets, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, is in his sixth year there with the Philadelphia 76ers. Before that, his five-year stint at KU was the longest of his coaching tenure.

"Those were five of the greatest years I've ever had," Brown told the Journal-World. "It was an unbelievable thrill being coach of Kansas, considering the tradition, who I followed, who is involved in Kansas basketball.

A 1963 graduate of North Carolina, Brown was an honorable mention All-America guard under former Kansas basketball player Dean Smith. Brown also won a gold medal playing on the 1964 United States Olympic team.

Roy Williams (1989-2003)

Just a week after the end of a 30-8 season and a trip to the national title game in the 2002-03 season, Roy Williams decided to return to North Carolina, his alma mater, and take over the Tar Heels.

No other coach compiled more wins in his first 14 years as a collegiate head coach than Roy Williams. He also holds the highest winning percentage (.807) of all active coaches with at least six years' experience. His winning percentage also is the highest of any Kansas basketball coach.

Williams spent 10 seasons under Kansas alum Dean Smith at North Carolina, accepting the Kansas head position upon Larry Brown's departure in 1988.

Kansas opened Williams' first season under the weight of NCAA sanctions for recruiting violations during the Brown era. The team started out 16-3, but suffered an eight-game losing streak in conference play, finishing 19-12.

"To me that first bunch is the one that, quote, made Roy Williams," Williams said. "When I came to Kansas I inherited a group of guys that had just won a national championship and they gave me a chance. Everything I asked them to do, they tried to do."

Despite lingering NCAA sanctions, Williams signed a 1989 recruiting class that helped the Jayhawks attain a 30-5 record in 1989-90. That's the year KU beat Kentucky, 150-95, in Allen Fieldhouse. It was also the season KU beat LSU and UNLV in the Preseason NIT.

All told, Williams' 15 full seasons included nine conference championships and 14 consecutive NCAA bids, with four Final Four appearances. Under his tutelage Kansas lost only 17 home games in Allen Fieldhouse, and put together the only perfect 16-0 Big 12 season in conference history.

In addition to his coaching duties, Williams served on the board of directors for the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and has served on the NCAA basketball rules committee. In December 2002, Williams was named an assistant coach on Brown's U.S. Olympic basketball coaching staff for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Bill Self (2004-present)

Self's debut season at Kansas was certainly a success. With 24 wins, Self tied former KU head man Dick Harp for the most wins by a first-year KU coach, and only Harp's 1956-57 team — which advanced to the NCAA title game — went further for a KU first-year coach than Self's Elite Eight squad.

Self arrived in Lawrence from the University of Illinois, where he guided the Fighting Illini to a 78-24 record over three seasons, including two Big Ten regular-season championships, a Big Ten Tournament title and three straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament. In Self's first season in Champaign, the Illini advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight for the first time since 1989.

In 11 seasons as a head coach, Self has compiled an overall record of 231-114 (.670), including a 13-6 mark in NCAA Tournament play. He is a four-time finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year Award (2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003), and he was named National Coach of the Year by The Sporting News in 2000.

Prior to his stint at Illinois, Self coached at Tulsa from 1998 to 2000, where he led the Golden Hurricane to a record of 74-27 in three seasons, including NCAA Tournament appearances in 1999 and 2000. Tulsa went 32-5 in 2000, setting a school single-season record for victories, and the Golden Hurricane made the NCAA Elite Eight that year.

Self began his head coaching career at Oral Roberts, where he resurrected the Golden Eagles' program. Prior to his appointment at ORU, Self spent seven seasons as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State University. He originally joined the Cowboys' staff for the 1986-87 season and spent the next four years working under then-OSU head coach Leonard Hamilton. In the three seasons prior to his arrival at ORU, Self served as an assistant on Eddie Sutton's staff at Oklahoma State.

Before Oklahoma State, Self spent the 1985-86 season on Larry Brown's coaching staff at Kansas. While Self was at KU, the Jayhawks registered a 35-4 record and advanced to the NCAA Final Four.