James Naismith was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician, Christian chaplain, and sports coach, best known as the inventor of the game of basketball. After moving to the United States, he wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program. Naismith lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, as well as the birth of the National Invitation Tournament (1938) and the NCAA Tournament (1939).
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, the Edwards Campus in Overland Park. There are also educational and research sites in Garden City, Hays, Leavenworth, Parsons, and Topeka, an agricultural education center in rural north Douglas County, and branches of the medical school in Salina and Wichita. The university is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
Justin McCarthy "Sam" Barry was an American collegiate coach who achieved significant accomplishments in three major sports - football, baseball, and basketball. He remains one of only three coaches to lead teams to both the Final Four and the College World Series. Barry, and four of his USC players, have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as coaches; Sharman was also inducted as a player.
Allen Fieldhouse is an indoor arena on the University of Kansas (KU) campus in Lawrence, Kansas. It is home of the Kansas Jayhawks men's and women's basketball teams. The arena is named after Phog Allen, a former player and head coach for the Jayhawks whose tenure lasted 39 years. The arena's nickname, The Phog also pays homage to Allen. Allen Fieldhouse is one of college basketball's most historically significant and prestigious buildings. 37 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament games have been hosted at the arena. The actual playing surface has been named "James Naismith Court", in honor of basketball's inventor, who established KU's basketball program and served as the Jayhawks' first coach from 1898 to 1907.
Billy Eugene Self Jr. is an American basketball coach. He is the head men's basketball coach at the University of Kansas, a position he has held since 2003. During his 20 seasons as head coach, he has led the Jayhawks to 17 Big 12 regular season championships, including an NCAA record 14 consecutive Big 12 regular season championships, some of which were shared (2005–2018). He has also led the Jayhawks to four NCAA Final Four appearances, the 2008 NCAA championship and 2022 NCAA championship. Self was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. At the end of the 2021–22 season, Self had the 18th most wins among Division I coaches in NCAA history and 4th among active head coaches. He is the second-winningest coach in Kansas history, behind only Hall of Famer Phog Allen and is the only coach in Kansas history to lead Kansas to multiple NCAA Tournament National Championships.
Forrest Clare "Phog" Allen, D.O. was an American basketball coach and physician. Known as the "Father of Basketball Coaching," he served as the head basketball coach at Baker University (1905–1908), the University of Kansas, Haskell Institute—now Haskell Indian Nations University (1908–1909), and Warrensburg Teachers College—now the University of Central Missouri (1912–1919), compiling a career college basketball record of 746–264. In his 39 seasons at the helm of the Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball program, his teams won 24 conference championships and three national titles.
Adolph Frederick Rupp was an American college basketball coach. He is ranked seventh in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching at the University of Kentucky. Rupp is also second among all men's college coaches in all-time winning percentage (.822), trailing only Mark Few. Rupp was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on April 13, 1969. Rupp played college basketball at Kansas under Phog Allen.
Clyde Edward Lovellette was an American professional basketball player. Lovellette was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988. He was the first basketball player in history to play on an NCAA championship team, Olympics gold medal basketball team, and NBA championship squad.
The Kansas Jayhawks, commonly referred to as simply KU or Kansas, are the athletic teams that represent the University of Kansas. KU is one of three schools in the state of Kansas that participate in NCAA Division I. The Jayhawks are also a member of the Big 12 Conference. KU athletic teams have won fifteen national championships all-time, with twelve of those being NCAA Division I championships: four in men's basketball, one in men's cross country, three in men's indoor track and field, three in men's outdoor track and field, and one in women's outdoor track and field. Kansas basketball also won two Helms Foundation National Titles in 1922 and 1923, and KU Bowling won the USBC National Title in 2004.
The Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball program is the intercollegiate men's basketball program of the University of Kansas. The program is classified in the NCAA's Division I and the team competes in the Big 12 Conference. Kansas is considered one of the most prestigious college basketball programs in the country with six overall national championships, as well being runner-up six times and having the most conference titles in the nation. The Jayhawks also own the NCAA record for most consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances with 28 consecutive appearances. Since the 1984 tournament, the Jayhawks have only missed the tournament twice and both times were due to disciplinary action from the NCAA; they were ruled ineligible for the 1989 tournament and had their 2018 appearance was vacated. They were also, along with Dartmouth, the first team to appear in multiple NCAA Tournaments after making their second appearance in the 1942 tournament. The Jayhawks had been ranked in the AP poll for 231 consecutive polls, a streak that had stretched from the poll released on February 2, 2009, poll through the poll released on February 8, 2021, which is the longest streak in AP poll history. Of the 24 seasons the Big 12 conference has been in existence, Kansas has won at least a share of 19 regular-season conference titles.
John W. Bunn was an American basketball coach and key contributor to the game of basketball. The Wellston, Ohio native played three seasons under coach Phog Allen at University of Kansas while earning his bachelor's degree (1917–21). He later became an assistant to Allen for nine seasons (1921–30). His In 1930, he became men's basketball head coach at Stanford University, where he coached college all-time great Hank Luisetti. His 1936–37 team finished the season with a 25–2 record and was retroactively named the national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. After he left Stanford, Bunn went on to coach Springfield College (1946–56) and Colorado State College (1956–63).
The USC Trojans men's basketball program is a college basketball team that competes in the Pac-12 Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, representing the University of Southern California. Following the end of the 2023-2024 academic calendar, Pac-12 schools Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington will be joining the Big 10 conference.
Ralph H. Miller was an American college basketball coach, a head coach for 38 years at three universities: Wichita, Iowa, and Oregon State. With an overall record of 657–382 (.632), his teams had losing records only three times. Prior to his final season, he was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame on May 3, 1988. Miller played college football and basketball at the University of Kansas. His performance on the football team led to him being drafted in the 1942 NFL Draft, but he chose to serve in the military instead of playing in the NFL.
The Kansas Jayhawks football program is the intercollegiate football program of the University of Kansas. The program is classified in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Bowl Subdivision (FBS), and the team competes in the Big 12 Conference. The Jayhawks are led by head coach Lance Leipold.
The Kansas State Wildcats men's basketball team represents Kansas State University in college basketball competition. The program is classified in the NCAA Division I, and is a member of the Big 12 Conference. The head coach is Jerome Tang.
The 1987–88 Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team represented the University of Kansas for the NCAA Division I men's intercollegiate basketball season of 1987–1988. The team won the 1987–1988 NCAA Division I men's basketball championship, the second in the school's history. They were led by Larry Brown in his fifth and final season as head coach. Their star player, Danny Manning, earned the team the nickname "Danny and the Miracles" because of the Jayhawks' improbable tournament run after an 11-loss season, the most ever by a national champion. The team played its home games in Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. In the last three games of the NCAA tournament, the Jayhawks avenged their three home losses to Kansas State, Duke, and Oklahoma.
Howard George "Rope" Engleman was an American college basketball standout at the University of Kansas from 1939 to 1941. He was 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) tall, weighed 170 pounds (82 kg). and played the forward position. As a senior in 1940–41, Engleman averaged 16.5 points per game and became just the second Jayhawk to be named a Consensus First Team All-American. Engleman led Kansas to two Big Six Conference regular season championships and as runners-up in the 1940 National Championship. The Jayhawks lost to Indiana, 60–42, but Engleman was the tournament's top scorer after scoring 39 points in three games. When asked about the preparations to play against the Hoosiers, Engleman responded: "We didn't know what to expect because we had never seen Indiana. The only scouting report we had was a letter from a KU alumnus back there [in Indiana]."
The history of the University of Kansas can be traced back to 1855, when efforts were begun to establish a "University of the Territory of Kansas." Nine years later in 1864, together with the help of Amos Adams Lawrence, former Kansas Governor Charles L. Robinson, and several other prominent figures, the Kansas Legislature chartered the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. The university was initially funded by a $15,000 endowment on a 40-acre (160,000 m2) allotment of land from Charles Robinson and his wife Sara. The university commenced preparatory-level classes in 1866 and college-level classes in 1869.
The 2020–21 Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball team represented the University of Kansas in the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, which was the Jayhawks' 123rd basketball season. The Jayhawks, members of the Big 12 Conference, played their home games at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas. They were led by 18th year Hall of Fame head coach Bill Self. The Jayhawks finished the regular season 20–8 overall and 2nd in the Big 12. They were selected to the 2021 NCAA tournament as a 3 seed. They would be eliminated in the second round.
