Kenneth Spencer Research Library

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 34,500 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

The KU men’s basketball team practicing at Robinson Gymnasium, 1907.
KU’s first freestanding gym had just opened in May of that year.
Robinson was torn down in 1967 to make way for Wescoe Hall.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 66/13 1907 Practice:
Athletic Department: Basketball (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Reporting on the 1907-1908 basketball season and the importance of Robinson Gymnasium, the 1908 Jayhawker yearbook stated the following.

For the first time in the annals of Basket-ball at the University of Kansas did the Jayhawker quintet carry off the undisputed championship honors of the Missouri Valley; for such was the brilliant record made by Captain George McCune’s Basket-ball squad this winter, under the efficient coaching of “Phog” Allen. The season was in every respect the most satisfactory ever experienced here. The splendid new Gymnasium gave the boys a satisfactory court to practice on, while as a place for holding match games it has no equal in the West. For the first time the entire student body of the University really got behind the Team and pulled with it for victory. The crowds ranged everywhere from two hundred up to a thousand, while for enthusiasm even the most exciting Foot-ball contests could hardly have equalled [sic] the rooting and yelling at the spectacular Basket-ball contests this winter.

The KU men’s basketball team, 1907-1908.
Coach Phog Allen is standing in the back on the left,
with the dark sweater. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/13 1907/1908 Team:
Athletic Department: Basketball (Photos). Click image to
enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 34,500 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Happy holidays, Jayhawks! We hope all of you will be able to spend time with loved ones during the holidays this year.

Remember that Spencer Research Library will be closed tomorrow (December 23rd) through Monday, January 2nd.

Members of Phog Allen‘s family in front of a Christmas tree, circa 1955.
Preliminary research suggests that the gentleman is Phog’s son Milton (“Mitt”)
with his wife Isabel and their children (from left to right) Judith, Jennifer, and Milton Jr.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 66/22 Forrest C. Allen Family
Undated Negatives: Athletic Department: Coaches and Staff (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 28,000 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Men’s basketball is underway at the 2016 Summer Olympics, so this week we’re sharing photographs of the U.S. men’s basketball team that played in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Team USA consisted of fourteen members: seven players from KU’s 1952 championship squad plus five members of the Amateur Athletic Union‘s Peoria (Illinois) Caterpillar-Diesels and two members of the Phillips 66ers. KU head coach Phog Allen was an assistant coach for the Olympic team.

Olympic banner stretched across Massachusetts Street at Seventh, 1952.
This view is looking south; the Eldridge Hotel is on the right.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 66/13 Team Olympic 1951/1952:
Athletic Department: Basketball (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Members of the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team, 1952.
Assistant coach Phog Allen is standing on the far left.
The seven KU players are kneeling in the front row; from left to right they are
Dean Kelley, Charlie Hoag, John Keller, Bob Kenney, Bill Hougland,
Bill Lienhard, and Clyde Lovellette. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/13 Team Olympic 1951/1952: Athletic Department: Basketball (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

The 1952 U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team won the gold medal, defeating the USSR
(also known as the CCCP) 36-25. Uruguay won the bronze. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/13 Team Olympic 1951/1952: Athletic Department: Basketball (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

The Crimson and Blue Handbook describes KU’s road to the Olympics.

[Phog] Allen had recruited his 1951-1952 team members with the promise that they would be the squad to represent the United States in the ’52 Olympics…

[After winning the national championship in 1952], KU went back to Kansas City to face the Springfield Missouri State Teachers [1952 NAIA champion; now Missouri State University] in the first round of the Olympic playoffs. The Jayhawks won 92-65, establishing a new single-game scoring record. The NIT champion, LaSalle, was next, and KU won 70-65 in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden as [Clyde] Lovellette scored 40 points.

The win over LaSalle had assured the Jayhawks of placing seven players on the Olympic squad, and KU met the AAU champion Peoria Caterpiller-Diesels in the Olympic finals to determine who would coach the team in Helsinki. Peoria won in the final eight seconds when Howie Williams, a former Purdue guard, hit a short jumper to break a 60-60 tie. Peoria coach Warren Womble was named the Olympic coach, and Phog Allen was named an assistant.

Allen had kept his promise.

Learn more about the Jayhawks who were members of the 1952 Olympic basketball team and other KU basketball players and coaches who have been involved with U.S. Olympic teams.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 27,700 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Summer session physical education department faculty and students, 1930s.
Phog Allen and James Naismith are standing in the second row, second and third from the left.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 20/9 1930s: School of Education:
Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 21,700 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Happy birthday, Boy Scouts of America! The organization was founded on February 8, 1910.

Legendary KU basketball coach Phog Allen with a local Eagle Scout, June 27, 1958.
Lawrence Journal-World Photo Collection, University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG LJW 66/22 Forrest C. Allen 1958: Athletic Department: Coaches and Staff (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants