JOHN L. BUNN
Assistant Coach, 1924-28
Player on KU's 1918-1920 teams
Link to his Basketball Hall of Fame site
The first athlete to win ten letters at the University of Kansas, Bunn played basketball for "Phog" Allen at a time when the sport's inventor, James Naismith, was a professor of physical education at the school. Bunn stayed on as Allen's assistant for nine years after graduating in 1921 and then became basketball coach at Stanford in 1930.
Although Bunn emphasized defense, his team was best known for making the one-hand shot a powerful offensive weapon. Hank Luisetti was the player who did it, but Bunn was probably one of the few coaches of the era who would have allowed a player to use what was then a very unorthodox way of shooting.
Luisetti led the 1936-37 team to a 25-2 record. More important, Bunn brought his team to Madison Square Garden for a game against Long Island University in December of 1936, the first time a West Coast team had played in New York. Stanford's 45-31 victory ended LIU's 43-game winning streak and Luisetti's shooting style was soon adopted by other players.
Bunn temporarily retired from coaching in 1939 to become a college administrator. He returned as coach at Springfield, MA, College, basketball's birthplace, from 1947 through 1956 and he finished his coaching career at Colorado State at Greeley from 1956 through 1962. His overall record was 313 wins, 288 losses.
During his tenure at Springfield, Bunn was chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Committee. He served as official rules interpreter and editor of the Basketball Guide from 1959 through 1967 and wrote six books on the sport.