Kirk Hinrich suffered a
deep thigh bruise in
the recent Syracuse game and the Kansas basketball family worried about his
status for that stumbling third and final effort in the NCAA tournament. All
sorts of treatments were employed and a special pad was devised to get the
sophomore quarterback functional. Alert, aggressive Illinois (men against boys)
proved to be a lot bigger problem, however.
Whatever,
there's one former Jayhawk star who could easily relate to Hinrich, who plays
such a vital role in the KU program. That would be Bill Hougland, a star guard
on KU's 1952 NCAA title team and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. To this day,
Hougland, now retired from Koch Industries and living in Lawrence, retains a
knotty reminder of those glorious olden days.
Kansas
whipped Kansas State 78-61 here in 1952 to tie for the Big Seven lead. KU then
won the title outright, also clinching an NCAA berth, by downing Colorado 72-55
in a Boulder finale. The bad news was that the 6-5 Hougland, a KU mainstay from
Beloit, received a deep bruise on his left thigh in the victory over K-State.
Despite all the magic and elixirs of the fabled osteopath-coach Phog Allen,
Hougland wasn't able to do much at Colorado.
With the
NCAA tourney just around the corner, would KU have the veteran Hougland, who
could score, rebound, defend and inspire? Not as much as was desired, despite
all the efforts of Doc Allen. The treatments included the pioneering use of
ultrasonic equipment that is commonplace nowadays, primitive then.
Hougland
hobbled through the tournament victories over TCU, St. Louis and Santa Clara but
he remained doubtful on the eve of KU's title showdown with St. John's in
Seattle.
"That
lump on my thigh got hard as a rock," Hougland said in a recent
conversation. "With all the procedures and equipment these days, I might
have been a lot better off. Doc and Dean Nesmith (famed KU athletic trainer) did
everything they and various doctors could but I still was not doing well. Doc
and Dean and all the rest of us tried to keep it low key in case opposing teams
would try to whack me if they knew how bad it was. We couldn't talk much about
it; we didn't want reporters dwelling on it and getting the opponents licking
their chops.
"They
(Allen and Nesmith) developed a special pad I wore to get me through but I'm
afraid I didn't help much down the stretch. To this day, I have a knot on the
front of my left thigh to remind me. It's a kind of souvenir. I hope Kirk (Hinrich)
gets out of it better than that. Something like that can bother you a long
time."
"The
afternoon of the St. John's game, we all got frustrated and Doc threw up his
hands and issued a challenge to me," added Bill. "Something like, 'I
don't know what we can do, but we need you, really need you! Whatever it takes,
you GOTTA GO tonight!"
If
you're acquainted with the conscientious Bill Hougland, you know he's a guy
you'd go to war with. Slap this competitor in the face with a demand like that
from the Phogger, and what would you expect?
Hougland
is too modest about his contributions for the championship game with St. John's.
Ailing as he was, the determined Bill scored five points, bagged six rebounds
and played his traditional fierce defense against the then- Redmen, now the
politicially correct Red Storm. The only Jayhawk with more rebounds in the Big
One was Clyde Lovellette with 17 (along with 33 points — not a bad
double-double even today).
That '52
team then beat Southwest Missouri and LaSalle and lost by two points to the AAU
champions Peoria Caterpillars to earn seven berths on the U.S. Olympic team.
"Between
the St. John's game and the Southwest Missouri game, I healed up enough that I
didn't have many more problems. Then by the Olympics, I had the same knot I do
now but no more hindrance," said Hougland.
Bill
left school for Air Force duty, then joined Phillips Petroleum where his stellar
AAU play won him a 1956 Olympic berth with the likes of San Francisco's Bill
Russell and K.C. Jones. Hougland played basketball until 1958, then later left
Phillips for Koch Industries.
"Won't
be long before it's time for a 50th reunion of that '52 group," said Bill.
Those guys are now in the age 70 range. "Boy, has it been 50 years? Only
five of those Olympians are left. Dean Kelley and John Keller have died. Clyde,
Bill Lienhard, Charlie Hoag, Bob Kenney and I are still around."
Something
I'd forgotten was how often the names of the '52 KU starters got misprinted and
mispronounced by the media. Lovellette, of course, was a prime example. But
Hougland has seen his name printed as "Houghland, Hoglund, Hoagland, and
others." Lienhard has been "Leinhard, Linehard, Lenhard, etc."
Even Bob Kenney and Dean Kelley have been shortchanged because of the
"ey" instead of traditional "y". But such world-class roses
by any name would smell just as sweet. Same with Hinrich, who's also had
numerous foulups, like "Heinrich."
Back to
the incomparable Cumulus Clyde. Even KU athletics director Ernie Quigley
stumbled. Phog used to advise media guys to think of then-famous Sen. Bob La
Follette (Luh-FOLL-ut) and say Luh-VELL-ut. Quigley, never exactly a wordsmith,
took a lot of correcting before he stopped referring to to Clyde as
"Luh-VOLL-ut." And Ernie wasn't dyslexic.
At any
rate, let's hope Kirk Hinrich's thigh knot is gone by next season. He could
become good enough to spark the Jayhawks to another national title like the one
Hougland helped produce, misspellings and all.