IOWANS AT KU

Although the University of Kansas has taken the cream of Iowa’s basketball crop in recent years, including Raef LaFrentz, Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich, Iowa has not served as fertile recruiting ground for the Jayhawks, as only six Iowan’s played for Kansas over the 107 years of its history.  

Before those three, it was thirty two years ago that Mike Fiddelke of Paullina was on the roster at KU and he only played as a soph in 1973. Des Moines’ Jay Roberts played in 27 games from ’62-’64, lettering in track, football and basketball.  In the mid ‘40s, Lloyd Palmer of Postville, Francis Peterson of Rembrandt, and Bob Van Citters of Orange City each played parts of one season.

Probably the best known Iowan to play for KU was Keokuk’s Greg Douglas, who was one of the greatest high school players ever in Iowa.  At 6’8 and 230 lbs, he was one of the first of the state’s really big players, and averaged 25 points and 18 rebounds as a senior.  At KU he played 2 ˝ years from 1968-71.  His best year was his first, starting four of KU’s 26 games, and finishing with a 4.5 ppg average.  He was scholastically ineligible for the second semester of ’69 and all of ’70.  He was featured in an October 1992 Des Moines Register article by Chuck Offenburger, in which he described Douglas’ drug and alcohol problems (which started at KU), and led to his chronic mental illness.  After leaving Kansas, Douglas’ serious problems arose, and his weight dropped to 120 lbs.  At the time of the article he was in recovery and residing at the River Center for Community Health in Keokuk, requiring medication to remain stable enough to take care of his daily living skills.  I was a graduate student at KU at the time and saw first his potential and then his deterioration.  What a waste!

Ken Johnson, PhD.
July, 2005