GENE PETERSEN

PETERSEN, ARTHUR 'GENE'

Hometown:  Lawrence, KS; Millard, NE

Transfer from Nebraska U.

1945:  Played for Nebraska - their leading scorer.

1946:  Lettered.

1947-48:  In military service - Army

1948:  Lettered.

1949:  Lettered, 2nd leading scorer in conference.

1950:

Phi Beta Kappa and went on to be a physician.

Absolutely flabbergasted at the completeness of your data, and love
having the season by season piece banked away. Will try to get
through it later but right now can't. However, and this is really
picayune, but after all these years and recent contacts with the
family after his death, I learned that the Gene "Peterson" who is
listed on the 1948-49 and 1949-50 rosters was, in fact, Gene
Petersen, sen, not son. Yet I and everyone else including the KU
media guide has listed it Peterson from the outset. If nobody else
has the right handle, we do now.

Pete, by the way, became an accomplished doctor, an internist, I
think, and he died not too long ago, which triggered the contact
about the spelling. His daughter, I think, started it. At any rate,
Pete was one of those super-intellectual guys, about 6-7,  who
sometimes drove Phog nuts with his candor, point-blank perception of
life and his willingness to speak up. Maybe you've heard the story,
but once before a game, Phog was pontificating about "keeping your
eye on the ball at all times" - adding that there was NO SPORT where
constant awareness of the position of the ball was not paramount. At
that point, Pete interrupted with: "Hey, Doc, how about swimming?"
He'd drive Doc up the wall with little snippets like that the rest of
the players like Jerry Waugh and Claude Houchin would love it.

Email from Bill Mayer, 1/11/06