SEASON SUMMARY:
LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Early Kansas greats Tus Ackerman, Charlie Black and Paul
Endacott led Kansas to a 23-20 win over visiting Missouri, giving the Jayhawks
their second national title in as many years.
Helms Foundation national champions and national championship games were not
awarded until 1936, when champions were selected retroactively.
Kansas went 16-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference and finished 17-1 overall.
|
KANSAS (23)
|
FG
|
FT
|
PF
|
TP
|
|
Ackerman, f |
0 |
7 |
2 |
7 |
|
Bowman, f |
2 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
|
Wulf, c |
3 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
|
Black, g |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
|
Endacott, g |
2 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
|
TOTALS |
8 |
7 |
8 |
23 |
|
MISSOURI (20)
|
FG
|
FT
|
PF
|
TP
|
|
Browning, f |
1 |
6 |
2 |
8 |
|
Wheat, f |
5 |
0 |
2 |
10 |
|
Bunker, c |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
Faurot, g |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
Vanice, g |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
Hays, g |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
|
TOTALS |
7 |
6 |
9 |
20 |
Referee -- E.C. Quigley, St. Mary's
Umpire -- Leslie Edmonds, Ottawa
The Jayhawks became the first team to complete an
undefeated season in the Valley. Not
exactly “ever-victorious” as they were dubbed, the Jayhawks lost one
non-conference game 27-23 to the Kansas City Athletic Club.
The Jayhawks, 17-1 overall and 16-0 in the Valley, were later designated
the 1923 national champions by the Helms Foundation. Endacott and Charlie Black were All-Americans on the team,
and John Wulf joined them on the all-conference team. Tusten Ackerman, who also played on the 1923 squad, went on
to All-American honors in 1924 and 1925.
Three-thousand fans packed Robinson Gymnasium on Feb. 28,
1923, to watch KU clinch the title and an unbeaten record with a 23-20 victory
against Missouri.
Paul Endacott was captain of the 1923 team and was later
named Player of the Year by the Helms Foundation. Allen called him “the greatest player I have ever
coached,” and was fond of telling about Endacott’s heroics during KU’s
game at Missouri on Jan. 16, 1923, which the Jayhawks won 21-19.
Endacott had grabbed 16 straight jump balls in the closing minutes to
preserve the win. He later
collapsed in the locker room from exhaustion.
But Allen always said he was most proud of his players’ accomplishments
later in life and often mentioned Endacott, who became president of Phillips
Petroleum Company.
Source:
The Crimson & Blue Handbook, pages 27-28.
The play was on again, and breathlessly the crowd followed
every move of the ball. Bang!
The crack of the pistol split the air.
For a moment everyone sat silent, unable to realize that it was all over
– that Kansas had defeated Missouri again, and that KU had an all-victorious
basketball team – the first in the history of the Valley.
Suddenly they realized the great climax, and rising to their feet roared
forth the “Crimson and the Blue,” with the hearts full of joy and minds
teeming with memory of a great basketball battle and victory.
Source: University Daily Kansas, March 1, 1923.
For
its size and talent, the 1923 team did more than any other team I ever had.
Paul Endacott was only about 6 feet tall, but he was a basketball
player deluxe. We old-timers
naturally think the old-time teams were better.
I think we played more clever basketball.
In the pro game now, it’s just shoot, score and run, shoot,
score and run, over and over.” Phog
Allen in the Kansas City Star Magazine, March 26, 1972.
KANSAS COURTSTERS BEAT AGGIE QUINTET IN BITTER CONTEST.
Bedlam broke loose again as the Kansans took their allotted two minutes
for a tete-a-tete. A cow over in
the experiment station on the campus swallowed her cud in the excitement.
Aggie rooters threw eight-dollar derbies into the air and hugged their
neighbors. The stands rocked.
Source: Daily Kansan, Feb 21,
1923.
1923
Win Over MU Kept Allen
From Stepping Down
Kansas beat Missouri, 23-19, on Jan. 13, 1923, paving the way for an unblemished
conference record and perhaps preventing Phog Allen from stepping down as the
Jayhawk basketball coach.
All-American Paul Endacott forced several jump balls down the stretch,
protecting KU's lead.
Allen's wife, Bessie, later confided to Endacott that her husband would have
stepped down as basketball coach, but remain as athletics director, if Kansas
didn't win the league title outright. The win over Missouri helped seal that
title.
The Jayhawks almost didn't make it to Columbia, Mo., for the game. A truck that
was supposed to take the team nine miles from the railroad yard to the arena
broke down en route.
Source: A Century of Kansas
Basketball
In 1922-23, KU was pronounced the national champion for the second straight year
by the Helms Foundation, going undefeated (16-0) in the Missouri Valley
Conference, and 17-1 overall. Their only loss was to the Kansas City Athletic
Club, the US amateur champion, a team laden with former Jayhawks.
All-American guards, Paul Endacott, the Helms Foundation Player of the Year, and
Charlie Black, led the team. Pivot John Wulf was a devensive star and he
usually obtained the tip-off (this was when every play started with the center
jump). Waldo Bowman and Tus Ackerman, who had the team high of 162 points,
manned the forward spots. A little-used dub that year was Adolph Rupp, who
later became college basketball's all-time winningest coach at Kentucky.
In retrospect, this year was crucial to Coach Phog Allen's career. After
splitting games with Missouri the previous year, the Jayhawks earned a share of
the 1922 Missouri Valley title. Coach Allen wanted more for 1923.
Endacott wrote "Years later Mrs. Allen told me that Phog told her at the
beginning of the 1923 season, 'Now we've tied Missouri and if I can't beat them
both games in 1923, I'm going to quit coaching." I never understood why he
attached so much importance to that game until I learned about 15 years after I
got out of college that if we'd lost that game he was going to quit, he could
just be the director of athletics." Ken Johnson's Basketball Report, Vol.
92-93, No. 2.
|
