Shawnee-Mission, KS (Shawnee Mission Rural HS)

Kansas City, KS  (Wyandotte, KS)

Mission, KS (Shawnee Mission North HS)

Grand Island, NE

Garden City, KS (Transfer from Garden City Juco)

Note:
With all due respect to the new faces, this has to be one of the least productive recruiting classes ever in the history of KU basketball.  Boxberger, Mowry and Lockley combined to play in only 16 games in their KU careers, scoring a total of 15 points and 19 rebounds.  Cleland and Dater did a little better, with each playing in 30 games.  All told, these five contributed 1.7 ppg and 1.0 rpg for their careers.
Apparently, Phog must have spent all of his recruiting time, energy and expense budget on Wilt Chamberlain, who was spending his freshman year on campus (probably wondering what he had gotten into).

With the exception of the excitement created by Chamberlain, the 1955-56 season was a disappointing one for Allen and the Jayhawks.  KU went 6-6 in the Big Seven, and its second straight fifth-place finish and was 14-9 overall.  With Chamberlain on campus, all talk centered on the 1956-57 season, and Allen, understandably, wanted to be a part of it.  The night Wilt scored 42 points for the freshman against the varsity was Allen’s birthday, but not necessarily a joyous occasion.  He had reached the state’s mandatory retirement age of 70 and was scheduled to retire June 1, 1956.  He didn’t go without a fight.

Allen appealed the decision all the way the to Board of Regents, even offering to give up his teaching duties if he could keep his coaching job.  But the state wouldn’t budge, and he coached his final game on March 10, 1956, a conference game against Colorado in Boulder.  The Jayhawks lost 75-67.  “This season was disappointing,” he said.  “It would be the thrill of my life to end a long coaching career with a truly great team.”  In 1972, his comments were even stronger.  “I wanted just one more year.  I wanted to coach Wilt Chamberlain with those 10-foot baskets.  I was going to make them swallow those baskets.”