1960-61
OVERALL HOME AWAY NEUTRAL CONFERENCE PLACE CONF. TOURNEY POST-SEASON
 17-8 7-3 7-4 3-1 10-4 2T   NONE

ROSTER:

NO. POS. NAME CLASS HGT. WGT. Hometown (Previous School)
    RETURNEES:        
32 C Bill Bridges ** Cpt. Sr. 6'5 225 Hobbs, New Mexico (Hobbs HS)
24 F Al Correll * Jr. 6'4 180 Philadelphia, PA
15 F Butch Ellison * Sr. 6'1 184 Kansas City, KS/Kansas City Junior College
22 G Jerry Gardner * Jr. 6'0 167 Wichita, KS
55 F Wayne Hightower * Jr. 6'9 192

Philadelphia, PA  (Overbrook HS)
3 G Dee Ketchum ** Cpt. Sr. 6'0 165 Bartlesville, OK
40 C/F Larry Sterlin % Jr. 6'6 195

Scott City, KS (Scott City HS)
12 G Pete Woodward % Jr. 6'2 188 Topeka, KS  (Topeka HS)
    NEW FACES:        
50 G Carl Deane % So. 5'10 150 Kansas City, KS
14 F/G Jim Dumas So. 6'1 185 Topeka, KS  (Topeka HS)
25 G Nolen Ellison So. 6'1 185

Kansas City, KS
23 C/F Bob Frederick % Jr. 6'3 178 Glendale, MO
20 F Ralph Heyward So. 6'3 195 Philadelphia, PA (Overbrook HS)
42 G Grover Marshall So. 6'1 190 Bartlesville, OK
44 C John Matt So. 6'6 200 Minneapolis, MN
30 G John Williams % So. 6'0 165 Osage City, KS

          * Varsity letter     Cpt. = Captain    # = Walk-on     % = Nonletterman

COACHES:

 

  

LOSSES FROM LAST YEAR ('60 stats):

PLAYER LOSSES Class Hgt. POS. G/GS PTS PPG RBS RPG PPts STATUS
Al Donaghue Sr. 6'5 F 17/ 185 10.9 84 4.9   Graduated
Dick Gisel Sr. 6'0 F/G 21/ 65 3.1 36 1.7   Graduated
Bob Hickman Sr. 6'2 G 28/ 180 6.4 108 3.9   Graduated
Jim Hoffman Sr. 6'3 F 25/ 67 2.7 56 2.2   Graduated
Bill Elstun Jr. 6'2 F 4/ 3 0.8 22 5.5    
Bill Goetzke So. 6'3 F 7/ 9 1.3 5 0.7    
Ken Hensley So. 6'2 G/F 2/ 0 0.0 0 0.0    
Howard Parker So. 5'11 G 2 0 0.0 0 0.0    
TOTALS         509 18.2 311 11.1    

 

PRESEASON OUTLOOK:
 

 

 

 

 

SEASON SUMMARY:
KU had a small, but dominating team.  All-American Bill Bridges, All-Big 8 Wayne Hightower, and Al Correll, averaging 6’5”, formed the frontcourt for the ’61 Jayhawks, which finished second in the conference with a 10-4 record.  These three averaged 45 points and 31 rebounds per game.

The backcourt featured 5’11” Jerry Gardner, 6’1 Nolan Ellison, and 5’11 sixth man Dee Ketcham.  These six players contributed over 90% of the team scoring, on their way to a 17-8 season record.

Bridges is KU’s 2nd best all-time rebounder and later played 13 seasons in the NBA.  Hightower finished 16th on KU’s all-time scoring list (in only two seasons), and later played eleven seasons in the ABA and NBA.

Source:  Ken Johnson’s KU Basketball Report, Vol. 90/91, No. 4.

A brawl during the Kansas-Missouri game on national television in 1961 put the future of the rivalry in jeopardy.  “I feel that if this extreme bitterness continues between the two schools, we will have to discontinue playing each other, at least for a while,” Athletic Director “Dutch” Lonborg told the Lawrence Journal-World. 

1961  FINAL TEAM STATISTICS (Team highs in bold):

CATEGORY

KU

OPP

DIFF

 Hightower, Wayne Bridges, Bill Gardner, Jerry Ellison, Nolen Correll, Al Ketchum, Dee Ellison, Butch

Games Played/Started

 25 25   25/ 25/ 25/ 25/ 24/ 23/ 20/

Points

 1850 1621   517 402 263 197 190 104 75

    Per Game

 74.0 64.8   20.7 16.1 10.5 7.9 7.9 4.5 3.8

Rebounds

 1277 1114   291 353 61 76 130 40 34

    Per Game

 51.1 44.6   11.6 14.1 2.4 3.0 5.4 1.7 1.7

FG -Attempts

 1743 1642   481 334 255 184 166 112 74

       Made

 692 612   192 146 103 74 71 36 27

       Percent

  39.7 37.3   39.9 43.7 40.4 40.2 42.8 32.1 36.5

FT-Attempts

 676 585   199 155 70 71 68 43 29

     Made

 466 397   133 110 57 49 48 32 21

     Percent

 68.9 67.9   66.8 71.0 81.4 69.0 70.6 74.4 72.4

Production Points/Game

                    
Production Points/Minute                    

Statistics, Cont'd

CATEGORY Heyward, Ralph Dumas, Jim Deane, Carl Matt, John Marshall, Grover Woodward, Pete Williams, John Sterlin, Larry Frederick, Bob Team
Games Played/ Started 16/ 12/ 9/ 10/ 13/ 7/ 9/ 4/ 1/  
Points 63 16 11 6 3 2 1 0 0  
   Per Game 3.9 1.3 1.2 0.6 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.0  
Rebounds 53 19 4 8 10 1 4 1 0 192
   Per Game 3.3 1.6 0.4 0.8 0.8 0.1 0.4 0.3 0.0 7.7
FG - Attempts 83 22 6 9 5 2 7 3 0  
         Made 30 5 3 3 1 1 0 0 0  
         Percent 36.1 22.7 50.0 33.3 20.0 50.0 0.0 0.0 0.0  
FT - Attempts 14 10 9 1 4 1 2 0 0  
        Made 3 6 5 0 1 0 1 0 0  
        Percent 21.4 60.0 55.6 0.0 25.0 0.0 50.0 0.0 0.0  
Production Points/Game                    
Production Points/Minute                    

Source:   KU Basketball Media Guide

GAME-BY-GAME

Northwestern W 86-69   Dec. 3 at Lawrence
Texas Tech W 97-75   Dec. 5 at Lubbock, Texas
St. John’s L 54-66   Dec. 9 at New York, N.Y.
Michigan State W 93-69   Dec. 16 at Manhattan, Kan.
North Carolina L 70-78   Dec. 17 at Lawrence
Brigham Young L 70-80   Dec. 20 at Provo, Utah
San Francisco W 60-43   Dec. 22 at San Francisco, Calif.
Nebraska W 78-53   Dec. 27 at Kansas City, Mo.
Iowa State W 76-72   Dec. 28 at Kansas City, Mo.
Kansas State L 66-69 * Dec. 29 at Kansas City, Mo.
Oklahoma W 58-55   Jan. 7 at Norman, Okla.
Oklahoma State W 73-68   Jan. 9 at Stillwater, Okla.
Iowa State W 90-59   Jan. 14 at Lawrence
Oklahoma State L 49-54   Jan. 16 at Lawrence
Kansas State W 75-66   Jan. 20 at Lawrence
Air Force W 78-52   Feb. 4 at Lawrence
Colorado W 88-65   Feb. 6 at Lawrence
Nebraska W 38-33   Feb. 11 at Lincoln, Neb.
Missouri W 88-73   Feb. 13 at Lawrence
Colorado W 90-62   Feb. 18 at Boulder, Colo.
Kansas State L 63-81   Feb. 11 at Manhattan, Kan.
Nebraska L 68-69   Feb. 25 at Lawrence
Oklahoma W 81-56   Feb. 28 at Lawrence
Iowa State W 85-75   Mar. 6 at Ames, Iowa
Missouri L 76-79   Mar. 11 at Columbia, Mo.
 

LINK TO 1961 NATIONAL STATISTICS

Link to Big  Conference for