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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. 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.
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