KU IN THE OLYMPICS
Kansas University’s involvement in the Olympics began as
early as April of 1928, just before the Amsterdam Olympics, when KU coach Phog
Allen proposed that basketball be considered as an “international demonstration
sport” and was turned down.
Over the objections of AAU officials, with whom he had various feuds over the
years, Phog pushed hard for the idea. He, and others were persistent and finally
got their message across. So, in October 1934, the Olympic organizing committee
had adopted a resolution to have basketball included in the XIth Olympiad in
Berlin in 1936.
Once he had accomplished that, he wanted to find a way to send the game’s inventor, James Naismith over to Germany to see the Olympic debut of the game he invented. Allen conceived a plan that had each high school and college withhold one cent from the price of each admission to one game played during the week of February 9-15 to finance the trip to Germany for Naismith and his wife. Those funds, together with a sizeable contribution from the National Association of Basketball Coaches, made it possible for Dr. Naismith to go to Berlin, although his wife couldn’t go because of illness.
Allen was slated to head the 1936 team, but resigned in one of his many disputes with the AAU.
Dr. Naismith arrived in Germany without even a pass to see the game, and was almost turned away at the gate. However, the American Olympic Committee’s efforts managed to get him a pass for all the games. After the rainy outdoor game, where the Americans won against his native Canada by a modest score of 19-8, he called it the greatest moment of his life.
Naismith stated after his trip to Berlin that basketball had "grown tremendously overseas and predicted that it would continue to grow "perhaps not in this country, but in foreign countries."
Ironically, Ernie Quigley another Canadian-born Jayhawk, refereed in the 1936 Olympics basketball finals. Quigley later became KU’s Athletic Director in 1944.
1948
In 1948, former Jayhawk Adolph Rupp was co-coach of the Olympic basketball team
in London, England. At the time, Rupp was head coach at Kentucky. The US team
won the Gold medal.
1952
After winning the national championship in 1952, the Jayhawks went back
to Kansas City to face the Springfield Missouri State Teachers in the first
round of the Olympic playoffs. The Jayhawks won 92-65, establishing a new
single-game scoring record. The NIT champion, LaSalle, was next, and KU won
70-65 in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden as Lovellette scored 40
points. The win over LaSalle assured the Jayhawks of placing seven players on
the Olympic squad, and KU met the AAU champion Peoria Caterpiller-Diesels in the
Olympic finals to determine who would coach the team in Helsinki, Finland.
Peoria won in the final eight seconds when Howie Williams, a former Purdue
guard, hit a short jumper to break a 60-60 tie. Peoria coach Warren Womble was
named the Olympic coach, and Phog Allen was named an assistant.
Four years earlier, Allen had pledged to his recruits that they would win the national championship and go to the Olympics. Now Phog had kept his promise. The seven Jayhawks selected to be on the Olympic team were: Clyde Lovellette, John Kenney, Al Kelley, Bob Lienhard, Bill Hougland, Charlie Hoag and John Keller.
In addition to the seven Jayhawks, the team was made up of five players from the Peoria Caterpillar team, and two players from the Phillips Petroleum team. The stars of the US team were Bob Kurland, the 7-foot center from the Phillips team, Bob Kurland and Clyde Lovelette.
The 1952 Olympics were spiced by the participation of the Soviet Union for the first time. The Russian lifted the Iron Curtain just enough to let a strong group of athletes travel next door to Finland. The Yanks had an easy time of it, beating Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Uruguay, USSR (who were dispatched easily 86-58), Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, before reaching the championship game, a rematch with the Soviets.
The game against the Soviets was a highly aggressive and physical battle that saw six Americans and four Soviet players foul out, but the U.S. crushed the Soviets 86-58 as Kurland scored 15 and KU’s Robert Kenny and Clyde Lovellette added 14 points each.
When the US and Russia met again in the finals, the Soviets responded by stalling to hold down the score. Bill Leinhard said, "The only teams coming on were the Russians and they weren't very good. They were made up of players all 35 years old, without a lot of talent. We beat them pretty handily the first time we played. The second time, they knew they couldn't run with us. They stalled the ball. There wasn't any question who would win. The question was what the score would be."
After ten minutes the US led 4-3 and the score was only 17-15 at halftime, but the USA pulled away in the second half to win 36-25. Lovellette led the USA offense with nine points, while Kurland added eight points.
1956
KU’s Bill Hougland was again
selected for the 1956 team in Melbourne, Australia. The US continued its
dominance of Russia when the Bill Russell-led U.S. team pounded Uruguay, 101-38,
in the semifinals and again the USSR in the finals, 89-55.
"We blew out everybody. Nobody came close. Nobody had ever seen anybody like Russell," Hougland said of the Boston Celtics Hall of Fame center and teammate in '56. "He made things easy because you overplayed everybody on the outside. If they got by, you knew Russell would take care of 'em. He was fun to play with."
Actually, the US team averaged nearly 100 points a game, with an average margin of victory an impressive 53.5 points a game
1960
KU’s Al Kelley played on a
star-studded 1960 U.S. squad in Rome that included Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas,
Jerry West, Walt Bellamy and Bob Boozer. The U.S. breezed past runner-up USSR,
81-57. Some other lopsided scores en route to the gold: 88-54 and 112-81 over
Italy and 90-67 over Brazil.
"We were voted the best amateur team in Olympic history," Kelley said. "Our first six were really good players, guys like West and Robertson. I was happy to be on the bench there. I knew they were better players. "The guys all liked each other. Nobody complained about not playing. We were really good."
Improving on the 1956 performance, the 1960 team averaged 101.9 points a game and had an average margin of victory of 42.3 points per game.
1964
Considered to be too small for the NBA, former KU
Coach Larry Brown’s career with basketball stems from his ability to simply
produce winning teams from the coach’s chair. However, he was a member of the
1964 gold medal winning United States team in Tokyo as a player. The US routed
Puerto Rico in the semi-finals, 62-42, behind Brown’s 16 points, to earn the
right to play in the gold medal game. Both the US and the USSR had 8-0
records. Relying on its fast break, led by Brown, the Americans cruised to a
75-59 victory, capturing the US’s sixth straight gold medal.
1968
JoJo White was the second highest
scorer on the US team at the ’68 Olympics in Mexico City. That team compiled a
perfect 9-0 record under coach Henry Iba’s well prepared plan. In the final game
the US faced a hot Yugoslavia team which had upset the favored Russians. The US
earned gold with a 65-50 win with 14 points by White. White ran Iba’s fast break
offense to perfection with an average of 11.6 points per game.
1976
The 1976 team at Montreal was coached
by Dean Smith. Again, Yugoslavia had upset the Russians, thwarting the US
opportunity to gain revenge for the controversial loss to the USSR in the 1972
Olympics. The USA reclaimed Olympic gold with a 95-74 decision over Yugoslavia.
1980
The 1980 Olympics held in Moscow were
tainted by the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. The USA, Canada, China,
Mexico and Puerto Rico all qualified for the Olympics but chose not to
participate. Instead, the 1980 men’s squad
did participate in the
"Gold Medal Series," a series of games against NBA All-Star teams in various USA
cities. Led by KU’s Darnell Valentine, the Olympic team scored an impressive
four victories out of five games against NBA all-star teams.
Lynette Woodard was selected for the 1980 women’s team, but the team did not participate in the Olympics.
1984
In 1984, KU’s Lynette Woodard was a member
and captain of the United States' women's basketball team that won the gold
medal at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. The competition suffered somewhat
because the Soviet bloc countries decided not to participate. The USA team won
all of it’s six games by 28 points or more.
1988
The 1988 Olympic team, headlined by
KU’s Danny Manning, the National Player of the Year, was coached by Georgetown’s
John Thompson. The US team breezed through its first five games before squeezing
by Canada. A semi-final loss to the Soviet Union ended the USA dream of gold,
but they won the bronze with a respectable 7-1 record.
2004
Former KU Coach Larry Brown coached
the 2004 Olympic team, which rebounded to take the Bronze medal after
experiencing three humiliating defeats. However, they were playing
without 9 of their best players, and they only had one week of practice together
before the Olympics.
Summary
In total, 15 former KU players and/or
coaches have been involved with USA Olympic teams.
|
PERSON |
INVOLVEMENT |
YEARS |
|
Phog Allen |
Assistant Coach |
1936 |
|
Adolph Rupp |
Coach |
1948 |
|
Clyde Lovellette |
Player |
1952 |
|
Bill Kenney |
Player |
1952 |
|
Al Kelley |
Player |
1952, 1960 |
|
Bill Leinhard |
Player |
1952 |
|
Bill Hougland |
Player |
1952, 1956 |
|
Charlie Hoag |
Player |
1952 |
|
John Keller |
Player |
1952 |
|
Larry Brown |
Player |
1964 |
|
JoJo White |
Player |
1968 |
|
Dean Smith |
Coach |
1976 |
|
Darnell Valentine |
Player |
1980 |
|
Lynette Woodard |
Player |
1980, 1984 |
|
Danny Manning |
Player |
1988 |
Sources (Books and Articles):
Sources (Internet):
1952 U.S. men's basketball Olympic results
USA 66, Hungary 48
USA 72, Czechoslovakia 47
USA 57, Uruguay 44
USA 86, U.S.S.R. 58
USA 103, Chile 55
USA 57, Brazil 53
USA 85, Argentina 76 (semifinal)
USA 36, U.S.S.R. 25 (final)
Good as Gold, L-J World, 8/13/2008
