DUTCH LONBORG (Player: 1918-1920); Athletic Director: 1950-64)
Born at Horton, Kansas, in 1898, Arthur C. "Dutch" Lonborg was a three-sport letterman at Kansas, earning honors in football, basketball and baseball. He was a three-time all-conference performer in football (1917-19) and was twice named all-conference in basketball, including being named All-American in 1919.
After graduating from the Kansas University School of Law, Lonborg had a two-year stint in coaching at McPherson College, followed by four years at Washburn University, where his 1925 team won the national AAU title. He then began a 23-year career as basketball coach at Northwestern University. He compiled 237 wins to rank him first on the school’s all-time victory list, leading the Wildcats to Big Ten titles in 1931 and 1933.
While at Northwestern, he was named President of the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 1935-36, and was instrumental in organizing the first NCAA basketball tournament in 1939. The first championship game, in which Oregon defeated Ohio State, was played in Northwestern’s Patten Gymnasium.
He returned to his alma mater in 1950 as KU’s director of athletics, a position he held for 14 years. During his tenure, the Jayhawks won 38 conference titles in all sports and took four NCAA crowns in various sports, including the 1952 basketball title. In addition, Allen Fieldhouse, Quigley Field (now Hoaglund-Maupin Stadium) and Memorial Stadium expansion projects were completed.
Lonborg served as Chairman of the US Olympic basketball committee from 1956-60, and served as the manager of the 1960 Olympic basketball team. He also spent 13 years as the chairman of the NCAA basketball tournament committee, and as chair of the 1959 U.S. Pan American Games.
A member of the KU Athletics Hall of Fame and the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame, he was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1972, and passed away in 1985.
Sources (Books and Articles):
· Evans, Harold C. (May 1942), Some Notes on College Basketball in Kansas
· Hendel, John (1991) Kansas Jayhawks: History Making Basketball
· Isaacs, Neil D. (1975), All the Moves: A History of College Basketball
· Nelson, Eric & Laurette McMillen, (1993), Crimson & Blue Handbook, page 26.
· Rife, Max L., Masters Thesis, Basketball in its early years at the University of Kansas, 1898-1925
· nusports.cstv.com/genrel/lonborg_arthur00.html
· dutch_lonborg.totallyexplained.com/
Sources (Internet Biographies):
- Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame: http://www.hoophall.com/
- Kansas Sports Hall of Fame: http://www.kshof.com
- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
- Hickok Sports: http://www.hickoksports.com/
