Lovellette, '52 Team Claimed KU's First NCAA Crown

This was the team that was supposed to win the NCAA championship and it did. When Phog Allen recruited the juniors and seniors on that team, such as All-American center Clyde Lovellette, he told them that they were going to win the title.

"When Phog Allen came to my house in Terre Haute (Ind.), he said, 'I'm gathering a group of guys that by your senior year we are going to win the nationals and we are going to go to the Olympics,' "Lovellette said.
The 1952 team was built around the 240-pound Lovellette, the only player in history to lead the nation in scoring and play for an NCAA championship team in the same season. But there were other very talented cogs in the Jayhawk machine, such as Charlie Hoag, Bob Kenney, Bill Leinhard, Dean Kelley, John Keller and others. Lovellette was an All-American and Kenney was named to the All-Big Seven team. The Jayhawks finished 11-1 in the conference and were ranked third behind Kentucky and Illinois as the NCAA Tournament opened.

In '52, the NCAA Tournament consisted of 16 teams, so it only took victories over Texas Christian and St. Louis at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City to advance to the national semifinals in Seattle, Wash.
It wasn't called the Final Four back then and it wasn't the hyped event that it is now. Still, it was an exciting time and a capacity crowd near 11,000 filled Edmundson Pavilion.
The flight to Seattle was just KU's second plane trip of the season and Allen hated to fly.
"I remember we were in a Constellation, with the big belly and the lounge down the stairs," Lovellette said. "They had fake flowers all around the wall in the belly of the plane. Phog fell asleep for a few seconds, and he had his hands across his chest. I grabbed some of the flowers and put them in his hands. He woke up and I told him if the plane went down, he was all ready. That loosened him up."
In the semifinals, Kansas whipped Santa Clara, 74-55, behind Lovellete's 33 points and 18 rebounds.
"As soon as we beat Santa Clara, I started thinking about the championship," Lovellette said. "We were one victory away from accomplishing something no Kansas team had ever done before, something Phog Allen had never had."

In the championship game, Kansas faced St. John's, which was led by center Bob Zawoluk and forward Jack McMahon. The Redmen coach was Frank McGuire. Kansas jumped out to an early lead and never trailed. The Jayhawks led by 14 at halftime, 19 at the end of the third quarter, and finished with an 80-63 victory. "He (Allen) didn't talk to us for a long time," Lovellette said. "It's not that he didn't want to. I don't think he could. He was savoring the thought of winning. He stood outside the dressing room for a long time." Inside the lockerroom, the Jayhawks celebrated the first NCAA championship in school history.

"Anyone on the team will remember the celebration for the rest of their lives," Hoag said. "It was an incredible experience."  The season wasn't over for Kansas. Half the team, and Allen as an assistant coach, made the U.S. Olympic team, which won a gold medal in Helsinki, Finland.