Phog Allen
Phog Allen (1885-1974)
Teams coached: Baker Wildcats, Warrensburg Teachers, Haskell Indians, Kansas Jayhawks
Baker record: 45-9 (.833)
Warrensburg record: 84-31 (.730)
Haskell record: 27-5 (.844)
Kansas record: 590-219 (.729)
Overall record: 746-264 (.739)
Career Accomplishments:
- NCAA National Championships: 1 (1952)
- NCAA Tournament Appearances: 4 (1940, 1942, 1952, 1953)
- NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen: 1 (1953)
- NCAA Tournament Final Four: 3 (1940, 1952, 1953)
- NIT Championships: 0
- NIT Appearances: 0
- Big Six/Seven Regular Season Champion: 16 (1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1946, 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954)
- Missouri Valley Regular Season Champion: 8 (1908, 1909, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927)
- MIAA Regular Season Champion: 2 (1913, 1914)
- Helms Foundation National Championships: 3 (1922, 1923, 1952)
Awards:
- Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted 1959)
- National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted 2006)
Coaching Career (head coach, unless noted):
| 1919-1956 | Kansas |
| 1912-1919 | Warrensburg Teachers College |
| 1908-1909 | Haskell Institute |
| 1907-1909 | Kansas |
| 1905-1908 | Baker |
Phog Allen Facts
- Dr. Forrest Clare Allen
- Born November 18, 1885
- Died September 16, 1974
- Hometown: Jamesport, Missouri
- Alma Mater: University of Kansas (BA, 1906)
- Growing up in Missouri, formed a basketball team with his brothers after the game was invented by Dr. James Naismith
- Went on to play for Naismith as a student at Kansas, where he also spent time on the Jayhawks’ baseball team
- While playing for the Jayhawks and Kansas City Athletic Club, Allen also coached at Baker University in Baldwin City, KS
- Naismith stopped coaching in 1907 and Allen, still a senior at KU, became the head basketball coach
- During the 1908-09 season, Allen coached at both Kansas and Haskell Institute (Lawrence, KS)
- After several years away from the game to study osteopathic medicine, Allen returned to his home state of Missouri to coach football and basketball at Warrensburg Teachers College (now Central Missouri University)
- Returned to Kansas in 1919 where he would serve as the Jayhawks basketball coach for the next 37 years (39 total seasons)
- Won 24 conference titles at Kansas (8 MVC, 16 Big Six/Seven), having tremendous success both before and during the NCAA Tournament era
- Allen was one of the founders of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), which went on to create the NCAA Tournament
- Finished as Runner-Up in the second-ever NCAA Tournament (1940); returned to the NCAAs three more times, including another Runner-Up finish in 1953 and a NCAA National Championship in 1952
- The Helms Foundation retroactively named Allen and Kansas as the National Champions for the 1922 and 1923 seasons
- Had a number Kansas players that would go on to become Hall of Fame coaches, including Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith, Ralph Miller and Dutch Lonborg
- Recruited Wilt Chamberlain to play at KU, though he retired in 1956 just before Chamberlain’s KU career started
- Since 1955, the Kansas Jayhawks basketball teams have played in Allen Fieldhouse, nicknamed “The Phog”
- Though Naismith invented the game, Allen is considered the first prolific coach of the sport and is thusly referred to as “the Father of Basketball Coaching”
- Part of the inaugural class of both the Naismith Basketball HOF (1959) and College Basketball HOF (2006)
- Helped get basketball added as an Olympic sport in 1936; later coached Team USA to gold in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki
Phog Allen Coaching Tree
- Charlie T. Black (Nebraska)
- Frosty Cox (Montana, Colorado)
- Howard Engleman (Kansas)
- Dick Harp (Kansas)
- Dutch Lonborg (Northwestern, Washburn, McPherson)
- Louis Menze (Iowa State)
- Ralph Miller (Oregon State, Iowa, Wichita State)
- George E. Rody (Tulane, Oklahoma A&M)
- Adolph Rupp (Kentucky)
- Dean Smith (North Carolina)
