Wilt learned late that KU truly rocked

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Allen Fieldhouse would be a storied place in college basketball even if a certain tall youth from Philadelphia had picked another of the 90-odd schools recruiting him and had enrolled there in 1955.

But because Wilt Chamberlain played here, at the University of Kansas, the Jayhawks' home court is a treasure chest of the sport, one that should not be missed by any lover of basketball or sports enthusiast.

A Thursday afternoon in mid-August is not the best time to observe Allen Field House, as it is spelled in block letters high on the unpretentious gray building along Naismith Drive in Lawrence. The playing floor was closed during my first Kansas visit of any kind since, I guess, my preteens. Another pilgrimage, this one for a Jayhawk game, will be necessary to judge the full measure of why Kansas, it is said, enjoys the truest home-court advantage in college basketball.

But enter this holy of holies and one can be overcome by the force of history surrounding the team that for home games wears simple white uniforms with Kansas stitched across the front and blue numbers trimmed in red.

James Naismith, Forrest "Phog" Allen, Ted Owens, Larry Brown and Roy Williams coached here and Bill Self, the current Jayhawk coach, is a basketball hall of famer with an NCAA championship.

If Wilt Chamberlain had attended, say, Kansas State instead of Kansas University, Jayhawk basketball would be no less important to the history of the sport. Start with five national championships -- three under the current tournament format, two from the 1920s certified by the Helms Foundation. Where the basketball glitterati includes Clyde Lovellette, Jo Jo White, Paul Pierce, Danny Manning, Frank Mason III and Devonte' Graham. And where Darnell Valentine, Raef LaFrentz, Jacque Vaughn, Mario Chalmers, Perry Ellis and, yes, Scot Pollard played.

Wilt Chamberlain, not only at KU but as one of the NBA's legendary players, is in a class by himself. He was Wilt the Stilt, The Big Dipper, Ursa Major -- a man who averaged 50 points in a professional season, scored 100 points in a game and claimed 20,000 sexual conquests.

Few player numbers in sport were more appropriate than Chamberlain's No. 13, which he wore at Kansas and in winning two NBA titles. Chamberlain became such a poster child for losing big games that one assumed he walked under a ladder before the center jump, which at 7 feet, 1 inch he usually controlled. That image stuck with him throughout his pro career, when teams built around Wilton Norman Chamberlain kept losing to Boston Celtics squads willed to victory by William Felton Russell.

Theirs now might be a trash-talk rivalry but certainly was not then. Russell went out of his way to be nice to Chamberlain, hoping to throw Wilt off his game, fearful that no force on earth could slow a Chamberlain unplugged. Russell's teams won the NBA title in Chamberlain's first seven professional seasons (Russell's first of 11 titles in 13 years came while Chamberlain was playing for the Harlem Globetrotters) and in their last two years together in the league.

For Wilt, it was a pre-existing condition. Chamberlain carried psychological baggage from Kansas' triple-overtime loss to North Carolina in the 1957 NCAA final, ending Wilt's first varsity season (ineligible to play as a freshman, he scored 52 points in his first game as a sophomore, a record that still stands. Allen recruited him to Kansas, where Wilt averaged 29.9 points and 18.9 rebounds per game in two seasons for teams coached by Dick Harp, Allen's successor.)

Disappointed over that loss and frustrated by the racism he encountered while in college, Chamberlain stayed away from Lawrence for more than 20 years. Letting bygones be bygones, Wilt received a hero's welcome Jan. 17, 1998, when he was officially recognized by KU and had his No. 13 jersey raised into the rafters at Allen Fieldhouse. He would die in October 1999, age 63, and perhaps knew on his KU homecoming that everything was getting late.

Wearing his Kansas letter jacket and fighting back tears, Chamberlain "cleared his throat often and spoke with an occasional tremble in his voice," according to an online report.

"It was a devastating thing for me, because I felt as though I let the University of Kansas down and my teammates down," Chamberlain said of the '57 loss to North Carolina. "But when I come back here today and realize that it was just the loss of a game, and how many people have shown me so much love and warmth, I've learned over the years that you must learn to take the bitter with the sweet. And how sweet this is right here."

Then came the clincher: "I'm a Jayhawk," said Wilt. "I know now why there's so much tradition here and so many wonderful things have come from here, and I'm now very much a part of it and very proud of it. Rock Chalk Jayhawk."

Wilt Chamberlain played here; even in death, he is part of the KU fabric. Told of my Lawrence visit, a Hot Springs woman who knows of my aversion toward Jayhawk basketball said, "Go back on a game night, and you'll become a fan for sure."

Sports on 08/18/2019

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