Memorable moments in fieldhouse history

By Staff     Nov 21, 2007

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Allen Fieldhouse in 2005, the Journal-World sports staff compiled a list of 50 of the most memorable sporting moments in Allen Fieldhouse’s storied history, in no particular order. Here’s an updated version of the list with KU one win shy of 600 victories in the building.

1. Wilt Chamberlain scores 52 points in his college debut, an 87-69 victory over Northwestwern on Dec. 3, 1956. Chamberlain converts 20 of 29 floor shots and 12 of 20 free throws. He also had 31 rebounds.

2. Bud Stallworth drops in 50 points, many from long-range, in a 93-80 victory over Missouri on Feb. 26, 1972. Stallworth’s explosion is witnessed by KU’s 1952 title team in town for a 20th reunion.

3. KU registers an astonishing 150-95 romp over Kentucky on Dec. 9, 1989. Terry Brown finishes with 31 points while nailing seven of 10 three-point shots. KU led, 80-61, at the half.

4. Wilt Chamberlain returns Jan. 17, 1998, as part of KU’s 100th anniversary of basketball. Wearing his old letter jacket, Chamberlain charms the fans with an emotional speech and stays two hours after the game to sign autographs.

5. Allen Fieldhouse opens with a 77-66 victory over Kansas State on March 1, 1955, as Gene Elstun scores 21 points.

6. Fans are astounded during a game with Kansas State on Feb. 20, 1965, when a pair of 6×12 banners saying “Go Cats, Kill Snob Hill Again” unfurl on the east and west sides of the scoreboard with eight minutes left in the first half of KU’s 88-66 victory. A wire stretching to the south end zone enabled visiting KSU fans to trip the banners.

7. Kansas wins the last meeting between Phog Allen and Oklahoma State’s Hank Iba, 56-55, on Jan. 31, 1956, giving Allen a 17-16 edge in head-to-head matchups between the legendary coaches.

8. Oscar Robertson scores a fieldhouse-record 56 points, lifting Cincinnati to a 97-62 NCAA Tournament victory over Arkansas on March 15, 1958.

9. Oklahoma players clip the nets Feb. 22, 1984, after spilling the Jayhawks, 92-82, in overtime and clinching the Big Eight championship. Afterward, peeved KU coach Larry Brown remarks, “What goes around comes around.”

10. Texas’ Kevin Durant stuns a fieldhouse crowd by scoring 25 points the first half, however, the Jayhawks, who trailed by 16 points, rallied for a 90-86 victory on March 3, 2007. Durant scored just seven points the final half as KU wrapped up the Big 12 championship.

11. KU’s Lynette Woodard explodes for 44 points, most ever by a woman in the fieldhouse, in a 101-64 victory over Iowa State on Feb. 10, 1979. Eight days later she scores 49 points in a 105-54 victory at Southwest Missouri State.

12. Houston, led by Elvin Hayes’ 19 points, stuns the No. 3-ranked Jayhawks, 66-53, in an NCAA Tournament game in March, 1967.

13. KU thumps Oklahoma State, 75-57, in the final home game for seniors Danny Manning, Chris Piper and Archie Marshall. OSU coach Leonard Hamilton agrees to allow Marshall, on crutches because of a knee injury, to limp onto the floor and take an uncontested shot with 1:33 remaining. Marshall missed.

14. Anthony Peeler scores 43 points, but KU tops Missouri, 98-89, March 8, 1992, and the Jayhawks cut down the nets after assuring a tie for the Big Eight Conference title.

15. Danny Manning scores 40 points in a 70-60 victory over Notre Dame on Feb. 8, 1987.

16. Wilt Chamberlain collects 46 points in a 102-46 massacre of Nebraska on Feb. 8, 1958. At the time, the 56-point margin was the largest in fieldhouse history.

17. Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich combine for 43 points March 1, 2003, in their last fieldhouse game – an 89-61 victory over Oklahoma State. It also was Roy Williams’ final game in Allen. A month later, he left for North Carolina.

18. Adolph Rupp, a member of KU’s 1923 national-championship team, brings Kentucky to Lawrence for the first time Dec. 14, 1959. Wayne Hightower scores 33 points, but Rupp’s team wins, 77-72.

19. Raef LaFrentz, Billy Thomas and C.B. McGrath finish their careers undefeated (58-0) at home with an 83-70 victory over Oklahoma on Feb. 23, 1998. Junior Paul Pierce, who as it turned out was playing his last home game, erupts for 31 points off 14-of-17 shooting, as the Sooners were helpless against the fired-up junior, who was playing his last home game as well.

20. Missouri pops Kansas, 76-49, Jan. 24, 2004, in Marian Washington’s last game as KU women’s coach. Three days later, Washington takes a medical leave of absence and a month after that announces her retirement after 31 years and 560 victories.

21. KU spills Missouri, 80-70, to wrap up the 100-year anniversary weekend celebration Feb. 8, 1998. At halftime, hundreds of KU players and coaches walk onto the court for introductions.

22. A crowd of around 14,000 shows up Nov. 19, 1955, to watch KU’s freshmen sting the varsity, 81-71, behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 42 points.

23. A school-record nine Jayhawks score in double figures in a 127-82 victory over Iowa State on Jan. 7, 1989. That’s also the most points KU has scored in a conference game.

24. Larry Bird tallies 22 points and grabs 13 boards in Indiana State’s 86-69 victory over Virginia Tech in the NCAA Midwest Regional final March 11, 1979.

25. Bill Bridges retrieves 30 missed shots in an 86-69 season-opening victory over Northwestern on Dec. 3, 1960.

26. Terry Brown drills a school-record 11 three-pointers and scores 42 in a 105-94 victory over North Carolina State on Jan. 5, 1991.

27. Danny Manning tallies 27 points in a 100-66 blasting of Missouri on Feb. 11, 1986. It’s KU’s biggest victory over the Tigers in the fieldhouse.

28. Oklahoma State’s Randy Rutherford scores 45 points, but KU holds 7-footer Bryant Reeves scoreless in a 78-62 victory that gives the Jayhawks the league title March 5, 1995.

29. Approximately 6,000 show up for the first Late Night extravaganza Oct. 14, 1985.

30. Terry Brown scores 26 points, pacing KU to a 73-60 victory over Miami on Jan. 16, 1991, in a game that nearly was canceled because of the start of Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf. Brown dedicates the game to a brother serving in the Gulf.

31. Several KU students unveil a banner made of shower curtains that reads, “Pay heed all who enter: Beware of the Phog,” prior to a Feb. 22, 1988, game against Duke.

32. A renovation project during the summer of 1974 covers the fieldhouse’s original dirt surface completely. A synthetic basketball floor is installed to replace the original portable raised floor. Five years later, another portable wood floor replaces the synthetic one.

33. Mitch Richmond scores 35 points as Kansas State halts KU’s 55-game home winning streak, 72-61, Jan. 30, 1988.

34. KU trails UCLA by 15 points at halftime, but rallies to win by 15 (85-70) Dec. 1, 1995. No KU team has overcome a larger halftime deficit.

35. Nick Collison scores 24 points and collects 23 rebounds before fouling out in a 90-87 victory over Texas Jan. 27, 2003, prompting TV analyst Dick Vitale to give Collison a standing ovation from press row. At halftime, Roy Williams gives retired Missouri coach Norm Stewart a rocking chair.

36. Alonzo Jamison shatters the backboard with a dunk during the 1988 Late Night.

37. Danny Manning’s jersey No. 25 is retired Dec. 1, 1992. The Jayhawks beat Georgia, 76-65, with Manning sitting in the student section.

38. In a Feb. 26, 1966, showdown between No. 6-ranked KU and No. 8 Nebraska, the Jayhawks romp, 110-73, and cut down the nets after clinching the Big Eight title.

39. Jo Jo White scores 30 points in his last KU game, an 80-70 victory over Colorado on Feb. 1, 1969. White received the game ball after coach Ted Owens’ 100th career victory.

40. Jacque Vaughn’s three-pointer at :0.2 in overtime gives KU an 86-83 victory over Indiana on Dec. 22, 1993. Vaughn finishes with 13 points.

41. KU downs Oklahoma State, 64-48, Feb. 3, 1969, for the 1,000th victory in school history. Coach Ted Owens had torn the seat of his trousers in the second half and had to wear a towel around his waist in a postgame ceremony.

42. Kansas, which enters the Jan. 7, 2006 game unranked, clobbers No.19 Kentucky, 73-46, in a game played without standout forward Wayne SImien. One of the memorable shots of all-time is famous UK fan Ashley Judd suffering a few rows behind the UK bench during the rout of her beloved Wildcats.

43. Kansas State’s Mike Wroblewski scores 46 points, the most ever by a KU opponent in the fieldhouse, in a 91-72 K-State victory Feb. 7, 1962.

44. Coach Roy Williams tries to start six seniors plus Raef LaFrentz before waving walk-ons Joel Branstrom and Steve Ransom off the Allen Fieldhouse court prior to tipoff of a 78-58 victory over Kansas State on Feb. 22, 1997.

45. Four-time Olympic champion Al Oerter is among the KU competitors Feb. 3, 1956, in the first indoor track meet in school history. Kansas wins the dual with Oklahoma, 56-48, in front of 2,000 fans.

46. Marian Washington posts her 500th career victory, a 58-54 decision over Oklahoma on Feb. 20, 1999.

47. A sellout crowd watches Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls knock off the Seattle SuperSonics in an NBA exhibition game Oct. 11, 1997.

48. Keith Langford scores the winning bucket in overtime as KU erases a 16-point deficit to defeat Georgia Tech, 70-68, on Jan. 1, 2005, and avenge an Elite Eight loss to the Yellow Jackets the previous March.

49. Coach Dick Harp goes on the PA system Feb. 23, 1958, to beseech KU fans to stop booing Missouri’s Mike Kirksey on the free-throw line. Harp is ignored, and the KU coach asks the official to call a technical foul on the fans. Kirksey makes three free throws, but KU wins, 85-81.

50. KU battles back from a 50-34 deficit with 10:22 remaining to nudge Oklahoma, 59-58, on Feb. 4, 2006.

OTHER NOTABLE MOMENTS IN ALLEN

¢ Iowa snaps KU’s school-record 62-game home win streak Dec. 8, 1998, with an 85-81 victory.

¢ A Fill the Fieldhouse promotion on Jan. 9, 1994, lures a record women’s crowd of 13,352 that watches the Jayhawks edge Colorado, 59-57.

¢ The Harlem Globetrotters, featuring Lynette Woodard, appear Feb. 10, 1987, and, as usual, defeat the Washington Generals.

¢ Days after winning the 1988 NCAA title, coach Larry Brown holds an afternoon press conference in the fieldhouse to announce he has turned down a job offer from UCLA. Less than a month later, he bolts for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.

¢ KU hammers Jason Kidd and Cal-Berkeley, 73-56, on Nov. 19, 1993.

¢ Kansas leads coach Jerry Tarkanian’s Long Beach State team, 32-8, at halftime then hangs on for 69-52 victory Dec. 1, 1970.

¢ Kansas State’s Bob Boozer scores 32 points in 79-75 double-overtime victory over KU on Feb. 3, 1958.

¢ Eventual national champion Cincinnati trips Kansas State, 69-64, on March 18, 1961 in the NCAA Midwest Regional.

¢ An alumni game fills the fieldhouse Feb. 7, 1998, featuring such former players as Kevin Pritchard, Walt Wesley, Bud Stallworth, Ron Loneski and John Douglas.

¢ KU pounds Washburn, 99-56, on Nov. 25, 2000, for KU’s 500th victory in the fieldhouse.

¢ KU downs Colorado, 78-63, on March 9, 1957, to capture the school’s last Big Seven title and first title since moving to Allen.

¢ Norm Stewart scores 20 points as Missouri hands KU its first loss in the fieldhouse – 85-78 – on Feb. 6, 1956.

¢ Steve Woodberry hits a three-pointer with 15 seconds left to give KU a 62-61 victory over Oklahoma State for Roy Williams’ 150th victory.

¢ Lynnette Woodard scores 24 points in an 80-59 victory over Stephen F. Austin and becomes the all-time leading scorer in AIAW history.

¢ Roy Williams decides to leave KU, telling reporters in a brief fieldhouse press conference on a staircase in April of 2003.

¢ Four days after undergoing surgery to repair anterior compartment syndrome surgery in his right leg, Mark Randall scores 11 points in an 108-71 rout of Marquette 71. KU registers a school-record 22 steals.

¢ Wilt Chamberlain grabs 36 rebounds in a 90-61 rout of Iowa State on Feb. 15, 1958.

¢ KU clobbers Brown, 115-45, Jan. 3, 1989, for the most lopsided win in school history. Milt Newton leads the Jayhawks with 23 points.

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