They aren’t as rare as hen’s teeth, spotted zebras or left-handed catchers, but they’re pretty unusual nonetheless.
I’m talking about Kansas University basketball players whose fathers also played for the Jayhawks.
Word that KU was recruiting Chester Giles Jr., son of a late-1970s KU player of the same name, sent me to the record book to try to find similar instances. I came up with only a handful.
The Allens were the first. Phog Allen, who gained fame as a coach, played one season for the Jayhawks nearly a century ago, and both of his sons — Mit and Bobby — also wore KU uniforms a generation later.
Monte and Jeff Johnson are the last father-son combination to play for the Jayhawks. Monte Johnson, who still lives in Lawrence, was a contemporary of Wilt Chamberlain; Jeff was a KU walk-on for a couple of years in the mid ’80s.
Another Chamberlain teammate, Gene Elstun, also had a son without scholarship on a KU roster. Doug Elstun was on the Jayhawks’ 1990-91 squad after originally enrolling at North Carolina.
By the way, as far as I know, young Elstun is the only player or coach ever to leave UNC for KU. Others have been known to jump into that pipeline and go the other way.
Perhaps the best former KU player who had sons talented enough to perform at the NCAA Division One level was Dave Robisch, an All-American in 1971 and one of the most prolific scorers and rebounders in school history. But former KU coach Roy Williams did not recruit Brett and Scott, and the two Robisch sons wound up at Oklahoma State and Butler respectively.
Another former Jayhawk with a talented offspring was Norm Cook. His son Brian played at Illinois.
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You have to go all the way back to the early 1970s to find the last KU basketball player on scholarship whose father also was a Jayhawk. That would be Fred Bosilevac Jr., a reserve guard under Ted Owens from 1970-72. Dad Fred Sr. had lettered for Phog Allen in 1937.
So if C.J Giles opts for the Jayhawks — he’s expected to announce his decision Wednesday — he and his dad would be KU’s first father-son scholarship players of the modern era. What’s more, he would definitely become the first KU basketball player whose father AND mother wore Kansas uniforms.
Giles’ mom is the former Gail Goodwin. A Seattle native, she was a 5-foot-5 guard who played in 13 games for KU coach Marian Washington during the 1978-79 season after transferring from the University of Washington.
Dad Chester also had an undistinguished career at Kansas, but a it was a career that probably deserved an injury asterisk.
A slender 6-9, 185-pounder from inner-city Chicago, Giles put together two very impressive seasons at Independence Community College. During his sophomore year, Giles was named the 1977 NJCAA Tournament’s most outstanding performer after leading the Pirates to the national championship in Hutchinson.
Owens landing Giles was considered a coup as was the recruitment that year of a ballyhooed high school point guard from Wichita named Darnell Valentine. With Giles and Valentine, the Jayhawks figured to have a potent inside-outside punch during the 1977-78 season.
Then, during the first week of preseason drills, Giles went down with torn knee ligaments. He missed the entire season. The next year, clearly still not at full speed, Giles was mostly a mop-up man, averaging just 1.6 points and 1.5 rebounds a game.
Finally, as a fifth-year senior in 1979-80, Giles was fully healed, but did not become the impact player most people thought he would be. Giles played in all 28 games, starting 17, and averaged 4.1 points and 3.7 rebounds.
Giles’ son is listed at 6-10 — an inch taller than his dad — and has the same slender build. After his junior year at Seattle’s Rainier Beach High, C.J. Giles was touted as one of Seattle’s top players and he didn’t disappoint, averaging 18 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks a game while earning Metro MVP honors.
On paper, Giles would fill the void left by the departure of David Padgett, and give the Jayhawks a potentially deep double-post rotation that would also include senior Wayne Simien and freshmen Alexander “Sasha” Kaun and Darnell Jackson.
And at the same time become a Kansas rarity — a legacy.
