Phog Allen

You are near the University of Kansas, home of Forrest Clare Allen, known to everyone as Phog. As a young man here, he learned the game from the man who invented it, James Naismith, who invented the game and had the lowest winning percentage of any Kansas coach. Allen would more than make up for it.

Over thirty nine seasons leading Kansas, his teams won twenty four conference titles and three national championships. People call him the father of basketball coaching. In nineteen twenty seven he helped found the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and he pushed hard to make basketball an Olympic sport, which happened in nineteen thirty six.

He coached future legends too, among them Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp. The arena where Kansas plays today, Allen Fieldhouse, carries his name, opened in nineteen fifty five while he was still on the bench.