Kansas to retire jersey No. 7 of Dutch Lonborg at halftime of Saturday’s KU-OSU game
The University of Kansas men’s basketball program will retire the No. 7 jersey of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Arthur “Dutch” Lonborg during halftime of Saturday’s KU-Oklahoma State game at Allen Fieldhouse.
Lonborg, who was enshrined in the Naismith Hall as a coach in 1973, died on Jan. 31, 1985, in Horton, Kansas, at the age of 86.
He was a three-sport letter-winner at KU, standing out in football, basketball and baseball. The Gardner, Illinois native was a three-time all-conference performer in football (1917-19), twice named all-conference in basketball and was a Helms Foundation All-America first-team selection in basketball in 1919.
A guard, Lonborg played basketball for Phog Allen while at Kansas. In 1921 Lonborg won an (AAU) title as a player with the Kansas City Athletic Club Blue Diamonds.
After graduating from the KU School of Law, Lonborg coached at McPherson College and Washburn before beginning a 23-year career as coach at Northwestern. While at Northwestern, he was instrumental in organizing the first NCAA basketball tournament in 1939.
He led Washburn to a national AAU title in 1925.
Lonborg went 237-203 at Northwestern. He led the Wildcats to Big Ten Conference championships in 1931 and 1933. His 1930–31 team finished the season with a 16–1 record and was retroactively named the national champion by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. He had an overall 323–217 college coaching record at all three schools.
Lonborg was hired as KU athletic director in 1950 and held that position 14 years. During his years as athletic director, the Jayhawks won 38 conference sports titles and four NCAA championships, including the 1952 basketball title.
During the Lonborg era, Allen Fieldhouse was built and expansion projects at Hoglund Ballpark and David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium were completed.
Lonborg from 1947 to 1960 was chairman of the men’s basketball NCAA Tournament Committee as the tournament grew from an eight-team to a 25-team format. Lonborg also served as president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 1935 and managed the U.S. Olympic basketball team in 1960 that won the gold medal in Rome.
KU Athletics contributed to this report.
