Remembering the “Phog”
An assistant to Kansas coach Forrest “Phog” Allen recalls the man behind statue
Dick Carson, a chartkeeper for the 1946 Kansas men’s basketball team recalls his time with the Jayhawks. Carson hasn’t been to the University since he was here in 1946.
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Speechless. That’s all Dick Carson could be as he stood next to coach Forrest “Phog” Allen’s statue in front of Allen Fieldhouse. It had been 62 years since he had been back to the University of Kansas and seen the coach.
“Does it look like him, Dad?” Jim Lloyd, Carson’s stepson-in-law, asked. Carson could only shake his head in amazement.
Carson was Phog Allen’s chartkeeper during the 1946 season. Carson attended Washburn University for two years before he came to the University as a student. Carson played on the basketball team that had beaten Kansas. When he came to Kansas, he spoke with Allen and told him he was on the team that beat Kansas. Allen was intrigued and asked him what position he played. Carson lowered his head and muttered, “Benchwarmer.”
The legendary coach still wanted to give Carson something to do on the team so he could feel like a part of it, and he said, “I got a place for you.”
His job as the chartkeeper was to write down each player’s number during a game if he shot the ball, then if the shot was good he would circle the number. Not only did he keep score at all home games, but he also went to every team practice. Even though he wasn’t allowed to travel to away games with the team, he served as an assistant to Allen by giving him the chart so Allen could see what the team needed to improve on in practice or at halftime.
Now 82 years old, Carson hadn’t had a chance to see Allen Fieldhouse, because the team played in Hoch Auditorium during his semester here. Still, Carson had the opportunity to get to know coach Allen, and his son, Bobby. His bashfulness when asked about memories of Allen showed that Carson really looked up to the coach and had very fond memories of him.
The game has changed since Carson played. While watching Kansas’ thriller against Davidson on Sunday, he said he wasn’t used to seeing so many players get knocked down. In Carson’s day, the scores were lower, and the shorts were shorter.
In his blue Allen Fieldhouse shirt that said, “Beware of the Phog” on the back, Carson walked around the Booth Family Hall of Athletics. He reminisced with his wife about the years gone by. As he walked to the back wall that displayed the greatest Kansas teams and athletes, he searched for familiar faces and stopped at Ralph Miller, a Kansas basketball and football player that had grown up two houses down from Carson. As children, they would play sandlot basketball in their neighborhood with each other.
Carson pointed at Miller’s square picture and said, “Ralph Miller was Kansas’ best athlete.”
As Carson searched for other faces to jog his memory, he came across Wilt Chamberlain. He knew in an instant who the long, limber body in the picture belonged to. Although Carson left before Chamberlain came to Kansas, they met and reminisced about Kansas basketball while Chamberlain was traveling with the Harlem Globetrotters. Carson came up to Wilt and said he knew Allen, and from there the pair shared stories about Kansas basketball. They continued to see each other at different events and chat about Kansas, but Carson still said they were merely acquaintances, even after years of bumping into each other.
When he turned around to see a photograph of Allen Fieldhouse from a television perspective, he said that “this is what I see on the television.” He searched for Allen’s name on the court and once he came to it, a sparkle emerged from his eye as he recognized the familiar name. Before he could get too lost in the moment, he started to joke about the cheerleaders and how the University of Southern California preferred their cheerleaders to look like during his time there.
Before he left the building, Carson had one last treat. He would be stepping onto the James Naismith court where the Jayhawks now play. As he slid through one of the open doors entering the court, he clapped his hands in disbelief. The only light was a tiny gleam of sunlight from the small windows above the rafters. The small lighting gave the court a mystical feeling different than when the fans were packed in like sardines and a sea of blue cascaded from every section.
Carson walked to the middle of the court by himself as his family stood back and watched his reaction. Just like when he stared up at Allen’s statue in front of the fieldhouse in awe, the words for his feelings couldn’t escape his lips. His eyes started to get misty as his gaze wandered around the roof. It seemed as if he was searching for any remnants of the coach that he had only known for a short time, but who had impacted him so much. The only thing he could muster was, “I could cry.”
Although he was only here for one semester before attending USC for the remaining years of college, he is still a Jayhawk basketball fan. He might be a USC football fan, but his heart will always belong to the Jayhawks. “Lawrence, Kansas made a good impression on basketball for a dinky town,” Carson said.
—Edited by Russell Davies
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