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'I can't believe the big fella is gone' Kansas fondly remembers hero of '57 title game team
Posted: Thursday October 14, 1999 07:09 PM
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Wilt Chamberlain arrived at Kansas in controversy and left in bitterness. He was a black kid from back East and much of this area was still segregated in 1955, including the Kansas City restaurant that refused to seat him after he had driven all night from Philadelphia. Three years later, one season after Kansas had lost to North Carolina in triple overtime in the NCAA title game, Kansas fans were resentful when Chamberlain gave up his senior season and joined the Harlem Globetrotters. But by then, thanks to Chamberlain, many of the segregation barriers in the Kansas City area were beginning to come down. "He was instrumental in helping to integrate public facilities around here in the late '50s," said Bob Billings, a Lawrence, Kan., businessman and former Kansas teammate. For 40 years, Chamberlain shunned the school where his extraordinary career had taken wing, refusing countless invitations to come back and have his jersey retired. But in January 1998, as Kansas celebrated 100 years of basketball, slightly stooped but still enormously imposing, Chamberlain donned his 1957 letter jacket and walked into historic Allen Fieldhouse. For one of the few times in his adventurous, extraordinary life, Wilt Chamberlain was scared. "You just don't know the kind of reception you're going to get," said Bill Mayer, a retired newspaper executive who had covered Chamberlain at Kansas. "I'm not sure," Chamberlain said. "They may boo me." Instead, they stood on their feet and cheered. Many, including Wilt, wiped away tears during what everyone agreed was one of the most emotional days of their lives. "I'm a Jayhawk and I'm proud to be a part of the tradition here. I'm very proud to be here," he told the cheering throng. "When he gave that speech and stood out there on the floor wearing his letter jacket, it was something none of us will ever forget," recalled Mayer. "As he came off the court, he said to me, 'That's the greatest thrill I've ever had.'" Billings recalled the same thing. "He said, 'Bob, I've had a lot of great days in my life, but this is the greatest day of my life.'" When word of his death at age 63 reached Kansas Tuesday, an air of disbelief enveloped the Lawrence campus. "It was a complete shock," said Billings. "His big body and heart just gave out. I can't believe the big fella is gone." Monte Johnson, another former teammate, had heard that Chamberlain's health was starting to fail. "But he was such an amazing physical specimen, it's hard to believe he's no longer with us," said Johnson, a former athletic director at Kansas. "He could do things you wouldn't think any one person could do." Johnson recalled running laps with Chamberlain after basketball practice. "We actually got to the point where we would let him run laps by himself because it was like chasing a deer. He had unbelievable speed, grace and endurance. None of us could stay up with him. You knew you were watching a special human being." Bob Frederick, the current director of athletics at Kansas, termed it a "sad day for Kansas and for basketball fans the world over." "Wilt probably had a greater influence on the game than any other person," he said. Frederick timed how long Chamberlain signed autographs after his ceremony in 1998. "He sat there signing for people for three hours and 18 minutes," Frederick said. "There was not one person in the fieldhouse that day who wanted Wilt's autograph but did not get it." For all those who knew him back in those early days, Tuesday was a time to look back. "Over the last 40 years as I've traveled around the country, I've met about 500 people who told me they were on that freshman team with Wilt," said Johnson.
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