A Nostalgic Touch of Humor
| Publication year | 2008 |
| Pages | 08 |
| Citation | Vol. 77 No. 6 Pg. 08 |
Mario Chalmers v. "Rope" Engleman: No Contest
By Matthew Keenan, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, Kansas City, Mo.
Howard Engleman addressed the crowd at Allen Fieldhouse during ceremonies retiring his jersey on March 1, 2003.
Mario's Miracle" is now forever a part of KU basketball lore. But Mario Chalmer's trey was hardly the first time KU needed divine intervention in the Final Four. In 1940, KU was in its first NCAA Final Four, and in the semifinal game, KU played Southern Cal, which came into the game as a prohibitive favorite. KU won on a buzzer beater; the person who took and made that shot was named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team. He was also a consensus All-American. His senior year, in addition to everything else he was doing, he was student body president. He is also a Kansas lawyer. You see, before Mario, there was Danny Manning, and before him there was Wilt, and then Clyde Lovellette. But before all of these giants, there was a player who poured the concrete foundation to KU's basketball legacy. His name is Howard Engleman. And if his name is not familiar to you, all that is about to change.
If Howard Engleman ever wrote his memoirs, book publishers would declare it fiction. If Hollywood made it a movie, Blockbuster Video would have to sell it in four sections of their store: "Adventure/Sports/Drama/Military." The story begins with Engleman playing point guard at Ark City, leading his team to the state finals. Phog Allen wanted him, and Engleman obliged. At KU —— where his nickname was "Rope," after his blond, curly locks —— he drained the shot to beat USC 43-42. It was considered —— at the time —— one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history.
The Kansas City Star, on March 24, 1940, blared this headline: "Howard Engleman's Shot from the Corner Decides Contest for the Jayhawks." The news story described that Bobby Allen, son of Phog, "stole the ball and passed to Engleman alone in the corner. Unhurried and calm, the blond forward took his stance and flipped the ball through the hoop with ridiculous ease."
Engleman was the bright star on a team with some true zeniths. One teammate, Ralph Miller, for instance, went on to coach at Wichita State, Iowa, and Oregon, winning 657 games. Another, Dick Harp, coached KU for seven years.
After graduation, Engleman enlisted in the Navy and during World War II a Japanese...
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