Gophers Basketball – Page 111 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

100th Birthday Humbles John Kundla

Posted on June 28, 2016June 28, 2016 by David Shama

Former Gophers basketball players and family paid tribute to John Kundla yesterday at his assisted living residence in northeast Minneapolis. The former Gophers and Minneapolis Lakers coach turns 100 on July 3.

Kundla played for the Gophers in the late 1930s and coached at his alma mater from 1959-1968. Ex-Gophers Paul Presthus, Bill Davis, Don Linehan, Al Nuness and Larry Overskei presented the coach with a No. 100 Minnesota jersey. “We celebrated the 100th birthday of our coach, friend and a true gentleman,” Presthus said.

Kundla has lived a remarkable life. He coached the Lakers to five professional basketball championships from 1949-1954. Only Phil Jackson and Red Auerbach have won more titles. Kundla’s players included center George Mikan, who is often recognized as the greatest basketball player during the first half of the 20th century.

While coaching the Gophers, Kundla led teams to second and third place finishes in the Big Ten but never a championship. He helped pioneer opportunities for black players at Minnesota and in the Big Ten. Kundla’s 1964-65 team had three African-American starters—something that was unusual in the 1960s. Those starters were Lou Hudson and Archie Clark, who both became outstanding NBA players, and Don Yates who was another athletic contributor for Kundla.

Kundla’s son Tom said yesterday his dad spoke out against segregation in the 1950s when he was with the Lakers. “I couldn’t have had a better role model,” Tom said.

Overskei, Davis, Presthus, Nuness, Linehan, Wilson surround the coach.

Coaches are known for a “my way or the highway” mentality, but that wasn’t Kundla’s personality. He coached with a caring manner and his demeanor is recalled with fondness by former players.

A native of Minneapolis, Kundla attended the old Central High School on the city’s south side. He was a starting forward for the Gophers in the late 1930s. After college he coached at DeLaSalle High School and St. Thomas before becoming the Lakers coach in 1948 for an annual salary of $6,000.

A June 2nd online issue of the New York Times included a lengthy story about Kundla, referring to him as the oldest living hall of famer in any of the four major American sports. Louie Lazar’s article said the former coach is still active despite being in a wheelchair and having hearing aids.

Kundla lives now at the Main Street Lodge, and he has almost come home again. He is only six blocks from the apartment building he lived in when he first coached the Lakers.

Able to dress and cook breakfast for himself, Kundla plays bingo and cribbage. He credits being a gym teacher with forming good health habits. “I still to this day ride the (exercise) bike to stay in shape,” he said yesterday.

Karen Rodberg, Kundla’s daughter, joked (I think) that if yesterday afternoon had been a bingo day her dad wouldn’t have been available for the party. Yes, Kundla’s competitive nature is still on display when enjoying bingo or cribbage.

Jim Kundla, another son, lives near his dad’s residence and the two play cribbage every day. The older Kundla said the game is good for his mind. “We enjoy playing and it also kills time,” he said. “Jim is a great cribbage player and I learned a lot from him.”

The soon to be centenarian wouldn’t boast about his cribbage and bingo skills. Not bragging and giving credit to others is a trait that goes back to coaching days with the Lakers and the Gophers. It was the players that deserved credit, not the coach.

“He doesn’t pat himself on the back,” Presthus said. “He taught us a lot of life lessons.”

Presthus played for the Gophers in the mid-1960s and as the years have passed he has come to appreciate his former coach more than ever. “He did things the right way,” Presthus said.

That included encouraging players to give best efforts and attend classes. But there was something else that was part of Kundla’s “DNA” and it makes an impression on Presthus to this day. “Family was always No. 1,” Presthus said. “Faith, family and friends. Those are the three things (with Kundla).”

Kundla’s wife Marie died several years ago but his children share major roles in his life. They now have the opportunity to give back to the father they admire so much. “I couldn’t have had better parents,” Tom said.

The group at the party included not only family and ex-Gophers players but former U trainer Jim Marshall and ex-basketball student manager John Bell Wilson. Yesterday there was reminiscing, photo taking and cupcakes with the number “100” on each of them. There were also a lot of smiles and congratulations in the room.

“It was pretty nice of them to come,” the old coach said. “I sure appreciate the honor. I never thought it would be a hundred years. What a break!”

Worth Noting

Gophers coach Richard Pitino will headline Thursday night’s “Post Time” fundraiser at Canterbury Park. The event is open to the public and is organized by the Golden Dunkers organization that has supported Gophers basketball for more than 40 years. Fans can learn more about an evening of basketball conversation, horse racing, and food and beverage hospitality at Goldendunkers.com.

Jimmy Williams was one of the most effective recruiters in the history of Gophers basketball. After he left Minnesota in 1986 his coaching stops included Nebraska, and while with the Cornhuskers he recruited and instructed Tyronn Lue who now is head coach of the 2016 NBA champion Cavs.

It looks like almost $100 million in fundraising has been committed for the University of Minnesota Athletes Village project. That’s about two-thirds of the necessary total for the project that is already under construction. Part of the project is the new football facilities which the Gophers are likely to occupy by 2018.

Former Gophers and Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz is rebuilding his Orlando home that was struck by lightning last year. Holtz, 79, coached the Gophers in 1984 and 1985 and still has friends in Minnesota.

Among those Minnesota friends is Minneapolis businessman Harvey Mackay who wrote about the late Muhammad Ali in his syndicated newspaper column last week. In a story headlined “Lessons Learned from The Champ,” Mackay referenced the “1,000 megawatt smile” of Ali. “He knew smiling was the universal language,” Mackay wrote.

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Ex-U Student Managers Change Lives

Posted on June 19, 2016June 21, 2016 by David Shama

As Drew Boe flew to Africa yesterday, he may have thought about former Gophers basketball coach Tubby Smith. No one realized when Smith was let go by the University of Minnesota in March of 2013 that his firing would help establish a nonprofit organization now making annual mission trips to Africa.

Boe is executive director of the St. Louis Park-based Managers On A Mission organization. The nonprofit has three groups working right now in Kenya, Liberia and Uganda. Boe is assisted by college sports student managers on the three week assignments that mentor African orphanage children through athletics.

MOAM's Joseph Kuykendall in Ghana. — MOAM’s Joseph Kuykendall in Ghana.

Boe knew Smith after working as a student manager for him during the 2010-2011 season. After Smith was fired by the Gophers, Boe connected with the coach and received a large donation of his apparel and footwear. College and professional coaches have sponsorship deals with companies like Nike that provide them clothing, shoes and caps.

The donation by Smith provided start-up inventory for Managers On A Mission. All the items from Smith led to the Clean Out For A Cause Program, and then to the sale of apparel and footwear to the public on the Authentic Athletic Apparel eBay Store. Smith’s donation set in motion contributions of apparel and footwear that have been ongoing including the largest gift ever received by MOAM—a one-ton donation delivered on seven pallets.

At the Authentic Athletic Website consumers can shop for items from many schools including Duke, Louisville, Minnesota and Notre Dame. Over 15,000 items for sale are listed with hundreds of pounds of new donations arriving every week.

Since the website’s inception in September of 2013, over 12,000 sales have been made to customers. “We’ve been blessed by really being able to utilize an incredible market that exists for affordable sports clothing,” Boe told Sports Headliners.

Sales to the public provide much of the $200,000 budget for MOAM. Boe is paid fulltime but MOAM mostly goes about its work with part-time help and volunteers. The volunteerism is part of the organization’s mission, to reach out to college student managers and encourage them to develop as leaders who help others.

Student managers are young adults who work tirelessly to do a lot of organizational and grunt work for teams including the glamour college sports of football and basketball. Ask appreciative coaches and athletes how much better run their practices, conditioning and game days are because of student managers who seldom receive public recognition and praise.

For the last couple of years groups of student managers have gone to African countries for three weeks at a time. Their flights, lodging and meals are paid for, but they receive no compensation for time and work while in Africa. And before going the student managers must pay their own costs to attend a two-day training session in Florida at the Rafiki Foundation offices. MOAM coordinates its mission with Rafiki orphanages.

Boe and the others work with kids in Africa teaching them the fundamentals of basketball, soccer and volleyball. They also bring and donate sports gear and clothing.

What they also do is touch hearts and improve the lives of kids who have known the roughest of times in their young lives. “One of the students last year had very significant scars all across the top of his head that just looked so bizarre,” Boe said. “His parents (before the youngster came to the orphanage) were not only not taking care of him, but really the intention was for him to die through the cuts that they had placed on him.”

The young man’s name is Williams. Boe remembered Williams’ cheerful personality last week in an email to Sports Headliners. “Williams had a new joke or riddle to share every single day,” Boe wrote. “Always trying to make people laugh!”

Some of the children at the orphanages are very young. Boe recalled a four-year-old girl who had come to an orphanage with her younger brother. The parents died from AIDS and the children had lived without adult care prior to the orphanage.

“Essentially the four-year-old had been the caretaker for the two-year-old for who knows how long,” Boe said.

Getting to know the children and bonding with them makes up for the inconveniences of being in a different culture. After multiple trips to Africa, Boe knows what his American colleagues will usually find as the major adjustment.

“The food can be a challenge,” he said. “That’s definitely the biggest challenge for the time over there…is the adjustment to the food. We’re certainly well fed and there’s no risk of anything being contaminated, or anything like that. It just requires…a different preference in terms of food choices. There’s a lot of rice and beans.”

There can, however, be a contrarian. “It seems like there is always one person that for some reason ends up loving it (the food),” Boe said. “They can’t get enough rice and beans, or can’t get enough eggplant.”

MOAM was founded in 2013 by Boe and two other Gopher student managers, Chris Herkenhoff from football and Ryan Wieland of men’s basketball. The organization is assisted by an advisory council of former Gopher basketball players Roger Arnold, Pat Fitzsimmons and Al Nuness, and ex-student manager John Bell Wilson.

Fitzsimmons e-mailed Sports Headliners urging readers of this column to visit www.authenticathleticapparel.com and make a purchase to help all the activities of MOAM which include college scholarship assistance for student managers and others involved with athletics. “As you check out MOAM’s awesome selections, keep in mind 85 percent of all purchases go to youth scholarships, mission trips and support of the Rafiki orphanages with food, sports equipment and clothing,” he wrote.

Boe, who is currently in Kenya, never set a career goal of helping to start and guide an endeavor like MOAM. He thought his career track might be in a college athletics department working in administration but a mission trip to Rwanda during graduate school began to change his life. He was touched by the joy and peacefulness of the Christians who lived there, and he said the experience further helped define his relationship with Jesus Christ.

Boe grew up in the small southeast Minnesota town of Taopi, population 53. He played football and golf in high school. He attended a Catholic church and while religion was part of his life, including during college years, he looks back and feels like he was just “checking the boxes.”

What the trip to Rwanda prompted was a beginning awareness of how he wanted to help others, while following the Lord. Boe describes what happened to him in Rwanda as a “seed” being planted that ultimately led to MOAM. He and the other two founders of MOAM came to realize there is a void in Africa for sports camps and the need for young men like his student managers to fill it.

They have an opportunity to show African children that it’s not just older adult couples, or females in their 20s and 30s who come to Africa as missionaries—that mentors can be young males in their 20s like those who serve through MOAM. Younger male role models are important, because according to multiple accounts, more than 20 million children live in Africa without fathers present in the home.

“This is something that has been put very heavy on my heart (serving as MOAM’s leader),” Boe said. “I don’t see myself ever leaving Managers On A Mission, or being away from it. …We’ve just been trying to keep up with what the Lord has been doing. It’s pretty cool.”

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Fans Voice Gopher Basketball Concerns

Posted on May 16, 2016May 16, 2016 by David Shama

There has been so much controversy involving the Gophers’ basketball program during the last 18 months or so that even developments last week aren’t all that surprising. The last several days have been a trying time for coach Richard Pitino’s image—with media headlines last week involving the arrest of Gophers center Reggie Lynch, an Athletic Department audit revealing Pitino spent $175,000 beyond his allocated amount for private jet travel, and public remarks by University president Eric Kaler regarding how “profoundly disappointed” he is in the program.

Pitino, 33, was hired in the spring of 2013 by Norwood Teague, the now departed and infamous Gophers athletic director. Pitino was likely far down the list of preferred candidates because of his youth and inexperience as a head coach. He came to Minnesota after only one season as head coach for Florida International.

In Pitino’s first season of 2013-2014 the Gophers had a respectable 8-10 regular season Big Ten record. Minnesota didn’t qualify for the NCAA Tournament but did impress by winning five times in the National Invitational Tournament including the championship game in New York. That Gophers team appeared well coached and motivated, and with four returning starters teased fans’ expectations for the 2014-2015 season.

The Gophers flopped, finishing 6-12 in the Big Ten while losing many close games that reflected on players and coaches. More troubling, sophomore guard Daquein McNeil was kicked off the team after allegations of assaulting his girl friend.

McNeil is one of many players who have left Pitino’s program for various reasons. Character issues and questions have been raised about multiple Gophers, including departed players and those still on the roster. Lynch was arrested for suspicion of sexual assault last week and later released from jail, but an investigation is ongoing. This winter three players, including Kevin Dorsey who has now left the program, were suspended for an alleged off-court incident for which no charges were filed.

Observers are left to wonder what kind of individuals Pitino and his staff are recruiting? What kind of judgments are players and coaches making?

Pitino’s team last season had a 2-16 Big Ten record, the worst in school history. Certainly Gophers fans are entitled to expect better results from someone who is paid $1.6 million annually. He is also a coach who leveraged a $400,000 raise after the disappointing 2014-2015 season. That raise happened under Teague’s watch who also put in place a $7.1 million buyout in Pitino’s contract last summer. The buyout amount decreases over time and is currently at $5.7 million.

The University is accountable for such foolish contract maneuverings. But public expectations of school leaders have been minimal in the face of actions that include the hiring of Teague, careless spending in the basketball program including an overseas trip publicized in Sports Illustrated, and double-booking TCF Bank Stadium for a football camp and Drum Corps International event on the same day. Expectations, though, were raised by last week’s hiring of Mark Coyle as the new Gophers athletic director. Coyle has extensive and accomplished work in college athletics including with the Gophers years ago.

Last week I emailed about 20 passionate Gophers basketball fans to gauge their concerns. I asked the following two questions:

What is your assessment of the men’s basketball program?

What, if anything, should the Athletic Department and the President’s office do right now about the program?

The first response came from someone who decades ago provided corporate support to the program. Still a follower of the program, his frustration was obvious in his brief response: “A ‘basketball program’ does not exist. President and AD should renegotiate Pitino buyout, (and) then do it.”

Another email responder also described his emotions. “I’m embarrassed by the basketball program and ashamed to discuss it with friends from other states. I never thought this could happen to the University of Minnesota. Even when the football team had several terrible seasons we weren’t embarrassed by the behavior of the team members.

“The basketball team has the lowest GPA of any Gopher sport and way too many scandals. …Obviously, Kaler should never have approved a $7 million buyout that was negotiated by a failure of an athletic director. This is a disgrace and I’m ashamed of my beloved University.”

Brad Ernst has been a season ticket holder since 1978 and he, too, wants Pitino gone now. “(The) team seems clueless about how to play and act. Staff seems clueless about what to teach and whom to recruit. …I would like someone from the Athletic Department to call me, and try and convince me why I should entertain renewing my season tickets.”

Ernst’s friend John Wagenaar read the comments above and responded this way: “I don’t for one minute think Pitino can clean up his huge mess, and (he) will only contribute to it as time goes on. Cut your losses and blame it all on that…(former) AD you hired. I think the players have very little respect, affection or loyalty for their coach.”

Gophers fan Tom Klas recognizes the realities of the current program but took a supportive position on the coach. “Richard Pitino appears to be a good person, and he may know the mechanics of basketball very well, but he hasn’t established himself as being someone who can find those individuals who are capable of being standout basketball players who can behave well and face the rigor of university level academics.

“He is in that…position of having to find individuals who are mature and who can play basketball at the top level of Division I competition, while simultaneously making the basketball program competitive again. Should he be allowed to continue to coach? Absolutely.”

Former Gophers basketball player Larry Overskei, who believes the program is in a state of “shambles,” was a season ticket holder for almost 40 years. He gave up his tickets awhile back because of frustrations with the loyalty (donor) program and seat locations. “We have better coaches at the high school level in Minnesota than Richard Pitino. …In all fairness…he is in over his head. Our Athletic Department performed a huge disservice to our loyal fans and the fans of the state of Minnesota. We are told to be patient. Patience when we cannot even beat South Dakota and the likes.”

Another former Gopher player asked that his name not be used but he too wrote a critical response. He believes Pitino’s communications need improvement. “His pure coaching skills may be adequate but the way he interacts with people leaves much to be desired. First, he doesn’t seem to have empathy for his players. If you watch a Michigan State game you see a mutual admiration, and respect between players and coach (Tom Izzo). We do not have that.

“Next, all successful big time coaches have an excellent rapport with their alumni and booster clubs. Richard couldn’t find 15 minutes to greet our past players at last year’s alumni lunch, and hasn’t been to any similar events I have attended. The Golden Dunkers (booster) group, which is made up of businessmen and past players, has supported and interacted with every coach I know of since for sure 1970. Richard has not been to one meeting, nor sent an ambassador from the team as far as I know.”

There were other email responses, too, including one that suggested the failures of the basketball program are symptomatic of the University’s wish to de-emphasize athletics. I am not sure about that, but I do know there is a crisis in public confidence about basketball in Dinkytown. My in-box supports that view.

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