About Phog Allen

Forrest Clare “Phog” Allen (November 18, 1885 to September 16, 1974)

Allen was an American basketball and baseball player, a coach of football, basketball, and baseball, an athletics administrator, and osteopathic physician.

Phog Allen portrait, 1950s. Photo courtesy of University Archives, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, KU

Known as the “Father of Basketball Coaching,” he was the head basketball coach at Baker University (1905–1908), the University of Kansas (1907–1909, 1919–1956), Haskell Indian Nations University (1908–1909), and the University of Central Missouri (1912–1919), collecting a career college basketball record of 746–264. In his 39 seasons with the Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball program, his teams won 24 conference championships and three national titles. His 590 wins are the most of any coach in the history of the Kansas basketball program.

Allen attended the University of Kansas, having already received the nickname “Phog” for his foghorn-like voice he earned as a baseball umpire. He lettered in baseball and basketball, the latter under James Naismith- the inventor of the game. Allen served as the head football coach at Warrensburg Teachers College from 1912 to 1917 and at Kansas for one season in 1920. He also coached baseball at Kansas for two seasons, in 1941 and 1942. Allen was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1959. The home basketball arena at the University of Kansas, Allen Fieldhouse, was named in his honor when it opened in 1955. Read more about Allen Fieldhouse…

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