Walt Wesley obit

Former Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball great Walt Wesley has died at 79

He was not on the list.

Former Kansas Jayhawks basketball men’s basketball player Walt Wesley, a two-time consensus All-America center who played in the NBA for 10 seasons, has died at the age of 79, Kansas Athletics has confirmed. Wesley, who had battled leukemia the past few years, died Thursday morning at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida with wife Denise at his side. Wesley, a two-time all-Big Eight selection following his junior and senior seasons (1964-65, 1965-66), scored 1,315 points at KU, ranking No. 32 on the Jayhawks’ all-time scoring list. The 6-foot-11 Fort Myers, Florida native scored 42 points against Loyola of Chicago as a junior on Dec. 12, 1964 at Allen Fieldhouse. That ties for eighth most points in a game in KU history. He had 19 field goals in that game, which ties for second most baskets in a single game in KU history. Wesley — his jersey No. 13 was hung in the Allen Fielldhouse rafters on Dec. 18, 2004 — is tied for 10th with Wayne Simien in rebound average per game at KU (8.3). “Walt Wesley is one of the finest men I’ve ever known,” Wesley’s coach at KU, Ted Owens, said Thursday. “He was so loved by his teammates, his coaches. He was just an extraordinary man. He came to Kansas and worked so hard to develop into the great player that he was. He loved the University of Kansas and loved being a part of Kansas basketball. He touched all of our lives.” Wesley, who attended Dunbar High School in Fort Myers, was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Ohio Sports Hall of Fame (recognizing his three years with the NBA’s Cincinnati Royals and three with the Cleveland Cavaliers) in 2018. Additionally, he was inducted into the Dunbar High School Hall of Fame, National Negro High School Basketball Hall of Fame, National High School Basketball Hall of Fame and Court of Legends (an honor awarded by the Florida Association of Basketball Coaches). Wesley also received the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity “Jessie Owens Award of Excellence” for athletic and philanthropic accomplishments in 2010. Wesley was selected sixth overall by the Cincinnati Royals in the 1966 NBA Draft. He played for seven teams in his 10 years in the league (1967-76). He held the Cleveland Cavaliers single-game scoring record of 50 points for more than 30 years until it was broken by LeBron James in 2008. Wesley played under KU head coach Dick Harp during his sophomore season (1963-64, as freshmen were ineligible). Then he played for Owens, who was KU’s lead recruiter of Wesley, in 1964-65 and 1965-66. In his junior year, he averaged 23.5 points and 8.8 rebounds per game for the 17-8 Jayhawks. In his senior season of 1965–66, Wesley averaged 20.7 points and grabbed a career-best 9.3 rebounds per game as the Jayhawks won the Big Eight championship and went 23-4 overall. “We were a very close-knit ballclub. Those are very special people,” Wesley said of fellow KU starters Riney Lochmann, Del Lewis, Al Lopes and Ron Franz during an interview with the Lawrence Journal-World before his KU jersey retirement ceremony in 2004. Of his 42-point game against Loyola of Chicago, Wesley said: “It was a great game, a great night. I really thank my teammates. They saw I was having a good night and pushed to get me the ball. We stayed within the context of what we were trying to do. It was a great honor. Not many players score 40 in a game.” Of his 50 points for the Cavs against Cincinnati, the team that took him in the 1966 NBA Draft, he said: “I enjoyed it. It was another milestone. I thank God I had the opportunity to do it.” And of having his jersey hung in the rafters at Allen Fieldhouse, he said: “It is quite an honor, especially at the University of Kansas, to have your basketball jersey hung in the rafters. I get a little feel of excitement just thinking about it. I have such great and fond memories of being there and playing in Allen Fieldhouse.” Wesley attended KU’s 125-year celebration in January 2023 and later that season was honored as the men’s basketball recipient in the Marian E. Washington Trailblazer Series. The Marian E. Washington Trailblazer series was created in February 2020 to highlight influential African-American Jayhawks in multiple sports throughout each Black History Month. After playing professional basketball, Wesley served as a Division I college basketball coach for more than 25 years at Kansas, Western Michigan and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After his retirement from coaching, Wesley was executive director for the Police Athletic League in Fort Myers. Wesley just last month told winknews.com that the in-state universities in Florida did not recruit him out of high school. “At the time it was segregated. Florida, Florida State those schools were out of the question. That was not going to happen,” Wesley said. He told Cleveland Cavaliers News: “It’s not that we weren’t capable, or good enough academically. We just weren’t recruited. There was a segregated system, and it was tough. Fortunately, I was recruited by several schools out of the Midwest and that’s where I chose to go.” He fell in love with Allen Fieldhouse during the recruiting process. “I don’t think there’s any place in the country that can top playing at Allen Fieldhouse,” Wesley said. “You walk in there for a basketball game you get hyped up.” He played during a difficult time regarding race relations in America. Of a trip to Arkansas to play the Razorbacks, he told winknews.com, “We didn’t stay in Arkansas. We stayed in Missouri and took the bus into Arkansas and coming out. And we had an escort on the court off the court. “Some of it you expected some of it you didn’t (such as) the name calling. You say to yourself, ‘I can live with it, it’s not the end of the world. If I go out here and do my job, I get to laugh and say look at them.’” Off the court, Wesley was director of the S.T.A.R.S Complex in Fort Myers that mentored youths. “Don’t let the athletics part of it consume you to the fact that you don’t take advantage of being a student-athlete,” Wesley said of his message to young people. “If you’re fortunate enough to be a student-athlete and get a scholarship, make use of that scholarship.” Asked what he hoped his legacy was in Fort Myers, he told winknews.com: ““Walt was someone who cared. And he came back and tried to make a difference.” Wesley returned to Lawrence for several basketball reunion celebrations. At the 125-year reunion in January 2023, Owens said of Wesley: “We call him ‘Wonderful Walt.’” Said Wesley then: “To reminisce about the days of old as they say, it’s a grand feeling. I had to take a little breather (walking through the fieldhouse). Don’t have the elevated floor anymore with the track around it. It’s a wonderful feeling to come back and the past surfaces.”

 

Career history

1966–1969            Cincinnati Royals

1969–1970            Chicago Bulls

1970–1972            Cleveland Cavaliers

1972–1973            Phoenix Suns

1973–1974            Capital Bullets

1974            Philadelphia 76ers

1974–1975            Milwaukee Bucks

1975    Los Angeles Lakers

Career highlights and awards

Consensus second-team All-American (1966)

No. 13 jersey retired by Kansas Jayhawks

Career NBA statistics

Points   5,002 (8.5 ppg)

Rebounds            3,243 (5.5 rpg)

Assists  385 (0.7 apg)