Dick Harp, longtime assistant to Phog Allen and a former Kansas player, was faced with following a legend when he took over as KU’s head coach after Allen’s forced retirement in 1956.  Harp hadn’t even applied to be an assistant under Allen in the first place.  He had lettered three years as a guard for KU and was co-captain of the 1939-40 team that lost to Indiana in the NCAA final.  He then served 4 ½ years as a master sergeant in the Army during World War II.  He was working in Kansas City while going to law school and coaching basketball part-time at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., when Allen asked him to return to KU in 1949.

The head coaching job came with some perks in 1956 – Wilt Chamberlain, the 7-foot phenom, was eligible to play after sitting our his freshman year.  KU’s 1956-57 season was Harp’s finest as the Jayhawks advanced to the NCAA championship game, making Harp one of only five people  to have coached and played in the final.  Under Harp, chamberlain and forward Bill Bridges earned All-American honors and the Jayhawks earned two conference titles and two NCAA berths.

Harp resigned as head coach in 1964.  A deeply religious man, he went to work for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in June 1964 and retired as senior vice president of the organization in March 1983.  He accepted a position as Dean Smith’s administrative assistant at North Carolina in 1986 and worked there until 1989.  He still lives in Lawrence.