BleedGopher
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H/t to DeathClutch who posted this on the OT board, but I thought it should be on this board since he is a Gopher great. Per the NY Times:
John Kundla sat in a wheelchair playing cribbage opposite his 68-year-old son, calling out numbers in a quiet, deep voice. The efficiency apartment here had a twin bed under a painting of Jesus tending sheep; a desk topped with a large magnifying glass and a Bible; and, resting on a shelf, a photograph taken on a basketball court in 1952 showing Kundla atop the shoulders of a jubilant George Mikan, the sport’s most dominant big man in the first half of the 20th century.
Kundla, 99, was the head coach of the Minneapolis Lakers’ championship teams of the 1940s and 1950s — professional basketball’s first modern dynasty. He is the oldest living Hall of Famer in any of the four major American team sports and one of three N.B.A. coaches, along with Red Auerbach and Phil Jackson, to have won three or more consecutive titles.
Kundla is “a forgotten legend of basketball,” according to the historian John Christgau, author of the book “The Origins of the Jump Shot.” His Lakers ruled the league in the years before the shot clock, at a time when players were still shooting free throws underhand. Kundla coached in the N.B.A.’s first four All-Star games, and his five league titles are tied for third with Pat Riley and Gregg Popovich. He is also the only coach in league history to win a title in his first two N.B.A. seasons (the first when it was called the B.A.A.) — a feat that Steve Kerr will match if the Golden State Warriors win this year’s championship.
Yet even at the peak of his team’s success, Kundla was so laid-back during games and overshadowed by his talented players that the Sporting News once said: “Few ever heard of John Kundla.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/s...nal-coach-still-marvels-at-the-game.html?_r=0
Go Gophers!!
John Kundla sat in a wheelchair playing cribbage opposite his 68-year-old son, calling out numbers in a quiet, deep voice. The efficiency apartment here had a twin bed under a painting of Jesus tending sheep; a desk topped with a large magnifying glass and a Bible; and, resting on a shelf, a photograph taken on a basketball court in 1952 showing Kundla atop the shoulders of a jubilant George Mikan, the sport’s most dominant big man in the first half of the 20th century.
Kundla, 99, was the head coach of the Minneapolis Lakers’ championship teams of the 1940s and 1950s — professional basketball’s first modern dynasty. He is the oldest living Hall of Famer in any of the four major American team sports and one of three N.B.A. coaches, along with Red Auerbach and Phil Jackson, to have won three or more consecutive titles.
Kundla is “a forgotten legend of basketball,” according to the historian John Christgau, author of the book “The Origins of the Jump Shot.” His Lakers ruled the league in the years before the shot clock, at a time when players were still shooting free throws underhand. Kundla coached in the N.B.A.’s first four All-Star games, and his five league titles are tied for third with Pat Riley and Gregg Popovich. He is also the only coach in league history to win a title in his first two N.B.A. seasons (the first when it was called the B.A.A.) — a feat that Steve Kerr will match if the Golden State Warriors win this year’s championship.
Yet even at the peak of his team’s success, Kundla was so laid-back during games and overshadowed by his talented players that the Sporting News once said: “Few ever heard of John Kundla.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/s...nal-coach-still-marvels-at-the-game.html?_r=0
Go Gophers!!
