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In the 1920s, Kansas got national attention because of the Helms Hall of Fame emphasis on stars like Dutch Lonborg, Paul Endacott and Charlie Black No. 1. And from 1931 to 1940, Phog Allen's Kansas teams won seven clear-cut Big Six championships and tied for an eighth.

Probably the best-remembered KU team of that era was the club of 1940. KU was tied for the league title by Oklahoma and Missouri. After a league playoff, it beat Oklahoma State, Rice and heavily favored Southern Cal before losing in the NCAA finals to Indiana.

But there were less well-known guys from '31 through '39. Some say Fred Pralle was the greatest of them. The All-Big Six stars were Tom Bishop and Frosty Cox (1931); Ted O'Leary, Bill Johnson and Lee Page ('32); Johnson ('33); Ebling ('34); Dick Wells and Ebling ('35); Ebling, Francis Kappelman and Fred Pralle ('36); Pralle ('37); Pralle ('38); Lyman Corlis ('39); Ralph Miller, Bob Allen and Howard Engleman ('40).

Another guy too often overlooked when Kansas fans wax poetic about court immortals is Ray Ebling. Others will tell you Bill "Skinny" Johnson could, and did, play with anybody at any level. Pralle and Engleman were chosen All-America, along with Ebling and Johnson.

Bill Johnson out of Oklahoma City is in the Naismith Hall of Fame at Springfield, Mass., and was considered the dominant center of his time. He helped KU win three straight league titles and at 6-4 was incredible when there was a center jump after every basket. After graduation, he played AAU ball, then better than the NBA, for Southern Kansas Stage Lines. He made AAU All-America, same as Pralle did for the powerful Phillips Oilers.

The NCAA tourney didn't even begin until 1939, ever so quietly. When the '3l through '39 guys finished their regular seasons, they hung up the gumsoles and turned to other things. High-profile postseason play was non-existent, media coverage was modest, at best. Year-around camps, tourneys and conditioning programs of this day and age were only dreams of visionaries like Allen.

The 1940 KU team got special national attention mainly because it upset a touted, glamorous Southern California team that nobody was supposed to stand up to.

The 1940 KU club finished at 19-6 and the guys who made it happen were Herb Hartman, James Arnold, John Kline, T.P. Hunter (lost during the war), Ralph Miller, Bruce Reid, John Krum, Bruce Voran, Bob Johnson, Bob Allen, Robert Woodward, Dick Harp, Don Ebling, Howard Engleman and Bill Hogben. What a collection of superstars Allen and his Jayhawks provided for their fans in those days - with a lousy home showcase, Olympic newness, no NCAA tournament to aim for, the NBA nothing to boast about and the best thing available a good job with an AAU team like Phillips.

Unsung and sometimes forgotten, maybe. But every bit as great in their own day as anyone before or since.