December 23, 1924, 100 years ago: Robert Albert Kurland is born in St. Louis, and grows up in nearby Jennings, Missouri. He was considered basketball's first great "big man," standing 7 feet tall and weighing 220 pounds, and is the first player noted to have dunked in a collegiate game (if not the first to actually do it).
Bob "Foothills" Kurland led Oklahoma A&M to the National Championship in 1945 and 1946. (The school was renamed Oklahoma State in 1958.) His duels with George Mikan of DePaul, NIT Champions at the time (and thus, to many fans, the real "National Champions") became legend.
He never turned pro, instead working for Phillips Petroleum and playing for their company team, the Phillips 66ers, based in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He led the U.S. team to Olympic Gold Medals in 1948 in London, and in 1952 in Helsinki, Finland.
He stayed with Phillips long after his basketball career ending in 1952, rising to become an executive. He was one of the earliest inductees into the Basketball Hall of Fame, in 1961. He died a year ago.
Kurland died at his home on Sanibel Island in Florida, on September 29, 2013, at age 88. He was survived by his wife of 62 years, Barbara; their 4 children Alex, Ross, Dana, and Barbara; and 7 grandchildren.
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