University of North Carolina Athletics
Dick Harp, former KU and UNC Coach, Passes Away
March 18, 2000 | Men's Basketball
March 18, 2000
Dick Harp, who was an assistant to Phog Allen and Dean Smith and was head coach at Kansas, coached Wilt Chamberlain and helped bring current coach Roy Williams to Kansas, died Saturday in Lawrence, Kan. He was 81.
Harp was an assistant under Allen from 1949 to 1956, then had a 121-82 record in eight seasons as head coach.
After resigning as coach in 1964, Harp was director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Smith made Harp a special assistant at North Carolina from 1986 to 1989 and it was there that Harp developed a friendship with then-assistant coach Roy Williams.
Allen recruited Harp from Rosedale High School in Kansas City, Kan., beginning what would become a 60-year relationship with the basketball program.
Harp was among a handful of players to play and coach in an NCAA championship game. As a player, Harp was a three-year letterman from 1938 to 1940. He was a starting guard on the 1940 Kansas team that lost to Indiana in the NCAA final.
In his first season as head coach, Harp took the Jayhawks with Chamberlain to the NCAA finals in 1957. No. 2 Kansas lost to undefeated and No. 1 North Carolina in triple overtime, 54-53.
Harp's teams won two conference titles and appeared in two NCAA tournaments.
"Dick was one of the most underrated coaches the college game has ever seen," former KU player Bill Lienhard said. "He developed the defensive scheme which led us to the national championship and which Dean Smith took and refined so productively at North Carolina after learning it as a KU player under Dick and Doc (Allen)."
When Larry Brown left Kansas after the 1988 NCAA championship season, Harp recommended that Kansas hire Williams.
"Kansas lost -- to me -- probably the guy closest to being Mr. Kansas Basketball," said Williams, whose Jayhawks play Duke Sunday in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Harp's health had been failing for several years and he had recently fractured a hip. He died at his residence at Lawrence's Presbyterian Manor. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Martha Sue, and a son, Richard Layne Harp, of Las Vegas.
Funeral arrangements were pending.
