LAWRENCE, Kan. — One of Allen Fieldhouse’s biggest admirers across the national sports-media landscape will fittingly be part of the ESPN “GameDay” crew working Saturday’s Big 12 clash between Kansas and BYU.

KU will be celebrating the 1,000th official men’s basketball game in the history of the 71-year-old building.

Former Duke standout Jay Bilas, who played his college home games in equally tradition-rich Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C., told The Kansas City Star in a past interview that he never tires of analyzing games in the hoops palace opened in 1955.

“Allen Fieldhouse is the St Andrews of basketball. It’s basically the birthplace of the game in so many ways,” Bilas said. “If you care about the history of the game, everything starts here in Lawrence at Allen Fieldhouse. It’s a gem.

“To me, if you love this game, it’s one of the places you have to go. People who think all golf courses are the same, they all have 18 holes and all that stuff, they are not the same. This is one of the great venues in all of sports.”

No. 14-ranked KU (15-5, 5-2 Big 12) will take what the school deems an official all-time fieldhouse record of 877-122 into Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. showdown with 13th-ranked BYU (17-3, 5-2).

It should be noted that the 1,000th men’s game celebration could conceivably have been held on an earlier date, considering the five home wins stripped by the IARP in 2023. Also, 71 men’s exhibition games are not counted in the total.

According to KU: “This will officially be the 1000th men’s basketball game played in Allen Fieldhouse. This does not include exhibition contests or the vacated wins from 2017-18.”

Certainly there will be some discussion this weekend of classic games contested inside Allen Fieldhouse. Fans will recall players and coaches who participated in games there through the years.

“When I was at Kansas … the night I interviewed, I didn’t see the gym,” former KU coach Roy Williams told The Star in a past interview. “I didn’t see it until the next morning. My first reaction was, ‘This is an old gym, and I love old gyms.’

“Our first year (1988-89), the games, the students and fans, I fell in love with the fans of Kansas basketball and I fell in love with the traditions of Kansas basketball. I fell in love with Allen Fieldhouse immediately.”

Williams — he coached at KU from the start of the 1988-89 season through the end of the 2002-03 campaign — led the Jayhawks to a 201-17 mark in 15 seasons at Allen Fieldhouse before heading to his alma mater.

At North Carolina, he coached home games in the Dean Dome.

“I’ve said this and I really believe this from the bottom of my soul: I think it’s the greatest homecourt advantage in college basketball, and maybe in any sport whatsoever,” Williams said of Allen Fieldhouse.

“I just remember game days I felt like a lot of times the crowd was not going to let us lose and that’s a darn good feeling to have, the enthusiasm they have.

“There is some mystique in there. We are not Irish, by any means, but you could say there’d be leprechauns on every rim helping the other team’s shots bounce away,” Williams added.

Former KU coach Larry Brown’s KU teams went 71-5 inside Allen Fieldhouse during his five seasons in Lawrence (1983-84 through 1987-88).

“I was lucky. Coach (Dean) Smith (former KU player and UNC Hall of Fame coach) coached me,” Brown told The Star in an interview some years back. “He grew up in Kansas and talked about KU and Allen Fieldhouse. I had no clue until I stepped in here and I saw the passion people have.”

Brown both played and worked for Smith at UNC.

“I remember the first game I coached (at KU),” Brown recalled. “I went upstairs and saw the Allen family. I’ve always admired Phog Allen, being around that family and understanding (James) Naismith coached here, John McLendon was here.

“I think I’ve said, ‘There’s no better place to play, no better place to go to school, no better place to coach.’ I don’t think I need to say anything more than that.”

KU coach Ted Owens’ KU teams went 206-47 at Allen Fieldhouse during his 19 seasons in Lawrence (1964-65 through 1982-83).

“The architects and contractors … they built an incredible building. That’s the beauty of it,” Owens said in a past interview, conducted during a reunion weekend for one of his KU teams. “It combines the solid structure and rock of a historic program here, but we add the modern amenities.

“It is a nice combination of the old and new. You can go into these new arenas around the country … nothing captures you like walking in this building. The noise level on game night, it was special.”

During the Owens years, Allen Fieldhouse also was home to KU’s indoor track team.

“Most of the years I coached it was a dirt floor. It was elevated above,” Owens said, “and the real problem was for some reason they did not put the floor in until the day before we started practice.

“The crew would be putting it up. Until then our players worked out at old Robinson Gymnasium. As soon as the basketball season was over they took the floor out. When we brought in prospects it was a big old barn out there.

“Then in the course of practice … our great track team practiced the same time we did. They’d water the track. After a while the dust would kick up. We’d have to sweep the floor four or times during practice. We had nets up and canvases up to try to gain measure of privacy,” Owens said, noting he felt it was a privilege to lead the Jayhawks onto the court “out of the tunnel every game.”

Current KU coach Bill Self has directed the Jayhawks to 340 wins against 22 losses inside Allen Fieldhouse during his 23 seasons with the program.

“There are not many treasures out there where the walls still sweat,” Self said. “It amazes me because Allen Fieldhouse … somehow the architects and others were so ahead of their time they could foresee making a place that would be as modern after 70 years as when it was built.

“This is a treasure in our community,” Self added. “We will never take it for granted. “When it was built they had to believe it would be the Taj Mahal of arenas in America. Our building has never lost the feeling of a fieldhouse.”

The building was designed by a team of architects that included Warren Corman, who died Aug. 28, 2025.

“Of all the buildings Warren built — 500 or so statewide — this has to be his prize, I’d think,” Self said.

Self noted that he first entered Allen Fieldhouse “my freshman year in college (1981-82 at Oklahoma State). I didn’t get recruited here. I thought it was unique and still do.”

Asked his favorite games in Allen, Self said: “We haven’t played them yet.” On Thursday he elaborated.

“I still, before every tipoff, I look to the guy to my right and left, the coaches. I say, ‘Can you believe this?’” he said. “We’re spoiled rotten here. This is the best when you think about night in and night out and over the course of decades, not just during my time here, but certainly in my 23 years here, there’s been one or two (games) I left out of here disappointed thinking it didn’t feel the same.

“But 99 percent of the time I’m thinking this is every bit as good as I ever dreamt it would be.”

The top moments at Allen Fieldhouse

Here are some of the top moments that pop up on “best of Allen Fieldhouse” lists as KU’s celebration of men’s game No. 1,000 nears. Obviously, there are other games that could have been included, and no women’s games or NCAA Tournament games not involving KU made the list, as Saturday’s contest is billed as the 1,000th KU men’s game.

In no particular order:

— Wilt Chamberlain scored 52 points and grabbed 31 rebounds in his first varsity game, an 87-69 victory over Northwestern on Dec. 3, 1956. He hit 20 of 29 shots and 12 of 20 free throws.

— Chamberlain scored 46 points in a 102-46 rout of Nebraska on Feb. 8, 1958. Many years later, Chamberlain returned on Jan. 17, 1998, as part of KU’s 100th anniversary of basketball. His jersey No. 13 was hung in the south fieldhouse rafters that day.

— Bud Stallworth scored 50 points in a 93-80 victory over Missouri on Feb. 26, 1972. Stallworth’s feat was witnessed by KU’s 1952 title team in town for a 20th reunion. Former KU coach Owens has said Stallworth would have had over 60 points that day had the 3-point line existed.

— KU crushed Kentucky, 150-95, on Dec. 9 1989. The 150 points were most in school history. KU had 80 points at halftime, also a school record, for points in a half. Terry Brown was 7 of 10 from 3-point range en route to 31 points.

— KU rallied from 19 points down in the second half to defeat Missouri, 87-86 in overtime, on Feb. 25, 2012. Tyshawn Taylor, who played 44 minutes, scored nine of his 24 points in overtime. Thomas Robinson forced the OT by blocking Phil Pressey’s inside shot at the end of regulation. The Tigers headed to the SEC after that season.

— Kansas opened Allen Fieldhouse with a 77-66 win over Kansas State on March 1, 1955. The building was dedicated that day.

— KU erased a 14-point deficit with 2:58 remaining and defeated Bob Huggins’ West Virginia Mountaineers, 84-80 in overtime, on Feb. 14, 2017. KU’s full-court press forced three turnovers in the final two minutes and led directly to Jayhawk points. KU, which trailed 64-50 at the final TV timeout, closed regulation on a 21-7 run and then built a 79-71 lead in OT. In another big comeback win over WVU in Lawrence, KU rallied from an eight-point deficit with 3:47 to play for a 77-69 win on Feb. 17, 2018.

— Senior Wayne Simien scored a career-high 32 points on 11-of-17 shooting (10-of-11 shooting from line) and grabbed 12 rebounds in an 81-79 win over Oklahoma State. OSU guard John Lucas missed a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining that could have won the game for the Cowboys.

— Kevin Durant scored 32 points — 25 the first half — in the Texas Longhorns’ 90-86 loss to KU on March 3, 2007. The win secured an outright Big 12 title for KU. The Jayhawks wound up erasing a 16-point deficit and winning thanks in large part to Julian Wright’s 17 points and 13 rebounds. Mario Chalmers had 21 points, Russell Robinson 17 and Brandon Rush 15.

— Jacque Vaughn’s 3-pointer with :0.2 on the clock in overtime gave KU an 86-83 victory over Indiana on Dec. 22, 1993. Vaughn, now an assistant coach at KU, finished with 13 points.

— Gene Elstun scored 21 points in KU’s 77-66 win over Kansas State in the first game played in Allen Fieldhouse on March 1, 1955.

— In the last meeting between a pair of legendary coaches, KU, coached by Phog Allen, defeated Hank Iba’s Oklahoma State Cowboys 56-55 on Jan. 31, 1956. That gave Allen a 17-16 edge in head-to-head matchups between the Hall of Famers.

— KU, ranked No. 1 at the time, outlasted No. 2 Oklahoma 109-106 in a triple-OT thriller on Jan. 4, 2016. Perry Ellis had 27 points and 13 rebounds, Devonte Graham 22 points and Wayne Selden 21 points. Buddy Hield had a career-high 46 points for Oklahoma.

— KU, which scored 64 points in the second half, didn’t sink a single 3-pointer yet still defeated Baylor, 100-90, on Feb. 9, 2008. Darrell Arthur had 23 points and Russell Robinson 22 for KU.

— Ben McLemore hit a banked-in 3-pointer at the buzzer to force overtime as KU beat Iowa State, 97-89, on Jan. 9, 2013. The Jayhawks had trailed by six points with four minutes to play. McLemore finished with 33 points.

— Darryn Peterson scored 32 points, including three crucial free throws in regulation to tie the game, as the Jayhawks rallied from a 16-point deficit midway through the second half to defeat TCU, 104-100 in OT, on Jan. 6 of this year. The Jayhawks trailed by 15 points with 4:38 to play and 11 with 3:44 remaining. The deficit was nine with one minute left.

— Oklahoma players clipped the nets in KU’s building on Feb. 22, 1984, after defeating KU, 92-82 in overtime, and clinching the Big Eight championship. Afterward, visibly upset, KU coach Brown remarked, “What goes around comes around.”

— Brandon Rush, coming off knee surgery, played 36 minutes in a 76-72 overtime victory over Arizona on Nov. 25, 2007. Rush scored 17 points, including five in OT. Arthur had 20 points. Chase Budinger had 27 for the Wildcats.

— KU slugged Oklahoma State, 75-57, on March 5, 1988 in the final home game for seniors Danny Manning, Chris Piper and Archie Marshall. OSU coach Leonard Hamilton agreed to let Marshall, on crutches because of a knee injury, limp onto the floor and take an uncontested shot with 1:33 remaining. Marshall missed and exited the game to a standing ovation after the class move by Hamilton.

— Missouri’s Anthony Peeler scored 43 points, but KU prevailed, 98-89, on March 8, 1992. KU clipped the nets after assuring itself of a tie for the Big Eight Conference title.

— Paul Pierce scored 31 points, including 16 straight at one point, as KU claimed a 83-70 victory over Oklahoma on Feb. 23, 1998 — Senior Night for Raef LaFrentz, Billy Thomas and C.B. McGrath. That was also the night Kelvin Sampson called time after a Pierce 3-pointer late in the game and patted Pierce on the backside in a show of sportsmanship as Pierce exited the game, his last game at Allen. LaFrentz, Thomas and McGrath finished their careers 58-0 at Allen. Fieldhouse

— Scot Pollard made a 3-pointer — on the only 3-point shot attempt of his college career — on his Senior Night in 1997. And the Jayhawks beat Kansas State, 78-58. Years later, big man Jeff Withey hit the only 3-point try of his career on his own Senior Night on March 6, 2013. The Jayhawks defeated Texas Tech in that game, 79-42.

— Manning scored 40 points in a 70-60 win over Notre Dame on Feb. 8, 1987.

— Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich combined for 43 points on March 1, 2003, in their last game at the storied fieldhouse, an 89-61 victory over Oklahoma State. It also was KU coach Williams’ final game in Allen. A month later, he left for North Carolina. OSU’s Hall of Fame coach, Eddie Sutton, that day jogged to KU’s bench with 55 seconds left to give both Hinrich and Collison a hug as they exited their final home game.

— Collison scored 24 points and collected 23 rebounds before fouling out in a 90-87 victory over Texas Jan. 27, 2003, prompting TV analyst Dick Vitale to give Collison a standing ovation from press row. At halftime, KU coach Williams presented retired Missouri coach Norm Stewart a rocking chair in a ceremony honoring Stewart.

— Adolph Rupp, a member of KU’s 1923 national-championship team, brought Kentucky to Lawrence for the first time Dec. 14, 1959. Wayne Hightower scored 33 points, but Rupp’s team won, 77-72.

— KU trailed UCLA by 15 points at halftime but rallied to win by 15 (85-70) on Dec. 1, 1995.

— Bill Bridges had 30 rebounds in an 86-69 season-opening victory over Northwestern on Dec. 3, 1960.

— Rick Suttle scored 26 points as KU blasted K-State, 91-53, on Feb. 22, 1975.

— Simien recorded a double-double in his debut game for the Jayhawks, against Wake Forest on Dec. 4, 2001. He had 10 points and 11 rebounds in KU’s 83-76 win. Simien was not 100% at the time, as he was recovering from a shoulder injury.

— A school-record nine Jayhawks scored in double figures in a 127-82 victory over Iowa State on Jan. 7, 1989. That’s also the most points KU has scored in a conference game.

— Brown drilled a school-record 11 3s and scored 42 points in a 105-94 victory over North Carolina State on Jan. 5, 1991. Brown also had 26 points in a 73-60 win over Miami on Jan. 16, 1991, in a game that was nearly canceled because of the start of Operation Desert Storm. Brown dedicated the game to his brother serving in the Persian Gulf.

— Manning scored 27 points in a 100-66 blasting of Missouri on Feb. 11, 1986. It remains KU’s biggest victory over the Tigers in the fieldhouse.

— Svi Mykhailiuk went the length of the court and hit a fingertip layup at the buzzer as KU prevailed over K-State 90-88 on Jan. 4, 2017.

— Oklahoma State’s Randy Rutherford scored 45 points, but KU’s Greg Ostertag held 7-footer Bryant Reeves scoreless in a 78-62 victory that gave the Jayhawks the league title March 5, 1995. That was the day current KU radio color announcer Greg Gurley scored on a 5-point play.

— Mitch Richmond scored 35 points as Kansas State ended KU’s 55-game home winning streak with a 72-61 win on Jan. 30, 1988.

— Simien scored 32 points as KU topped Oklahoma State, 81-79, on Feb. 27, 2005. John Lucas missed a stepback 3-pointer as time expired.

— KU gained revenge on a team that knocked it out of the NCAA Tournament in the Elite Eight the previous spring by stopping Georgia Tech, 70-68 in OT, on Jan. 1, 2005. Keith Langford hit a turnaround jumper to win it with 2 ticks left. KU trailed in this game by as much as 16 points. That was also the day Darnell Valentine’s jersey was hung in the rafters.

— Jo Jo White scored 30 points in his last KU game, an 80-70 victory over Colorado on Feb. 1, 1969. White received the game ball after coach Owens’ 100th career victory.

— Ryan Robertson hit a game-winning free throw with a fraction of a second remaining in overtime as KU defeated Oklahoma State, 67-66, on Feb. 22, 1999. It was the Jayhawks’ Senior Night, and with the game tied 66-66 in overtime KU inbounded the ball with approximately 2.0 seconds left. Robertson was fouled by Oklahoma State’s Adrian Peterson while attempting an off-balance jumper at the buzzer. This was also the game in which OSU’s Doug Gottlieb came out with his shorts on backward — after KU fans noticed and threw him a “shorts on backwards” chant, he removed the shorts and put them on correctly. His teammates huddled around him so nobody could see the switch take place.

— Kansas State’s Mike Wroblewski scored 46 points, the most ever by a KU opponent in the fieldhouse, in a 91-72 K-State victory Feb. 7, 1962. OU’s Hield would tie Wroblewski’s 46 point outing in 2016.

— KU coach Williams tried to start six seniors plus LaFrentz before waving walk-ons Joel Branstrom and Steve Ransom off the Allen Fieldhouse court prior to tipoff of a 78-58 victory over Kansas State on Feb. 22, 1997. Williams had a policy of starting all seniors on Senior Day.

— After Marcus Smart performed a backflip after beating KU in Allen the previous year, the Jayhawks secured revenge: an 80-78 win over Oklahoma State on Jan 18, 2014.

— Kansas knocked off Louisville, 70-68, in an NCAA Midwest Regional game played March 18, 1967. White led KU with 22 points.

— KU rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to defeat Oklahoma State, 69-67, on Dec. 31, 2022. It was KU’s 32nd straight win in a conference opener. KJ Adams scored the go-ahead bucket with 5 seconds left. Kevin McCullar blocked a shot at the buzzer and the Jayhawks prevailed.

— Iowa snapped KU’s school-record 62-game home win streak with an 85-81 victory on Dec. 8, 1998.

— Norm Stewart scored 20 points as Missouri handed KU its first loss in Allen Fieldhouse — 85-78 — on Feb. 6, 1956.

— Steve Woodberry hit a 3 with 15 seconds left to give KU a 62-61 victory over Oklahoma State for coach Williams’ 150th victory.

— Kansas State’s Bob Boozer scored 32 points in a 79-75 double-overtime victory over KU on Feb. 3, 1958.

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