NCAA Division II and NAIA Players : Kansas High School Graduates                                  HOME                  Revised: June 25, 2017

                                                                                                             BEST OF THE BEST OF THE REST

       This list below contains players who graduated from Kansas high schools and completed notable careers at NCAA D-2 or NAIA D-1  schools. I am looking for players that were awarded all-conference positions (1st or 2nd Team and 3rd Team in some cases). I am not including NAIA Division 2 or JUCO only players. I am sure this list will double in size with the help of visitors to this site. I am sure there are players out there for the Independents that qualify for this list - Nino Samuel is one I have  added just based on accounts of his play during this time. For the present, I am just trying to list the best of the best that played in these classes. I may, at a later date, add Honorable Mention players as well. I will need input from others on colleges outside the state of Kansas. If you have this information please e-mail to dmacfee@cox.net    Include the high school and graduation year. Please make sure they are listed on all-conference teams or, in the case of Independents , are among the best to have ever played at the NAIA or NCAA D-2 school. 

       I have made a few changes in the category for Wichita State. Prior to their admission to the Missouri Valley Conference, they were not competing at a higher level than Emporia State, Washburn and other state schools. So I am listing top players for pre-1946 Wichita teams on this list. McBurney and a few others were previously listed on my companion Kansas D-1 players list. I also will be adding a few Washburn players to the NCAA D-1 list. Washburn competed in the MVC from 1935-1942. As kind of a compromise, I will list just the all-conference Washburn players from this period to the large school group.     

Hall of Fames: NHOF = Naismith HOF KSHOF = Kansas Sports HOF   EHOF = Emporia St HOF   WHOF =   Washburn HOF   et cetera.  The large HOF's like the Naismith trump the school HOF's.

KCAC: Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference. Current abbreviation - used variations of this name since the league first conducted basketball competition. The league changed to NAIA Div 2 in 1992.
CIC:  Central Intercollegiate Conference     CSIC:  Central States Intercollegiate Conference  GPAC:  Great Plains Athletic Conference  RMAC: Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
MIAA: Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association SDIC: South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference

$    John Hughes is a good example of credentials for this list even though I could not find him on any all-conference teams. A closer look shows that he is among the all time scoring leaders for Emporia State. There were two of his teammates that were 1st team All-Conference and that makes it difficult to garner enough votes for placement on these teams. He was an Honorable Mention on the All-CSIC conference team.

HS Graduation     Player                         High School                                      College                         All-American      HOF      Conf       Post -College