NCAA basketball: Ranking the 25 best college basketball coaches ever

No. 19: Phog Allen

Another top-20 coach when it comes to all-time win totals, Phog Allen is best known as the “Father of Basketball Coaching” thanks to an incredible 39-year career at the helm of the Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball program.

Before we dive into Allen’s coaching career, why did Clare Allen go by Phog, you ask? Well, thanks to a distinctive, foghorn-like voice he had during his time as a baseball umpire. The nickname came long before he became a student at Kansas, where he’d later star as a head coach.

Allen’s teams would go on to win 24 conference championships, and three national titles in his time with the Jayhawks, and he’d post an incredible career record of 764-264 during a total of 51 seasons as a head coach (he also coached at Baker, Haskell and Warrensburg Teachers College).

With 24 conference titles to his name that spanned generations of the game, Allen was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. And of course, you’ve heard of Allen Fieldhouse, named in his honor at its opening in 1955.

Allen was also the head basketball coach at Warrensburg, amassing a rather impressive record in that sport as well, at 34-19-3. Even as impressive as his reputation as a coach was, he was also a key founding member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the organization that founded the NCAA Tournament.

Allen lands at No. 19 in our list but it just speaks for the toughness of the list ahead of him.