SE: Lon Kruger and the Week Michael Jordan Came to Manhattan
May 18, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
Let's get one thing straight.
Ask Lon Kruger, and Ahearn Field House is pronounced with the long a, like ace or space.
"We always called it Ahearn," Kruger said. "You can talk to different people, but as a player and coach there, it was always Ahearn."
The men's basketball head coach at Oklahoma knows the building better than most. Kruger played there under legendary K-State coach Jack Hartman and coached the Wildcats for four seasons, including the final basketball game ever at Ahearn against Missouri in 1988.
If it happened at The Old Barn in the 80's, there's a good chance that Kruger was a part of it. In other words, he's the perfect guy to talk to about the week Michael Jordan came to Ahearn.
The 1982-83 season was a pivotal one across college basketball. In Manhattan, K-State was coming off three-straight trips to the NCAA Tournament under Coach Hartman, including a tough loss in the 1981 Elite Eight to Dean Smith and North Carolina.
In Chapel Hill, Jordan was looking to build off his game-winning shot against Georgetown that delivered UNC their first championship in 25 years, turning the freshman into a national name.
And in Edinburg, a small town in Texas closer to the Mexican border than any major U.S. city, Kruger was preparing for his first season as a head coach with the UT Pan American Broncs (currently Texas-Rio Grande Valley).
The 1983 season was important for another reason, as the Pan-American Games would return with a gold medal in men's basketball on the line. While the United States had dominated the tournament in the past, that summer brought added pressure as Team USA's biggest stage since the Americans boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
USA Basketball tabbed Hartman to lead a team of college kids in Venezuela that summer, betting on a coach with over 20 years of experience and four appearances in the Elite Eight.
"The head coach gets to identify two assistants who are head coaches at other schools," Kruger said. "I was at Pan-American at that time and [Coach Bob Chipman] was at Washburn. Coach Hartman was able to get us both on his staff."
To put that honor in perspective, Team USA's three-man coaching staff at the 1979 Pan Americans Games was Bob Knight, assistant coach Mike Krzyzewski and manager Fred Taylor.
At that point, Krzyzewski was still a young coach at Army. But Kruger would be tasked with following Taylor as Team USA's manager – the legendary Ohio State coach came out of retirement to manage the Americans in 1979.
Before he managed Team USA, Taylor had 297 wins as a head coach. Kruger had 7.
His first season at UT Pan American had been a rocky one, as the Broncs stumbled to a 7-21 record playing as an NCAA independent team without a conference.
Arguably the low point of that season came just before Christmas, when the 1-15 Broncs arrived in Tulsa for a four-team tournament. UT Pan American played well in their first game, holding their own in an 85-76 loss to an Oral Roberts team coming off an NIT appearance.
Next up, Kruger and UTPA looked to rebound against the team that lost to Tulsa.
Somehow, that team was North Carolina – featuring future NBA All-Star Brad Daugherty, All-American Sam Perkins, and Michael Jordan, who never amounted to much of anything.
Facing the defending national champions and an irritated Jordan, UT Pan American lost 106-50 to the Tar Heels.
Kruger and the Broncs did hold Jordan below his season scoring average that night, as MJ dropped 16 points in the win, but it was a tough loss for UTPA's first-year head coach.
Just a few months later, Kruger was in Colorado Springs with Hartman and Chipman to determine which players, Jordan among them, would make the final roster for the Pan American Games.
"There were about 24 or 25 players there trying out for 12 spots," Kruger said. "Obviously, a lot of good talent and a lot of good players ended up making that team."
Kruger joined his former coach at K-State and another former Wildcat, Washburn College head coach Bob Chipman, in building a roster of some of the best college basketball players in the country.
The 12 names selected would head to Manhattan for a week of training camp, before traveling to Caracas for the 1983 Pan American Games.
Kruger said that Jordan, just 21 at the time, made his presence felt right away.
"Michael was a young player at that time, but any time he walked on the court, it was clearly his court and his show," Kruger said. "But he was very unselfish, very confident and obviously even at an early age, he had things that other players didn't have."
It's not a stretch to call those practices at Ahearn some of the best basketball ever played in the building, even though Kruger was among just a few people with the privilege of being there.
"Those practices were extremely competitive," Kruger said. "Obviously, with the talent and the pride those guys had, you got great energy at every practice and great competitiveness."
It's easy to imagine that tournament as a walk-through for the Americans, but Kruger and Team USA were tested right away with injuries that knocked out some of their best players.
Dream Teamer Chris Mullins didn't even make it on the plane to Venezuela with a foot injury and future NBA starter Michael Cage left after just two games with a family emergency.
"We still had Sam Perkins, Mark Price, Wayman Tisdale, Ed Pinckney and some other really good players," Kruger remembers.
In the opening game of the tournament, the Americans fell behind 20-4 against Mexico, before Jordan and Team USA hit their stride in a 74-63 win.
"We had good competition throughout in Caracas," Kruger said. "It was a good experience, those guys played well, and we came away with the gold medal."
In fact, the Americans didn't lose a game during their time in Venezuela. That's not to say Team USA didn't require, you know, actual coaching – up one against Brazil and playing without the basketball, Hartman's defense came up with a stop and a dunk from Jordan to seal the win.
Lifting the gold medal after a 101-85 win over Puerto Rico, Team USA had officially reintroduced themselves to the basketball world.
It also offered a measure of redemption for Hartman, whose Wildcats missed the NCAA Tournament in 1983 for the first time in three years.
For Jordan, the Pan American Games were a chance to forget an upset loss to Georgia in the NCAA Tournament and watching rival NC State bring home a national championship.
And for the coach on the other side of the biggest blowout win of Jordan's career at North Carolina, the 1983 Pan American Games helped launch a remarkable basketball life.
First, Kruger turned around UT Pan American, leading the Broncs to a 20-8 season before heading to Manhattan to replace Hartman as the head coach of his alma mater. Now, he's one of only two coaches in NCAA history to lead five programs to the NCAA Tournament.
Turns out, the 29-year-old coaching Michael Jordan on the sidelines during that week in Ahearn knew what he was doing.
"That was a very talented group," Kruger said. "It was an All-Star cast for sure."
Let's get one thing straight.
Ask Lon Kruger, and Ahearn Field House is pronounced with the long a, like ace or space.
"We always called it Ahearn," Kruger said. "You can talk to different people, but as a player and coach there, it was always Ahearn."
The men's basketball head coach at Oklahoma knows the building better than most. Kruger played there under legendary K-State coach Jack Hartman and coached the Wildcats for four seasons, including the final basketball game ever at Ahearn against Missouri in 1988.
If it happened at The Old Barn in the 80's, there's a good chance that Kruger was a part of it. In other words, he's the perfect guy to talk to about the week Michael Jordan came to Ahearn.
The 1982-83 season was a pivotal one across college basketball. In Manhattan, K-State was coming off three-straight trips to the NCAA Tournament under Coach Hartman, including a tough loss in the 1981 Elite Eight to Dean Smith and North Carolina.
In Chapel Hill, Jordan was looking to build off his game-winning shot against Georgetown that delivered UNC their first championship in 25 years, turning the freshman into a national name.
And in Edinburg, a small town in Texas closer to the Mexican border than any major U.S. city, Kruger was preparing for his first season as a head coach with the UT Pan American Broncs (currently Texas-Rio Grande Valley).
The 1983 season was important for another reason, as the Pan-American Games would return with a gold medal in men's basketball on the line. While the United States had dominated the tournament in the past, that summer brought added pressure as Team USA's biggest stage since the Americans boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
USA Basketball tabbed Hartman to lead a team of college kids in Venezuela that summer, betting on a coach with over 20 years of experience and four appearances in the Elite Eight.
"The head coach gets to identify two assistants who are head coaches at other schools," Kruger said. "I was at Pan-American at that time and [Coach Bob Chipman] was at Washburn. Coach Hartman was able to get us both on his staff."
To put that honor in perspective, Team USA's three-man coaching staff at the 1979 Pan Americans Games was Bob Knight, assistant coach Mike Krzyzewski and manager Fred Taylor.
At that point, Krzyzewski was still a young coach at Army. But Kruger would be tasked with following Taylor as Team USA's manager – the legendary Ohio State coach came out of retirement to manage the Americans in 1979.
Before he managed Team USA, Taylor had 297 wins as a head coach. Kruger had 7.
His first season at UT Pan American had been a rocky one, as the Broncs stumbled to a 7-21 record playing as an NCAA independent team without a conference.
Arguably the low point of that season came just before Christmas, when the 1-15 Broncs arrived in Tulsa for a four-team tournament. UT Pan American played well in their first game, holding their own in an 85-76 loss to an Oral Roberts team coming off an NIT appearance.
Next up, Kruger and UTPA looked to rebound against the team that lost to Tulsa.
Somehow, that team was North Carolina – featuring future NBA All-Star Brad Daugherty, All-American Sam Perkins, and Michael Jordan, who never amounted to much of anything.
Facing the defending national champions and an irritated Jordan, UT Pan American lost 106-50 to the Tar Heels.
Kruger and the Broncs did hold Jordan below his season scoring average that night, as MJ dropped 16 points in the win, but it was a tough loss for UTPA's first-year head coach.
Just a few months later, Kruger was in Colorado Springs with Hartman and Chipman to determine which players, Jordan among them, would make the final roster for the Pan American Games.
"There were about 24 or 25 players there trying out for 12 spots," Kruger said. "Obviously, a lot of good talent and a lot of good players ended up making that team."
Kruger joined his former coach at K-State and another former Wildcat, Washburn College head coach Bob Chipman, in building a roster of some of the best college basketball players in the country.
The 12 names selected would head to Manhattan for a week of training camp, before traveling to Caracas for the 1983 Pan American Games.
Kruger said that Jordan, just 21 at the time, made his presence felt right away.
"Michael was a young player at that time, but any time he walked on the court, it was clearly his court and his show," Kruger said. "But he was very unselfish, very confident and obviously even at an early age, he had things that other players didn't have."
It's not a stretch to call those practices at Ahearn some of the best basketball ever played in the building, even though Kruger was among just a few people with the privilege of being there.
"Those practices were extremely competitive," Kruger said. "Obviously, with the talent and the pride those guys had, you got great energy at every practice and great competitiveness."
It's easy to imagine that tournament as a walk-through for the Americans, but Kruger and Team USA were tested right away with injuries that knocked out some of their best players.
Dream Teamer Chris Mullins didn't even make it on the plane to Venezuela with a foot injury and future NBA starter Michael Cage left after just two games with a family emergency.
"We still had Sam Perkins, Mark Price, Wayman Tisdale, Ed Pinckney and some other really good players," Kruger remembers.
In the opening game of the tournament, the Americans fell behind 20-4 against Mexico, before Jordan and Team USA hit their stride in a 74-63 win.
"We had good competition throughout in Caracas," Kruger said. "It was a good experience, those guys played well, and we came away with the gold medal."
In fact, the Americans didn't lose a game during their time in Venezuela. That's not to say Team USA didn't require, you know, actual coaching – up one against Brazil and playing without the basketball, Hartman's defense came up with a stop and a dunk from Jordan to seal the win.
Lifting the gold medal after a 101-85 win over Puerto Rico, Team USA had officially reintroduced themselves to the basketball world.
It also offered a measure of redemption for Hartman, whose Wildcats missed the NCAA Tournament in 1983 for the first time in three years.
For Jordan, the Pan American Games were a chance to forget an upset loss to Georgia in the NCAA Tournament and watching rival NC State bring home a national championship.
And for the coach on the other side of the biggest blowout win of Jordan's career at North Carolina, the 1983 Pan American Games helped launch a remarkable basketball life.
First, Kruger turned around UT Pan American, leading the Broncs to a 20-8 season before heading to Manhattan to replace Hartman as the head coach of his alma mater. Now, he's one of only two coaches in NCAA history to lead five programs to the NCAA Tournament.
Turns out, the 29-year-old coaching Michael Jordan on the sidelines during that week in Ahearn knew what he was doing.
"That was a very talented group," Kruger said. "It was an All-Star cast for sure."
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