One of Kansas basketball’s most accomplished coaches and one of BYU’s greatest athletes are headed into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
The National Association of Basketball Coaches announced Monday that former Kansas head coach Ted Owens and former BYU standout Danny Ainge will be part of the Class of 2026. The induction ceremony is set for October 22 at the College Basketball Experience in Kansas City.
Owens, who is now 96, spent 19 seasons at Kansas from 1964 to 1983 and put together a 348-182 record. That total still ranks fourth in Jayhawks history, behind only Bill Self, Phog Allen and Roy Williams. Under Owens, Kansas won six Big Eight regular-season titles, eight Big Eight Holiday Tournament championships and one conference postseason tournament crown.
The Jayhawks also made seven postseason trips during his run in Lawrence. That stretch included Final Four appearances in 1971 and 1974, plus a trip to the championship game of the National Invitation Tournament in 1968.
Kansas coach Bill Self said the recognition for Owens was long overdue and pointed to the way Owens shaped the program and the players who came through it. Self also described him as an unselfish leader and mentor who has stayed closely connected to the athletes he coached.
Before his Kansas tenure, Owens built a strong résumé at Cameron State Junior College in Oklahoma, where he went 93-24 in four seasons. He arrived in Lawrence as an assistant under Dick Harp in 1960 and took over as head coach in 1964.
Owens was named Big Eight Coach of the Year five times and won National Coach of the Year honors from Basketball Weekly in 1978. His Kansas teams featured several All-Americans, including Jo Jo White, Darnell Valentine, Dave Robisch, Bud Stallworth and Walter Wesley.
Ainge’s path to the Hall of Fame was just as memorable. The former BYU guard starred in Provo from 1977 to 1981 and became one of the most dynamic players in the country. He helped lead the Cougars to three NCAA Tournament appearances and delivered one of the defining moments in tournament history in 1981, when he went coast-to-coast through the Notre Dame defense for a game-winning layup.
That same season, Ainge won the John R. Wooden Award as the nation’s top college basketball player. His BYU career was also unusual because he was thriving as a two-sport star at the same time, playing professional baseball in the Toronto Blue Jays organization while starring on the hardwood.
Ainge later played 14 years in the NBA, won two championships with the Boston Celtics and went on to become a respected executive. Even so, his legacy at BYU has never faded. More than four decades after leaving Provo, he is still viewed as one of the greatest players in program history.
Ainge and Owens are joined in the 2026 Hall of Fame class by Jay Wright, Tubby Smith, Glen Rice and Walt Hazzard.
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