Max calls it quits after a mere 60 years

After more than 1,750 basketball broadcasts and 650 football broadcasts, hall-of-fame broadcaster Max Falkenstien called his final game in Allen Fieldhouse March 1, as the Jayhawks defeated Colorado 75-54 on senior night.

Max was honored during an emotional halftime ceremony, when a commemorative No. 60 jersey was unfurled in the south rafters of Allen Fieldhouse, symbolizing his 60 years as the Voice of the Jayhawks.

“It’s been a joy for me to have worked with you and for you for an unbelievable 60 years,” Falkenstien, c’47, told the crowd at Allen Fieldhouse, “I can’t believe it myself.”

Falkenstien’s long career has included all of KU’s Final Four appearances and two basketball national championships.  Amazingly, he has called every single men’s basketball game played in Allen Fieldhouse. 

“Although I still am in good health,” Falkenstien said, “I realize there finally comes a time when one must call an end to something, no matter how much he enjoys it.”

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame have both honored Falkenstien. He has been inducted into the State of Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and the KU Athletics Hall of Fame, and was the first inductee of the Lawrence High School Hall of Honor. In addition, he has been awarded an honorary “K” by the K Club, which includes all varsity men and women athletes.

“No one can replace Max,” KU Athletics Director Lew Perkins said. “We will always be indebted to him for what he has done and what he means to Jayhawk athletics.”

The Sporting News in 2001 named Falkenstien “the best college radio personality in the country,” and television's Dick Vitale selected Bob Davis and Max Falkenstien, known affectionately by KU fans as Bob and Max, to his “Sweet 16” of the best college basketball announce teams in the country.

Falkenstien broadcast his first basketball game—an NCAA tournament game in Kansas City between KU and Oklahoma A&M—on March 18, 1946. His next broadcast was KU's football opener against TCU on September 21, 1946. He served as the play-by-play voice of the Jayhawks for 39 years, and switched to the commentator's role in September 1984, when Bob Davis assumed the play-by-play duties.

Max also made his mark on television along the way. He provided the play-by-play on the Big Eight Conference men's basketball Game of the Week between 1968 and 1971. And for more than three decades he hosted football and basketball coaches' television shows, including those for Don Fambrough, Pepper Rogers, Mike Gottfried, Ted Owens, Larry Brown and Roy Williams.

Falkenstien said he treasures the friendships he has made and maintained with coaches, players, administrators and the many who have worked with him on his broadcasts. He singled out Gerry Barker, Bob Fromme, Al Correll, Jim Fender, Paul DeWeese, Jerry Waugh, Fred White, David Lawrence, Bob Newton and, “of course, my good buddy, Bob Davis.”

Tentative plans call for Max to lend his voice to historical film clips and documentaries. “We always want Max to be a part of our KU Athletics family,” Perkins said. “He does not plan to just fade away, and that's just fine with us.”