Fred J. Pralle (April 10, 1916 – November 6, 1998) was an American college basketball standout at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

from 1935–36 to 1937–38. In his three varsity seasons,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

won all three

Big Six Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

regular season championships. Pralle led the Jayhawks in scoring in each of his last two seasons, and as a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

he also led the conference in scoring with a 10.7 points per game average. He was twice named an NCAA All-American (1937, 1938), and in 1938 he became Kansas' first ever play to be honored as a

consensus All-American The College Football All-America Team is an honor given annually to the best college football players in the United States at their respective positions. The original use of the term ''All-America'' seems to have been to the 1889 College Football ...

. After his collegiate career, Pralle played in the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

(AAU) with the national AAU power Phillips 66ers. During his seven-year career with the team, the 66ers won three

national championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

(1940, 1943–44) and were runners-up in two others (1939, 1942). Pralle sustained a knee injury just before the 1945 AAU Tournament derailed his basketball career. He eventually played baseball in the

Kansas–Oklahoma–Missouri League The Kansas–Oklahoma–Missouri League (or KOM League) was a name of an American minor league baseball league which was established in 1946 and played through 1952. As the name indicates, the Class D level league had franchises based in Kansas ...

with the Bartlesville Oilers before quitting professional sports. Pralle died on November 6, 1998.

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pralle, Fred 1916 births 1998 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American men's basketball players Basketball players from St. Louis Guards (basketball) Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball players Phillips 66ers players