William Oliver Hamilton (March 29, 1876 – December 29, 1951) was an American
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
coach,
track coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the third head basketball coach 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. T ...
, coaching the
Jayhawks from 1909 to 1919. Under Hamilton Kansas had its first
All-Americans
The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...
Tommy Johnson (
1909
Events
January–February
* January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.
* January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
* Jan ...
), Ralph Sproull (
1915
Events
Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction".
* January ...
), and
Dutch Lonborg (
1919
Events
January
* January 1
** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (now Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia.
** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off the ...
) who would later be a member of the
Basketball Hall of Fame. Before coaching at Kansas, Hamilton was the coach at
Central High School in Kansas City at the time
Casey Stengel
Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel (; July 30, 1890 – September 29, 1975) was an American Major League Baseball right fielder and manager, best known as the manager of the championship New York Yankees of the 1950s and later, the expansion New Y ...
future member of the
Baseball Hall of Fame was attending and played basketball as well as baseball. His basketball team won the city championship.
Hamilton later worked as a car dealer in
Lawrence, Kansas. He died there of December 29, 1951 at the age of 75.
[
]
Head coaching record
Basketball
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, W. O.
1876 births
1951 deaths
American men's basketball coaches
Basketball coaches from Missouri
Kansas Jayhawks athletic directors
Kansas Jayhawks men's basketball coaches
People from Huntsville, Missouri
William Jewell Cardinals men's basketball coaches
College track and field coaches in the United States