Wyoming basketball legend Kenny Sailors died last week at the age of 95. He was widely credited with creating and developing the modern day jump shot and was the first to use it as a pro basketball player. But what should not be missed is that he was one of the great players of his time. Sailors led the Wyoming Cowboys to the national title in 1943, he was a national player of the year, a three time All-American, and one of the pioneers of the NBA. But most of his life was outside of basketball.
Sailors was a marine in World War two, he was elected and served a term in Wyoming legislature, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, and was a master hunting and fishing guide in Wyoming and Alaska. He also coached boys and girls high school basketball. Wyoming Public Radio had occasion to speak to Kenny Sailors many times. What better place to start than having him explain that he invented the jump shot in Hillsdale, Wyoming while trying to shoot over his brother Bud.
“Bud and I grew up on a ranch down there in Hillsdale and he was a good high school ballplayer, an all-state high school ballplayer and played here at the University of Wyoming with Johnny Winterholler and some of the other old timers. He’s about four or five years older than me, so we had a hoop out there on the windmill and we’d go out there to play, and here I was 5-7 or 5-8 and him 6-5, I know what my thinking was, how do I get a shot over this big bum. And he’d stuff it down my throat and I just started jumping in the air and started throwing the ball and it eventually developed into a jump shot…basically. I didn’t develop it that year, I really didn’t get the shot that’s being shot now where you are right up over your head you know and you go straight up and release it with all fingers and wrist, I didn’t get that fully developed until my sophomore or junior year in college.”
All the books that wrote about basketball and shooting, demanded that your feet, both feet, be on the floor when you shot the ball. So he come up to me and he said Sailors where did you get that leaping one hander? He said if you really want to go in the NBA you're gonna have to get you a good two handed set shot.
In 1943, Sailors and the Cowboys went to New York where they won the national championship.
“We dressed in our boots and our hats you know and we went back, they wanted us to put on the western effect and they asked us to do that. Get the picture, I’m just a country boy, I had never left the state of Wyoming, and here we are going back east and playing in Madison Square Garden, yeah it was a big deal for us, it really was.”
Sailors said that returning to Laramie as National Champs was just as fun.
“I can’t even explain when we came back and got off the train down here at the old depot every fire truck in town they had, the horns were honking, they had every kind of a drum and musical instrument playing, it was maddening. I mean they put us up on the fire wagon and we didn’t have school for two days getting the town cleaned up. It was quite a time for us, yeah.”
Sailors then was off to the Marines, then he returned to Wyoming and played one last season, before heading to professional basketball as a 26 year old rookie.
“I played my first year in the NBA and I made $7500 dollars, think of that. Of course you could buy a three bedroom home here in Laramie for $3500, you could buy a new Ford four door car for $500. That was big money in those days and I did that in four and a half months. You don’t think I was excited?”
His first year in the NBA was 1946 in Cleveland. His coach was basketball Hall of Famer Dutch Denhert who didn’t know much about Sailors or his unique shot.
“All the books that wrote about basketball and shooting, demanded that your feet, both feet, be on the floor when you shot the ball. So he come up to me and he said Sailors where did you get that leaping one hander? He said if you really want to go in the NBA you’re gonna have to get you a good two handed set shot. And actually for the first six or seven games that season I sat on the bench, I really did. I finally got going and ended up making the all pro team my rookie year, so I did all right. They finally put him on the road scouting and another feller came in a took over.”
Sailors says after his first year he started noticing other people copying his shot. He only played five years in the NBA though and says that’s because he wanted to get back to Wyoming.
“I enjoyed my years in the NBA, but I played it for money, I don’t deny. I couldn’t have bought the Heart Six Ranch, Marilyn and I couldn’t if we hadn’t played in the NBA. It helped us to get a start, really it did. And then my pension today, I got a better pension than most people. They are good about the pension they give us old timers, it took us awhile and a few lawyers to get it, but we got it.”
Sailors left the NBA and started his career as a guide. After his wife got ill he returned to Laramie. He said he was surprised at the amount of mail he got over the years asking about one topic…the jump shot. Sailors said many people asked him if he was positive he invented it and he said that he finally settled on one response.
“Ray Meyer from DePaul who coached there for 50 years is real legend of the game in the Chicago area, well all over country, but especially in that Chicago area, he said it the best I think, he said Sailors may not have been the first to jump in the air and shoot the ball, but he developed the shot that’s being used today. That’s the way he put it and I like that.”
Kenny Sailors famous number four is retired and hangs in the Arena Auditorium where it watches over those using his shot again and again.
