The Boston Celtics, Kansas Jayhawks, and the basketball world in general lost one of its greatest guards of all-time with the passing today (January 16) of Jo Jo White.  White was a 7x NBA All Star, 2x NBA champion, and 1x NBA Finals MVP.  He is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Mr. White also played an important role in almost preventing a major piece of sports history from coming to pass.  In the 1966 NCAA Basketball Tournament, White's Kansas Jayhawks faced Texas Western in the Midwest Regional Final (Elite Eight) with a trip to the Final Four on the line.  The game went into overtime.  Near the end of the first OT, with the game still tied, White received a pass from a teammate.  As time was running out, White launched a 35 foot shot that went through the basket as time expired, seemingly putting Kansas in the Final Four. However, an official ruled that White stepped on the out-of-bounds line as he shot the ball, and the basket didn't count, and the game went to a second OT where in Texas Western won the game.  Some have said that White was actually not out-of-bounds, and that Kansas should have won the game.

Texas Western with an all-black starting five went on to play Kentucky, which had an all-white starting five, for the national championship.  Texas Western won the game becoming the first champion in NCAA history to have an all-black starting five.