Longtime Jawhawks announcer
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Max Falkenstien, the affable and silver-tongued “Voice of the Jayhawks” who brought Kansas football and basketball into the homes of fans for six decades, died Monday. He was 95.
No cause of death was given.
Mr. Falkenstien did his first broadcast of a Kansas basketball game during the 1946 NCAA Tournament in Kansas City, where the Jayhawks played Oklahoma A&M. He took over as the play-by-play voice the following spring and would hold the job for 39 years before switching to the commentator’s role in 1984.
He retired from Jayhawk Radio Network broadcasts after the 2005-06 basketball season.
“I’ve known Max since 1985, and back then, even being young in the profession, I quickly realized that Max was as big a part of the great history of KU basketball and football as the players and coaches were,” Jayhawks basketball coach Bill Self said. “He was an absolute joy to be around, and he will be remembered as an absolute treasure. He was loved by everyone.”
Mr. Falkenstien was a banker by trade, retiring from the Douglas County Bank in Lawrence in 1994. But his passion was broadcasting the Jayhawks, and fans across the country simply adored him.
He’s the only non-player to have a jersey — No. 60 — hanging in the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse.
Former basketball coach Larry Brown, who guided the Jayhawks to the 1988 national title, said, “When I got the job at Kansas, coach [Dean] Smith told me about all the great people at KU, the love they had for the school and for basketball. When you talk about those great people, and everyone connected with all that tradition, Max is one of the first people you think about.”
Mr. Falkenstien, whose father worked for Kansas Athletics for 33 years, was born and raised in Lawrence and enlisted in the Army Air Corps after high school.
He earned a mathematics degree from Kansas in 1948, a full two years after he was on the microphone for his first basketball game.