The Kansas City Athletic Club is an athletic club and

gentlemen's club A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally established by males from Britain's upper classes starting in the 17th century. Many countries outside Britain have prominent gentlemen's clubs, mostly those associated with the ...

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

. Notable members have included

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...

and others.

Founding

The club was founded in 1887 by Arthur E. Stillwell as the Fairmount Cycling Club, a bicycling club in Fairmount Park in Kansas City. In 1893, the club changed its name to the Kansas City Athletic Club. In the early 20th century, it was nationally known for fielding championship

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 h ...

teams.

Amateur basketball

Beginning in the early 1900s, the club's amateur basketball team, the Blue Diamonds, became a nationally known powerhouse, notably after defeating the Buffalo Germans in 1905 - the ''de facto'' national basketball champion who had won the championship at the

1904 World's Fair The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 mi ...

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Phog Allen Forrest Clare "Phog" Allen (November 18, 1885 – September 16, 1974) was an American basketball coach and physician. Known as the "Father of Basketball Coaching,"University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

in its 1898-99 inaugural season and the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

in its 1906-07 inaugural season. In the 1920s, at a time when universities, corporate sponsored teams, and private clubs all competed in the same bracket, the club played in six national championship games: *1921 - 1st, 42-36 (defeating Southwest Kansas College) *1922 - 2nd, 42-28 (losing to Lowe and Campbell Athletic Goods of Kansas City) *1923 - 1st, 31-18 (defeating Hillyard, Inc. Shine Alls) *1924 - 2nd, 30-26 (losing to

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study within six colleges in the arts, business, communic ...

) *1926 - 2nd, 25-20 (losing to Hillyard) *1928 - 2nd, 25-23 (losing to Cook's Painter Boys)

Rise and decline

In February 1917, the Kansas City Athletic Club planned to construct a new clubhouse in

Downtown Kansas City Downtown Kansas City is the central business district (CBD) of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City metropolitan area which contains 3.8% of the area's employment. It is between the Missouri River in the north, to 31st Street in the south; ...

, but was experiencing serious difficulties in obtaining financing. In March 1917, the board proposed a merger with the Kansas City Club. But after a joint board meeting of the two clubs, the Kansas City Club's board rejected the proposal. Instead, in 1923, the club acquired an unfinished, 22-story building at Eleventh Street and Baltimore Avenue in Downtown Kansas City. The club hired architect firm

Hoit, Price & Barnes Hoit, Price & Barnes was a prominent Kansas City architectural firm in the early 20th century. It designed several skyscrapers and mansions including three of the current ten tallest buildings in Kansas City; the Kansas City Power and Light Bui ...

, and completed the building.
/ref> In 1932, however, during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, the Continental Hotel Company took over the 22-story clubhouse, leaving only the six topmost floors devoted to the club itself. For a period in the 1960s, the hotel contained a branch of the

Playboy Club The Playboy Club was initially a chain of nightclubs and resorts owned and operated by Playboy Enterprises. The first Playboy Club opened in Chicago in 1960. Each club generally featured a Living Room, a Playmate Bar, a Dining Room, and a Club ...

. In 1982, the building was remodeled and renamed as the Mark Twain Tower, an office building. The club retained the rights to the top six floors. On February 29, 2016, the Mark Twain Tower was purchased by National Historic Property Developer Hudson Holdings. Located in Delray Beach, Florida, Hudson Holdings' mission is the acquisition, development and adaptive reuse of significant and large scale retail, residential, hotel and office properties. The company’s slate of mixed-use historic restoration and historic preservation projects, most notably in central, downtown and core business districts across the country comprises nearly 5 million square feet of space valued in excess more than $1.2 billion. Major historic renovation projects include: The Huntington Building, Mark Twain Tower, Republic Building, Railway Exchange, Starks Building, Textile Building, Gulfstream Hotel, and the Sundy House.

Notable club members

Tusten Ackerman Arthur Tusten "Tus" Ackerman (October 7, 1901 May 17, 1997) was an American basketball player in the early days of college and semi-professional basketball. Ackerman, a 6'3 forward/ center from Lawrence, Kansas, played for coach Phog Allen at K ...

, early basketball star * Forrest DeBernardi, early basketball star * John Kuck,

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

olympian * Dutch Lonborg, prolific college basketball coach * Fay Moulton, Olympic sprinter, football player and coach, and lawyer * Joseph Reilly, college football player and coach and athletic director of the KCAC. * Lee Talbott, track & field athlete *

, 33rd President of the United States'' Truman'' by

David McCullough David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United S ...

- Simon & Schuster (June 14, 1993) *

Alfred Michael "Chief" Venne Alfred Michael Venne (; 1879 – 1971) was an Ojibwa (Chippewa) Native American. He was educated at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Pennsylvania. He later became an educator, athletic manager and coach, administrator and mentor to countle ...

, basketball coach and Indian activist * George Williams, early basketball star

References

External links