T. P. 'Teep' Hunter, Jr.~NAME ~CAREER~two~noHIGHS~~Career~1940-42~G~~~10,5~51~~~~107~2.1~~~~~~~35~~~~~~37~~~64~~Nickname: T-Hambone
Posthumous Captain in 1945-46~ ~season~two~noHIGHS~1940~1939-40~Jr~G~~~10~14~~~~11~0.8~~~~~~~2~~~~~~7~~~7~~~ ~season~two~noHIGHS~1941~1940-41~Jr~F-G~~~5~15~~~~34~2.3~~~~~~~13~~~~~~8~12~66.7~22~~~ ~season~two~noHIGHS~1942~1941-42~Sr~G~~~5~22~~~~62~2.8~~~~~~~20~~~~~~22~32~68.8~35~~~ ~RED~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Note: the following is an excerpt from "Jayhawk Rebounds," a quarterly newsletter written by Coach Allen during World War II. It kept former players up to date with the KU family: introduced them to the current basketball players, told them about the football season, and passed on news and addresses for other Jayhawks in the service.]

                      J A Y H A W K   R E B O U N D S

No. 11
September 12, 1944

Dear Fellow Jayhawkers:

Somehow this is the most difficult letter that I have ever attempted to write. Over a dozen times I have begun it and each time I have walked away from my desk because words fail me. I feel such a void. Something has gone from me. Your friend and mine - good, old honest "Teep", T. P. Hunter (1st Lt. 9th Marines) was killed on Guam, July 21, 1944. And yet this morning he feels closer to me than at any moment that I have known him. Across the miles that span Lawrence, Kansas, and Guam, it seems so trivial. This thing we call death has brought him closer to me at this very moment than he has been for years. The glories of his life seem magnified a hundredfold.

A Chinese philosopher once said, "Life seems so unreal at times that I do not know whether I am living dreams for dreaming life." The life here and the life hereafter seem so much a part of all of us that T. P.'s presence is manifest. He will live forever in our hearts. What more love can a man have that he lay down his life for his friend? But T. P., being the man that he was, would embrace for his friends the thought of Lord Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar":Sunset and evening star,And one clear call for me.And may there be no meaning of the bar,When I put out to sea.

Charles Frohman, the great playwright, facing death while standing on the deck of the sinking Lusitania and watching women and children taking his place in the lifeboats, said, "Death is life's greatest adventure."

On August 17, T. P.'s sister-in-law called Mrs. Allen from Tulsa conveying to us the sad news. I was in Boone, Iowa, conducting a coaching school for the Iowa State High School Athletic Association, and did not learn of T. P.'s death until Sunday, August 20. Somehow I could not believe it, because I felt that after T. P. had been in Guadalcanal, Bougainville - in fact, all of the tough Marine engagements, that he would make it.

In T. P.'s letter to me on January 1, 1944, you Rebounders will recall that he stated, "Thought you might like to know a little about our game with the Japs on Bougainville. Well, everything was going fine until they got me and my boys in a hot box. I thought for a while they were going to call in the outfielders to get us out. Fortunately for us, however, we got out before they had time."

T. P. was our outstanding pitcher in his senior year and his baseball terminology fit most aptly into this very difficult situation. T. P. continued, in his January 1st letter, by saying, "I have called it a game, Doc, and to me that is just about how it seemed. The same is true for most of the boys that return. That bad part of the whole war is these boys who have to give their lives to win. I had some of those and for them it must have been more than a game." ....

These lines have often run through my mind, and they still do: "Only those are fit to live who are not afraid to die." This modest, clean, genteel, and resourceful boy, beloved by every teammate and athletic adversary with whom he came in contact, was held in the hightest esteem by all. He was buoyant, dominant, yet modest and self-effacing. How many times have I heard some of the boys after a hot game regale some official for either failure to call a foul or by calling a foul that certain players did not thinks just. In the pitch of the excitement a forceful, kind voice would speak up and say, "I didn't think he was so bad", and immediately the tempest of words ceased. Quiet reigned because there was great respect for the opinion of this quiet man who spoke. It was "T-Hambone" Hunter, as the boys affectionately called him. On trips it was Teep who always took the lone wolf for a roommate. Boys paired off - friendship and affection for each other dominating the selection. Any one of the men would have picked T. P. as a roommate, but T. P. always took the least admirable of the gang as his roommate.~