Kansas University basketball is blessed to have Bernie Morgan as a dedicated supporter, always eager to project and enrich the illustrious history of the program.

Bernie, of Prairie Village, and older brother Gene, now retired in Lawrence, have worked long and tirelessly for KU in countless categories.

Bernie has been a Jayhawk sports devotee for nearly 68 years, even though his bachelor’s degree came from Central Missouri State. Brother Gene, a 1937 KU grad, will soon be 90 and you can’t name anyone who’s worked harder or more productively for the school.

Bernie had a long career with Hallmark, Gene was a key man in the Kenneth Spencer empire which has benefited the school so vastly. Gene is a living archive, as plugged in as ever about where KU has been, where it is and where it is going, or needs to go. You can talk to him five minutes and learn more than in an hour’s conversation with most “historians.”

But it’s Bernie’s latest project I want you and particularly the Jayhawk hierarchy to consider: Possible jersey retirement for Morgan’s Fabulous Forgotten Five.

Unless you’re 50 or older, and can recall Jayhawk stars of only the past 20 years or so, you might not grasp the significance of Bernie Morgan’s Forgotten Five. No suspense: Bill Bridges, 1959-61; Walter Wesley, 1964-66; Dave Robisch, 1969-71; Bud Stallworth, 1970-72; Darnell Valentine, 1978-81.

These All-Americans not only played out their eligibility at Kansas but they graduated, something that’s getting rarer by the day. Valentine is the only three-time academic All-American in school history; Stallworth was also an academic All-American.

Robisch, a 13-year pro in basketball, was also an All-Big Eight pitcher in the 1969 baseball season.

As for their points, rebounds, assists, blocks and such, you could go on all night. Suffice it to say they weren’t All-America picks without nifty credentials.

Morgan agrees professional careers shouldn’t factor in the selection of a Jayhawk jersey to hang in Allen Fieldhouse. But he adds, “It is interesting to note that these five players performed for a collective total of 49 years of professional basketball. That in itself should reflect their collegiate achievements.”

KU needs to get off its duff with Bridges. His health has not been good. I hope they don’t drag their feet the way Bob Frederick and Roy Williams did before they put Fred Pralle’s shirt on high.

Dick Harp, Bobby Allen, Clint Kanaga, the Morgans and a long list of people lobbied for Pralle. Lots of us are still miffed they didn’t get it done before Fred came back for the 100th anniversary caper. He died before it finally happened; that is shameful. Harp, Allen, Kanaga, et al, felt Fred Pralle was the Michael Jordan of his day. KU flat blew a golden opportunity.

Bernie Morgan has good guidelines for jersey display. The new guys in the fieldhouse should get busy because a lot of Jayhawks deserve this honor. In case the new order missed it, KU is the cradle of basketball and coaching.

From Bernie: “In 1937 at the age of seven I attended my first KU basketball game in Ottawa, Kan., as KU beat Ottawa. Little did I know at that age that Fred Pralle (’36-’38) was becoming the first two-time All-American at KU. He became my hero. In 1941 I adopted Howard Engleman as my hero since he became the second consensus All-American.”

Came 2003 and there were 10 new jersey retirements, ranging from a waiting period of one year to 78. Four were dead, Engleman and Jo Jo White were present after waits of 62 and 35 years.

Says Morgan: “Jacque Vaughan waited six years after graduation, Raef LaFrentz five, Paul Pierce and Drew Gooden didn’t graduate; Gooden was accepting his recognition at midcourt on a night when Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich (freshmen with Gooden) were in the locker room resting to come out and win again. I was embarrassed. … I had no problem with these four younger players being announced as eligible, but why not wait until the past has been revisited to see if any players had been missed?”

The Gooden caper frosted me, too. Drew left early, and was only a co-national player of the year. Nick Collison deserves his honor but I’d have Kirk Hinrich’s shirt in the rafters before Gooden’s.

Of course, critics felt that Williams was eager to get “his boys” up there. I’m sure he was. Understandably there are those who wonder if he wanted to get it done aware he might answer the clarion call of Dean Smith at North Carolina.

I’m particularly eager to Bill Bridges on the wall. He’s a marvelous guy who played on a leg and a half due to faulty high school surgery, was the first Big Eight player to score 1,000-plus points and grab 1,000-plus rebounds (in three years then) and was here at time when the racial climate was far from helpful. He overcame so much to do so well; he’s the very kind of guy who deserves such a special plaudit.

But so do the other four members of Bernie Morgan’s Fabulous Forgotten Five. Morgan wanted KU to do something this season; it didn’t. Get plugged in for next year, guys. We sure as hell don’t want another too-late honor the way Pralle got slighted.

Note to the new guys: When you have people like Bernie and Gene Morgan willing to bust their butts and draw on incredible expertise to add to the heritage here, take advantage of their background, make progress and incur some friends.

You readers may have other guys you think are as deserving as the Fab Five for jersey retirement. All well and good, let’s get as many as we can up there. KU has as many court icons as North Carolina, Kentucky and anyone else you can name. Celebrate that, honor that and start getting things back to a period of good feeling that once prevailed.

Right now the natives are doggone restless.