The legendary KU coach Phog Allen in the 1950s.

Legendary Kansas University basketball coach Phog Allen and former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole used to write letters to each other — who knew?

In fact, a young Dole was a standout basketball player Allen began recruiting when Dole was just 14, according to KU’s Dole Institute of Politics. Dole later earned a spot on KU’s freshman basketball team in 1941 and made varsity a year later.

The letters between the two will be on display in a new special exhibit that opened Monday at the Dole Institute, 2350 Petefish Drive.

The exhibit, “Letters from a Leader: Phog Allen to Bob Dole, 1938-1939,” will be on view in the Darby Gallery at the Dole Institute through April 15.

Dated between 1938 and 1939, the letters document the beginning of the relationship between Coach Allen and a young Bobby Dole, just 14 years old in 1938, according to the Dole Institute. Allen, a recruiter and mentor, affirms Dole’s potential, ambition and call to public service.

“As a young man, Dole was dazzled to receive a letter from Coach Allen,” Dole Institute Assistant Director and Senior Archivist Audrey Coleman said in the Dole Institute announcement. “Reading the advice and encouragement Dole receives from the coaching legend reminds us how crucial it is to engage and support young people, to cultivate our next generation of leaders.”

All letters are from the collection of KU’s University Archives at KU Libraries.