Don Preston Fambrough

Memorial services for Don Preston Fambrough, 88, Lawrence, will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at First Christian Church in Lawrence. Private inurnment will be at Pioneer Cemetery in Lawrence.
Coach Fambrough died Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
He was born on Oct. 19, 1922, in Longview, Texas, the son of Ivey and Willie Whittington Fambrough.
Coach Fambrough was the head football coach for Kansas University from 1971-1974 and then again from 1979-1982. Before that, he was an assistant coach under Coaches J.V. Sikes, Jack Mitchell and Pepper Rodgers. Of the nine bowl games KU has participated in, Coach Fambrough played or coached in five of them.
From 1974 to 1979, he worked raising athletic scholarship contributions and with special projects for the Williams Education Fund. Following his coaching career, he worked as a field representative for Senator Bob Dole.
While in high school, he played for a storied high school football program in Longview, Texas. His senior year, he was the captain of the team that went on to defeat Wichita Falls, Texas, to win the Texas State Championship in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. He played college football at the University of Texas in 1941 and 1942, before entering military service in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. In the service, he met his lifelong friend Ray Evans, who eventually convinced Fambrough to come to KU after the war to play football. Following his military service, he and his wife moved to Lawrence, where he played football for KU and was a co-captain of the 1947 Orange Bowl team. As a player, he earned All-Big Six honors in 1946 and 1947 as a guard and linebacker. He graduated from Kansas University.
He married Del Few on Oct. 4, 1941, in Austin, Texas. She preceded him in death on Nov. 17, 2001.
Survivors include a son, Bob Fambrough of Lawrence, a son and daughter-in-law, Preston and Ginny Fambrough of Baldwin City;, four grandchildren, Jay Fambrough, Francesca Fambrough, Veronica Shallcross and Rose Fambrough; and one great-granddaughter, Cora Shallcross.
The family will greet friends at the church following the service.
The family suggests memorials to the Lawrence Schools Foundation for the Don & Del Fambrough Scholarship Fund or to the Douglas County Visiting Nurses, Rehabilitation and Hospice Care, sent in care of the Warren-McElwain Mortuary in Lawrence. 120 W. 13th St., Lawrence, KS 66044.
Online condolences may be sent to warrenmcelwain.com.