the university of kansas started a men's basketball program in 1898, following naismith's arrival. this was only six years after naismith had invented the game. naismith was employed as chapel director and physical education instructor. in these early days, most basketball games were played against nearby ymca teams. the ymca's across the nation played a very important part in the birth of basketball. other common opponents were haskell indian nations university and william jewell college. with naismith as coach, the team played only three current big 12 schools: nebraska (six times), missouri (twice), and kansas state (once). naismith was, ironically, the only coach in the program's history to have a losing record (55–60). however, naismith coached forrest "phog" allen, who took over as coach at kansas. allen was also added to the basketball hall of fame. when allen became a coach himself and told him that he was going to coach basketball at baker university in 1904, naismith said to him: "you can't coach basketball; you just play it." allen began a coaching career that would lead him to be known as "the father of basketball coaching." during his time at kansas, allen coached dean smith (1952 national championship team) and adolph rupp (1922 helms foundation national championship team). when dean smith retired as head basketball coach at north carolina he had the most wins in college basketball history, second was adolph rupp (kentucky) and third was allen. the three coaches have joined naismith as members of the basketball hall of fame.