National Football Foundation

The iconic "Voice of the Jayhawks," Max Falkenstien broadcast University of Kansas football and men's basketball games for 60 years.

Falkenstien did his first radio broadcast of a KU basketball game – an NCAA Tournament game in Kansas City between KU and Oklahoma A&M – on March 18, 1946. His next KU broadcast was the Jayhawks' football opener against TCU on Sept. 21, 1946. He served as play-by-play voice of the Jayhawks for 39 years and switched to the commentator's role in September 1984, when Bob Davisassumed the play-by-play duties. The duo called KU football and basketball games until Falkenstien's retirement in 2006. They became so well known that they were referred to simply as "Bob and Max." Falkenstien retired as color commentator on Jayhawk Radio Network broadcasts after the last game of the 2005-06 men's basketball season – his 60th season of covering Jayhawk athletics.

Kansas Athletics honored Falkenstien by making him the only non-player to have his "jersey" (60) honored in the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame paid tribute to him in 2004 with its Curt Gowdy Award. He was inducted into the State of Kansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Kansas Athletics Hall of Fame, and was the first inductee of the Lawrence High School Hall of Honor. He was awarded an honorary "K" by the K Club, Kansas Athletics' association of former student-athletes.

The Sporting News in 2001 named Falkenstien "the best college radio personality in the country," and Dick Vitale selected Bob and Max to his "Sweet 16" of the best college basketball announcing teams in the country.

Falkenstien graduated from Liberty Memorial High School (now Lawrence High School) in 1942. After a semester at KU he enlisted in the Army Air Corps; he left the service in March 1946. He earned a degree in mathematics from KU in 1948. His father, Earl, served as business manager of Kansas Athletics for 33 years.

Falkenstien first worked in radio at WREN in Lawrence. He worked at WIBW radio and television in Topeka, and for one year as general manager at Sunflower Cable in Lawrence. As famous as he was for his sports broadcasting, he reported live during two of Topeka's most famous news events as well – the 1951 flood and the 1966 tornado.

Falkenstien also worked at the Douglas County Bank in Lawrence, retiring as senior vice-president in 1994.

Falkenstien also made his mark on television along the way. He provided the play-by-play on the Big Eight Conference men's basketball Game of the Week between 1968 and 1971. And for more than three decades he hosted football and basketball coaches' television shows, including those for Don Fambrough, Pepper Rodgers, Mike Gottfried, Ted Owens, Larry Brown and Roy Williams.

Falkenstien's last KU football broadcast was the Jayhawks' victory over Houston in the 2005 Fort Worth Bowl. He last broadcast a game in Allen Fieldhouse on March 1, 2006, a KU victory over Colorado 51 years to the day after he had broadcast the first game played in Allen Fieldhouse. His final KU broadcast came on March 17, 2006, when Bradley upset the Jayhawks in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

He passed away July 29, 2019, at the age of 95.