Don Fambrough

Memorial services for Don Preston Fambrough, 88, Lawrence, KS will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, September 9, 2011 at First Christian Church in Lawrence.  Private inurnment will be at Pioneer Cemetery in Lawrence.  Coach Fambrough died September 3, 2011 at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

He was born on October 19, 1922 in Longview, TX, the son of Ivey and Willie Whittington Fambrough.

Coach Fambrough was the head football coach for the University of Kansas 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 the University of Kansas has participated in, coach Fambrough played or coached in five of them.  From 1974 – 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.  His senior year, he was the captain of the team that went on to defeat Wichita Falls, TX, 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, and before entering military service in the US Army Air Corps during World War II.  In the service, he met his lifelong friend, Ray Evans, who eventually convinced Don 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 the University of Kansas 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 the University of Kansas.

He married Del Few on October 4, 1941 in Austin, Texas.  She preceded him in death on November 17, 2001.

Survivors include a son, Bob Fambrough of Lawrence, a son and daughter-in-law Preston and Ginny Fambrough of Baldwin City, KS, four grandchildren (Jay Fambrough, Francesca Fambrough, Veronica Shallcross and Rose Fambrough), and one great granddaughter, Cora Shallcross.

The family suggests memorials in his name to the Lawrence School Foundation for the Don & Del Fambrough Scholarship Fund or to the Douglas County Visiting Nurses, Rehabilitation and Hospice Care and may be sent in care of the Warren-McElwain Mortuary in Lawrence.

The family will greet friends at the church following the service.