Bill Bridges, who earned All-America honors at Kansas after averaging 16 points and 14 rebounds for the Jayhawks in 1961, died Sept. 25 in Santa Monica, Calif., after a long battle with cancer, KU officials reported Thursday. He was 76.
Bridges, whose No. 32 KU jersey was retired in a 2004 ceremony in Allen Fieldhouse, won all-conference honors in the Big Eight during all three seasons he played for the Jayhawks from 1959-61.
A 6-foot-6 power forward from Hobbs, N.M., Bridges grabbed 1,000 rebounds in 78 collegiate games, a 13.9 rebound average that ranks second on the KU career charts behind only Wilt Chamberlain's career average of 18.