city athletic club type private club founded kansas city missouri 1887 headquarters 845 armstrong avenue kansas city kansas website www.kcathleticclub.com the kansas city athletic club is an athletic club and gentlemen s club in downtown kansas city missouri . notable members have included president harry s. truman and others . contents 1 founding 2 amateur basketball 3 rise and decline 4 see also 5 references 6 external links founding edit the club was founded in 1887 by arthur e. stillwell as the fairmount cycling club a bicycling club in fairmount park in kansas city . in 1893 the club changed its name to the kansas city athletic club . in the early 20th century it was nationally known for fielding championship amateur athletic union teams . amateur basketball edit beginning in the early 1900s the club s amateur basketball team the blue diamonds became a nationally known powerhouse notably after defeating the buffalo germans in 1905 the de facto national basketball champion who had won the championship at the 1904 world s fair in st. louis . phog allen was one of the club s team s star players . 1 the blue diamonds defeated both the university of kansas in its 1898 99 inaugural season and the university of missouri in its 1906 07 inaugural season . in the 1920s at a time when universities corporate sponsored teams and private clubs all competed in the same bracket the club played in six national championship games 2 1921 1st 42 36 defeating southwest kansas college 1922 2nd 42 28 losing to lowe and campbell athletic goods of kansas city 1923 1st 31 18 defeating hillyard inc. shine alls 1924 2nd 30 26 losing to butler university 1926 2nd 25 20 losing to hillyard 1928 2nd 25 23 losing to cook s painter boys rise and decline edit clubhouse 1923 1997 ; today the mark twain tower in february 1917 the kansas city athletic club planned to construct a new clubhouse in downtown kansas city but was experiencing serious difficulties in obtaining financing . in march 1917 the board proposed a merger with the kansas city club . but after a joint board meeting of the two clubs the kansas city club s board rejected the proposal . instead in 1923 the club acquired an unfinished 22 story building at eleventh street and baltimore avenue in downtown kansas city . the club hired architect firm hoit price & barnes and completed the building . 3 4 in 1932 however during the great depression the continental hotel company took over the 22 story clubhouse leaving only the six topmost floors devoted to the club itself . for a period in the 1960s the hotel contained a branch of the playboy club . 5 in 1982 the building was remodeled and renamed as the mark twain tower an office building . the club retaining the rights to the top six floors . 4 notable members tusten ackerman early basketball star forrest debernardi early basketball star john kuck shot put olympian dutch lonborg prolific college basketball coach fay moulton olympic sprinter football player and coach and lawyer joseph reilly college football player and coach and athletic director of the kcac . lee talbott track & field athlete harry s. truman 33rd president of the united states 6 alfred michael chief venne basketball coach and indian activist george williams early basketball star see also edit list of american gentlemen s clubs kansas city club kansas city country club references edit the golden age of amateur basketball the aau tournament adolph h. grundman author 1921 1968 bison books october 1 2004 isbn 0 8032 7117 4 http hoopedia.nba.com index.php title aau men s champions http www.emporis.com application nav building & id 121863 a b http web2.umkc.edu whmckc collections ikc0153.htm http forum.kcrag.com index.php action printpage ; topic 14054.0 truman by david mccullough simon & schuster june 14 1993 isbn 0 671 86920 5 external links edit kansas city athletic club official website coordinates 39 06 52 n 94 37 54 w 39.114418 n 94.631778 w 39.114418 ; 94.631778 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title kansas city athletic club & oldid 714108476 categories athletics clubs in the united statesbuildings and structures in kansas city kansasculture of kansas city missourihistory of kansas city missourisports in the kansas city metropolitan areatraditional gentlemen s clubs in the united statessports organisations established in 18871887 establishments in missourihidden categories coordinates on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 7 april 2016 at 17 49 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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