Robert Albert Kurland was a 7 feet (2.13m) American basketball center, who played for the two-time NCAA champion Oklahoma A&M Aggies basketball team. He has been credited as the first person to dunk in a college basketball game. He led the U.S. basketball team to gold medals in two Summer Olympics, and led his AAU team to three national titles. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Bartlesville is a city mostly in Washington County and Osage County, Oklahoma. The population was 37,290 at the 2020 census. Bartlesville is 47 miles (76 km) north of Tulsa and 18 miles (29 km) south of the Kansas border. It is the county seat of Washington County. The Caney River runs through Bartlesville.