Lon Kruger’s wife Barbara Kruger grew up six miles from his hometown of Silver Lake, Kansas. As you might expect from a coach, he and his wife would be considered prominent and giving members of their community. They’re well known for charity events and fundraisers. Barbara serves on something called the Safe Nest Domestic Violence Shelter board of directors, and as you might expect, their mission is to shelter kids and wives from abusive partners.
Aside from that, Barbara was a member of the board for the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth. This was back in the days when Lon was coaching UNLV. Back then, Lon Kruger’s wife Barbara Kruger was also a chairwoman for the Las Vegas Paradise Sertoma’s basketball clinic for deaf and hard of hearing students. Deaf basketball sounds just like regular basketball, but I tend to imagine the referees wave big yellow flags to call fouls instead of blowing whistles. I’m sort of curious about how that works, actually.
Barbara met Lon when Lon was in college, and they planned to marry soon after he graduated. That all depended on whether or not he would be drafted into the NBA. He was only 5’11”, and he spent one season playing for an Israel team before he decided to simply move back to Kansas and get married. Lon Kruger’s wife Barbara Kruger didn’t get into the relationship just because she thought Lon might become an NBA player. They’ve had two kids: Angie and Kevin. Angie is a gynecologist, and Kevin has actually spent some time in the NBADL and currently plays for a team in Germany. Man, it’s hard to be an NBA player. Kevin also played for his dad at UNLV for a couple of years, which must have been kind of weird. Barbara is proud of her family, and she did a good job raising two kids.