These days, plenty of things in college athletics get the expensive treatment. Arenas, jerseys, weight rooms, athletic offices.
Kansas is adding another entity getting the star treatment: rules.
James Naismith’s original rules of basketball are getting a facility of their own. And it’s going to cost $18 million. This according to The Kansas City Star’s Blair Kerkoff.
The 31,000 square-foot facility, which will be known as the DeBruce Center, will be three stories and will be connected to the northeast corner of Allen Fieldhouse. The facility will also house meeting and dining facilities for students. Construction will begin later this year.
The rules were purchased by Kansas alum David Booth and his wife, Suzanne, at auction in December 2010, for $4.3 million.
The facility will be named for Paul DeBruce, CEO and founder of DeBruce Grain, Inc. He served as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kansas City Federal Reserve in 2011 and 2012.
There recently was a documentary on a Kansas fan trying to obtain the rules for the school to keep. I guess it only makes sense to give them a home. Naismith, while not just the founding father of basketball, is an integral part of Kansas and its basketball tradition. If the facility was just $18 million dedicated to a bunch of rules on paper, it would seem silly. But at least it will also serve the needs of Kansas students while housing the famous original rules.
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