Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Kansas building $18 million facility to house Naismith’s Rules of Basketball

Michigan v Kansas

ARLINGTON, TX - MARCH 29: Head coach Bill Self of the Kansas Jayhawks reacts in the second half against the Michigan Wolverines during the South Regional Semifinal round of the 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Dallas Cowboys Stadium on March 29, 2013 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Getty Images

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.

“Katherine and I are excited and lucky to be part of this new facility at KU,” DeBruce said in a statement issued by the university. “Our years on the Hill helped provide a foundation for each of us to be successful and give back to our community.”

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.

Follow David Harten on Twitter at @David_Harten