The Univ. of Kansas yesterday announced that basketball inventor James Naismith's original two-page rulebook will be "displayed at a new three-story center to be connected to the northeast corner of Allen Fieldhouse," according to Blair Kerkhoff of the K.C. STAR. Construction of the $18M building is "expected to start later this year." The bulk of the funding will "come in a gift from Kansas alums Paul and Katherine DeBruce." The 31,000-square-foot building will be "known as the DeBruce Center" (K.C. STAR, 4/18). In Kansas, Erickson & Rothschild in a front-page piece report plans are for the KU Endowment Association to "construct the building entirely with private funds, then hand over ownership to KU after it’s complete." Endowment Association President Dale Seuferling "declined to predict when the center might open." He added that Naismith's rules likely will be "located on its second floor, where the building will connect to the second-floor concourse" of the fieldhouse. He said that "surrounding the rules, and lining the walls of the walkway into the Fieldhouse, will be other exhibit materials celebrating the history and tradition of KU basketball" (LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD, 4/18).
