The Kansas basketball program unveiled a piece of the sport’s history late this week, when James Naismith’s original rules for basketball at the University of Kansas were put on display at the new DeBruce Center.
The DeBruce Center was a $21.7 million project funded by donors will be the permanent home for Naismith’s “The Original 13 Rules of Basket Ball” moving forward.
The rules were originally written down in 1891.
Per The Lawrence Journal-World, the room housing the rules will remain darkened to protect the historic value of the document.
“Most of the modern, open-concept, glass-walled DeBruce Center is flooded with natural light. But the Rules Gallery — the passageway between the DeBruce Center’s atrium and Allen Fieldhouse where the rules are installed — is darkened by design to protect the historic document,” the report read.
As for how the document was discovered, it was by a KU alumnus.
“The Original 13 Rules of Basket Ball” were purchased by David Booth and his wife, Suzanne Booth, for a cool $4.3 million at a sports memorabilia auction in New York back in 2010.
Now, the original rules have returned home.
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to Sara Shepherd, The Lawrence Journal-World
