Page 11 - och0417_Magazine

Design and Equipment

A SLAM

DUNK

FACILITY At KU

rom a certain point of view, the
Forigin of the DeBruce Center at
the University of Kansas (KU) in Law-
rence is the same as that of the sport
of basketball.
The DeBruce Center was conceived
of and gifted by the donation of a former
KU alum, after David and Suzanne Booth
(also alums) purchased the original type-
script of the rules James Naismith wrote
when he created the game of basketball
as a gift for the KU community.
Given the fact that Naismith was
the first basketball coach at KU, David
Booth decided they should be in the
hands of the university. “There was
another gentleman who felt the same
way at Duke University,” said Mark
Petrino, director of Dining Services.
“They went into a bidding war. The auc-
tion house thought it was just going to
go for $800,000 to $900,000, but ap-
parently, the two pieces of paper went
for $4.3 million. It was quite amazing.”
After the donation to the university,
Paul DeBruce felt that a “shrine” needed
to be built to house them. “They built
this huge $27 million glass building
to put the rules in,” said Petrino. “Part
of the deal was that we would have a
café on the first floor, a coffee kiosk on
the second floor and a kitchen with a
restaurant on the third floor that would
feed the basketball team.”
When Dining was working with
foodservice consultant Rippe Associ-
ates to create the food concepts for the
first floor Courtside Café, it focused
on who would be eating there most:
student athletes. “We are keeping in
mind as we are putting together these
menus and the concepts, what the student
athletes usually eat,” he said. “It is all
lean, whole-muscle meats.”
The Prairie Fire Grill is a churras-
queria-style concept featuring skewered,
marinated and pit-fired meats. It features
a churrasco grill from Old Hickory B-Q
Machines.

ON-CAMPUS HOSPITALITY APRIL 2017 | 11