Kansas basketball fans have alums David and Suzanne Deal Booth of Austin, Tex., to thank for bringing Dr. James Naismith’s original basketball rules to Lawrence.

And now they have Mission Hills residents Paul and Katherine DeBruce to thank for giving those rules a home.

The KU Endowment announced yesterday that the DeBruces were providing a leadership gift to construct a new facility on Naismith Drive estimated to cost $18 million.

The three-story building will include dining and meeting facilities as well as a display for the fabled document. The new building will be connected to the northeast corner of Allen Fieldhouse.

Paul DeBruce founded DeBruce Grain in 1978; the company sold to Gavilon LLC in 2010. Katherine graduated from KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and worked for the Kansas City Star and KCPT. They both graduated from KU in 1973.

Construction on the 31,000-square-foot center is slated to begin later this year.