The RoundHouse | 3/17/2021 12:59:00 PM
The restrooms. Everyone remembers the restrooms and walking down stairs during a basketball game to face leaky, broken plumbing at Henry Levitt Arena.
"It was a dungeon," said Bob Geist, a prominent Wichita State athletics booster.
"It was time to do something," said Kirk Seminoff, then sports editor of The Wichita Eagle and a former Wichita State athletics beat writer. "The urinals were eroding."
Not just urinals. Not just locker rooms or the cramped study spaces and offices.
Shocker basketball's success of the 1980's and passion from fans deteriorated as the 1990s wore on.
In an instant, it seemed, Wichita State basketball fell from its high points in the 1960s and 1980s. Restoring those days started with the facilities race in which the school had fallen far behind as it wrestled with football debt, a declining Missouri Valley Conference and a string of unsuccessful basketball coaches.
Those circumstances, as Wichita State prepares for its eighth NCAA Tournament since 2012, are unfamiliar to many Shocker fans. The Shockers expect to enjoy March Madness and moved to the American Athletic Conference in 2017 after years of success in the MVC.
None of that happens without the hiring of two leaders in 1999 and a fund-raising campaign that changed Shocker athletics.
In October 2000, Wichita State publicly announced the "Roundhouse Renaissance" fund-raising campaign to renovate Levitt Arena and expand its athletic and academic spaces under the name Charles Koch Arena.
"It was a big turning point," said Elizabeth King, president and CEO of the WSU Foundation. "We had such a strong basketball history. We went through a lull. Our alumni and donor base and campus community were wondering what it will take. This launched it."
The people involved – led by university president Don Beggs and athletic director Jim Schaus – considered it a necessity. They did it with expectations of lifting men's basketball back to post-season play and carrying the entire athletic department to the top of the Missouri Valley Conference.
"We got it done," Geist said.
Yes, in a way even the most optimistic Shocker fan and university fund-raiser couldn't imagine.
On Sunday, Wichita State earned its ninth NCAA Tournament bid and 16
thpost-season since 2000. In the previous 55 seasons as an NCAA Division I member, the Shockers qualified for six NCAA Tournaments and seven National Invitation Tournaments.
Seven of those nine NCAA appearances since 2000 came via an at-large berth, proof the program can schedule and win its way into the field over the course of the season. The momentum from the renovations and success of men's basketball helped other programs and Wichita State dominated the MVC's All-Sports standings.
Shocker fans who don't remember Levitt Arena know nothing other than wide concourses, clean bathrooms, sell-outs and a new banner almost every year. Levitt Arena, which opened in 1955 with a cost of $1.4 million, began to show its age in the late 1980s and talk of renovation increased. In 1992, the athletic department commissioned a report to estimate costs on new locker rooms, academic space, offices and strength and conditioning facilities.
Meanwhile, men's basketball faltered. It recorded two winning seasons in the 1990s and didn't finish higher than third in the MVC. A drought of post-season bids stretched from the 1989 NIT into the 2000s.
"You can say they were one coach away, but then what coach were they going to be able to attract to a dilapidated arena?" Seminoff said. "It was not a given that this program could be in the tournament every year."
Roaches, it appeared, were the only thriving population in the arena at that time. Wichita State fell behind as other schools invested in new arenas, practice gyms, academic centers and office suites.
"It wasn't very difficult to explain we didn't have an academic center," said Schaus, now commissioner of the Southern Conference. "Our weight room was not sufficient. There was quite a gap."
Plans languished throughout the 1990s and the university considered options such as moving basketball games to a downtown arena.
That would not have solved problems for the rest of the athletic department, which also needed updated locker rooms, offices and weight rooms. Schaus did not want to give up Levitt Arena's home-court advantage.
Boosters understood because they came to games and noticed the decline of Levitt Arena. Beggs and Schaus, both hired in 1999, formed the perfect combination to plan and raise money.
"They were a great team," said King, then vice president for University Advancement. "Schaus had this vision and energy and could articulate the case. Don Beggs had that presidential leverage of supporting it 100 percent and credibility with the business community."
In the winter of 1999, Schaus announced a six-month study of renovating Levitt Arena.
"It is my hope that support for the project will allow us to move forward this April to launch a fund-raising campaign to make it a reality," he wrote. "It will not be easy. The potential financial goal will be significant. But, with the support of the community, I am confident we can do this."
Beggs and Schaus worked quietly – so quietly the October 2000 announcement in the arena surprised some in the athletic department – to raise money from key boosters. The approval of Charles Koch and the $6 million gift was an important marker. So were significant contributions from Geist, Tom Devlin, Barry Downing and Dr. Sam Kouri.
"The meeting with Charles Koch was critical," Schaus said. "You can't do a project without a lead gift."
Wichita State announced $13 million in pledges for a $19.5 million campaign, later expanded to $25 million to add the practice gym and other items on a wish list. Students agreed to raise their fees to help, another critical contribution.
"The most important thing was that Jim and President Beggs put together a really good business plan – this is how we're going to move Shocker athletics forward," said David Spafford, then associate athletic director of development. "When those guys all said 'OK, you guys are on the right path. Let's get this done,' . . . . that was a key part."
With the public phase underway in the fall of 2000, the athletic department sent out glossy brochures, stuffed into over-sized envelopes by staff members working in Cessna Stadium. They sent out VCR tapes. On the day of the announcement, they delivered cake with "Roundhouse Renaissance" to media outlets – a gift The Eagle declined for ethical reasons.
Wichita State sold the wooden chairback seats from Levitt Arena and pieces of the court to fans. Wichita State rewarded smaller donors with plaques and markers in the concourse.
Construction started in the spring of 2002. Offices moved to temporary quarters in the Marcus Center for Continuing Education. Men's basketball played its 2002-03 season at the Kansas Coliseum with the women moving to Newman University and volleyball to the Heskett Center. Center sections on both sides of the court were ripped out and replaced to increase leg room. A second tunnel connected the court to new locker rooms.
Schaus insisted on details such cherry wood fixtures in the Champions Club and Terrazzo tile in the concourse to give it a quality look. The glass atrium and murals highlighting great Shockers contributed to the "wow" factor Schaus wanted.
Luxury boxes, considered briefly, Schaus said, were omitted to keep capacity above 10,000.
Schaus said he talked to coach Mark Turgeon, hired in March 2000, about a vision to build the program, without going into details about the plans percolating behind the scenes. Turgeon built a winner, culminated by an MVC title and NCAA Sweet 16 in 2006. That success led to hiring Gregg Marshall in 2007 and heights such as the 2013 Final Four that seemed unimaginable in 2000.
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
