Los Angeles ? All this talk of UCLA trying to woo Kansas University coach Roy Williams to Westwood hits a little too close to home for Dana Anderson.

Try a few miles down Sunset Boulevard.

“I know they want him,” said Anderson, a KU booster who lives in Bel Air, an exclusive neighborhood in the Santa Monica mountains near UCLA’s campus. “They had approached coach before, and I know they still covet him. They still want him.”

“They say he’s the kind of coach that could return UCLA back to its previous glory,” he said.

Anderson hears this at the Bel Air Country Club, and from none other than fellow member Pete Dalis, former UCLA athletics director, and others connected to the UCLA program.

But Anderson promises to do everything he can to keep Williams in the ‘Hawks’ Nest — the same name given to his 1.5-acre, $4.5 million home where Williams’ friends and family will stay April 11-13, when Williams is set to receive the Wooden National Coach of the Year Award.

Anderson, a KU graduate, said he couldn’t be more proud to have Williams on his alma mater’s team.

Success. Integrity. Honesty. All describe Williams’ activities at KU, Anderson said, both on the court and in the community.

“He’s the epitome of what a college basketball coach should be,” Anderson said.

And to hear others tell it, Anderson is about everything a university benefactor could be.

Constant creativity

Anderson, who grew up in Salina, has donated or committed nearly $15 million to Kansas University. The latest: his family’s $4 million contribution for an $8 million strength and conditioning center at KU, which opened Monday.

“It’s very generous,” said Keith Langford, a KU guard, who intends to bulk up in the center during his junior and senior years. “That’s money he could be using on himself. There’s not a lot of people who give that kind of money for people who they’ve never met.”

Much of the remaining $10.5 million — all but $1.05 million of it is ticketed for the athletics department — will be reserved for creating a “significant recognition” for Williams, should the coach remain at KU through 2005, Anderson said.

Whatever its use, Chancellor Robert Hemenway said, Anderson’s donation would be a valuable addition to the university’s commitment to quality sports programs.

“When you work with Dana, you’re sort of always in a constant process of being creative,” Hemenway said. “That’s what’s great about it. He’s always challenging you to take another step ahead in your thinking. I can see how he’s such a successful businessman.”

Anderson made his first donation to KU in the late 1950s, after being drafted into the U.S. Army. The amount: $5.

“I was making $76 a month,” Anderson said, chuckling at the memory. “Of course, I had room and board — and plenty of work clothes.”

Memorable moments

Today, Anderson is vice chairman of Macerich Co., a $3.5 billion owner of 58 shopping malls in 22 states. His stake in the company is worth at least $40 million.

The broad living room in his seven-bedroom home, like his office in nearby Santa Monica, is adorned with Jayhawk basketballs, golf clubs, a cigar box with recordings of radio calls from memorable Jayhawk moments — “The Jayhawks are National Champions! Hooray!” — and other mementos.

Some are unique, like the corner of a goalpost signed by then head football coach Terry Allen.

“They threw them in Potter Lake, and (then athletic director) Bob Frederick said there wasn’t money in the budget to replace them,” Anderson recalled, of the time KU beat then-No. 15 Colorado in Lawrence. “I took out my checkbook and wrote him a $3,000 check. I handed it to him and said, ‘Anytime you upset a top-15 football team and they tear down the goalposts, I’ll buy you new ones.'”

An even more special souvenir hangs on the wall. It is an illustration of Williams, matted in crimson and blue, with a personal notation added for emphasis.

“Dana & Sue,

“Of all the Kansas people — you two I feel closest to. You are family. I appreciate what you do for Kansas Basketball & Roy Williams.

“Thanks!

“Roy Williams”

When Williams comes to visit in a couple weeks, Anderson just hopes that his friend hasn’t left the larger ‘Hawks’ Nest — and never will.