photo by: Richard Gwin

Visitors check out a larger-than-life display of Wilt Chamberlain on Saturday during a grand opening event for Kansas University's new DeBruce Center. The center houses James Naismith's original rules of Basket

Payam Farajiani was impressed by more than what was on display Saturday at the DeBruce Center.

Farajiani was one of a continuous stream of visitors to the open house marking the opening of the center that is the home of the 13 rules of basketball Dr. James Naismith committed to two type-written pages in 1892 in Springfield, Mass. The Iraq native is also a testament to the worldwide reach of the game Naismith created as a sport to occupy athletes forced indoors during cold winter months.

Farajiani played high school and college basketball in his homeland. He learned of Kansas University’s excellence in basketball after deciding to study for a master’s degree in aerospace engineering at the institution and became better acquainted with that tradition after arriving in Lawrence six months ago.

photo by: Richard Gwin

A commons and dining area is full of visitors during a grand opening event Saturday at Kansas University's DeBruce Center.

On Saturday, Farajiani made several loops through the center, taking in the rules and other displays on Naismith’s life and the place of Kansas University in basketball history. Through that and the sight of the many young and old Jayhawk fans enjoying their first visits to the center, he got fresh insight into KU’s basketball tradition and what it means to the extended Jayhawk family.

“I think it’s great people invested in something like this,” he said. “I think it’s great it means so much to so many people, and they can share it here.”

Travis Stowell, of Andover, took a detour from an outing for a Kansas City Royals game to take in the opening. He brought his son Max, who celebrated his eighth birthday last week, and the boy’s best friend Cooper Mason, who will be 8 on Monday, so that they could better understand KU basketball tradition.

“I’m a KU graduate,” Stowell said. “I wanted the boys to see the rules of basketball and where they’ll be in a few years.”

The boys’ future enrollment at KU seems a pretty safe bet. Max and Cooper sported KU T-shirts, and Max identified Baby Jay and Perry Ellis as his favorite Jayhawks. Stowell said they had bags filled with “swag” given away at the event, posters from the second-floor gift shop and cellphone photos taken in front of the rules.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Jack Larsen, 7, of Lawrence, sports a Jayhawk balloon hat at the grand opening of Kansas University's Debruce Center, held Saturday, July 23, 2016.

“Quite frankly, this is where the rules should be,” Stowell said.

The turnout was impressive for a hot summer day, said Curtis Marsh, director of the DeBruce Center.

“I was worried with the 100-degree weather, people might not want to get out,” he said around noon. “We’ve had continuous people coming through enjoying the center and the party since we opened the doors.”

Contributing to the party-like atmosphere at the open house were basketball toss games, bounce houses, face painting and balloon artists for children and free keychains, posters and refrigerator magnets for all.

As they enjoyed the activities, people were getting acclimated with the center, which is both a shrine to Naismith and the rules of basketball and a gathering place for Jayhawk fans, Marsh said. Fans young and old were eating food from the first-floor Courtside Cafe, something he envisioned would be a regular sight with the start of school in August.

photo by: Richard Gwin

Elijah Pahls, 11, left, and his brother Samuel Pahls, 4, both of Gardner, pose for a picture in front of row of historical Jayhawks on Saturday in the DeBruce Center.

A number of people walking through the center asked him where the rules were displayed, Marsh said. He attributed that to the respectful and understated way the rules are presented.

The rules are displayed on one wall of the second-floor Rules Concourse, which connects the center to Allen Fieldhouse. On the concourse’s opposite wall, 18 quotes from former Jayhawk greats or other basketball luminaries grace silver panels.

Those panels caught the attention of Ed Hawkins, of Lawrence, who attended the opening with wife, Mary Chapman.

“I don’t know what they call that, but it is outstanding to have all those people represented with statements,” he said. “That’s a pretty impressive thing.”

One quote had special meaning for Hawkins.

“Lynette Woodard,” he said. “I know her personally, and she’s a wonderful person. I know how much it means to her.”