Bill Self reacts to historic $300 million gift for Kansas athletics, thanks David Booth

The modern era of college athletics is rapidly changing as the advent of NIL and the transfer portal have changed the way things run. What better way to adapt to the new changes than the $300 million gift Kansas recently received from mega-donor David Booth?

Kansas coach Bill Self touched on how generous the gift was. And how much it reflects on Booth as a person.

“Well as everybody knows, David grew up on Naismith Drive,” Self said. “And he’s loved KU going back to when he was a youngster going to Lawrence High. He has obviously been ultra-successful in his financial world but has never lost sight of the people and places that have put him in a position to actually be as successful as he has been.

“He’s given back to a lot of different people and a lot of different organizations. And of course the University of Chicago being one of them with the Booth School of Business. And we got him involved in athletics, I don’t know when it was. Early 2000s or whatever. And he’s been a constant in basically anything we’ve done moving forward in the athletic department and the university. He’s been in the forefront to spearheading those drives. And obviously with the Gateway project he’s done so much. Which has also ignited and spearheaded others wanting to be involved too.”

Kansas was the recipient of the gift, one of the largest in college athletics history, according to ESPN. It’s a huge piece of financing that will solve a whole lot of problems.

Booth is alum of the university, getting his bachelors degree from Kansas in 1968, majoring in business. He earned a Master’s of Science from Kansas the very next year as well.

“It’s obvious his generosity, he and his family’s generosity, has been remarkable,” Self said. “This gift, although I don’t understand it totally on how it works, but this gift obviously will put our athletic department in a position to operate in a way that two years ago we were thinking, ‘How do we get to where we want to go?’ And now there’s a clear path that that will allow us and help us get to where we want to go.”

With the gift, Kansas should be able to recruit at the highest level, attracting top-notch recruits through major financing. It’ll also help other areas of the program.

One thing Self wanted to stress, though, was that Booth wouldn’t want his gift — even as large as it is — to be the sole source of financing for the Kansas program. It’s just a starting point.

“I know David well enough to know he gave us that gift for us to utilize in the best way,” Self said. “But for us to also understand part of the responsibility of that gift is to make sure we go out and take advantage of it by working as hard as we ever have to bring other people into the mix to make it where it’s not a one-man gift or a one-family gift.

“It’s the tip of the spear on what should be a lot more. So that, to me, I think will be a driving component in how the athletic department looks at it.”