How a fateful lunch with Charles Koch helped Mark Turgeon build Wichita State arena
When Mark Turgeon was hired as the Wichita State men’s basketball coach by Jim Schaus in March 2000, he knew the athletic director had lofty dreams about their future together.
Turgeon had been hand selected to turn around the program and Schaus was doing everything in his power to help improve the basketball facility situation, as Levitt Arena was in desperate need of a face-lift at the turn of the century.
But in order to make the improvements needed, WSU needed money. Lots of it. And it just so happened that one of the wealthiest men in the world lived in Wichita and was a fan of the Shockers.
So before Turgeon had even coached a game for Wichita State, the 35-year-old coach accompanied Schaus to a lunch meeting in October 2000 with Charles Koch, CEO of Koch Industries, that would forever alter the Wichita State basketball program.
“We went to lunch at his office and he had a private room in the cafeteria,” Turgeon recalled. “I don’t even know what I ordered, but I know I didn’t take a bite of it. We knew (Koch) was the key. If we didn’t have his money on board, we weren’t going to be able to do this (renovation).”
Turgeon believed he was there as a sidekick to Schaus, perhaps he would chime in every now and then during the conversation. He was wrong. It turned out, Koch, an obsessive sports fan, wasn’t interested in what WSU’s athletic director had to say that day — he wanted to hear basketball stories from Turgeon.
For nearly 45 minutes, Turgeon regaled Koch with old stories from his time playing for Larry Brown at Kansas and coaching under him in the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers for the 1997-98 season.
“My heart was coming through my chest and I remember my armpits were sweating,” Turgeon said. “But I was pretty quick on my feet and I could tell some jokes. He was infatuated with Larry Brown, so I told a lot of Larry Brown and Allen Iverson stories. He’s a huge sports nut, so he loved that stuff.”
As the lunch was winding down, Turgeon knew Koch had enjoyed his stories but wasn’t sure how he felt about being the lead donation of the renovation project.
Turgeon said he’ll never forget what Koch said to him before leaving the table.
“A building is just bricks and mortar,” Koch told Turgeon, “but it’s the people inside that make it go. And I believe in you.”
Before that meeting, renovating Levitt Arena was a pipe dream. But with Koch’s $6 million commitment, Schaus was able to soon make it a reality. It was Koch’s initial donation that created a snowball effect, as seven-figure gifts soon followed from Bob Geist, Tom Devlin and Barry Downing.
By the end of October 2000, Schaus went public with his plans to renovate Levitt Arena with nearly two-thirds of the $19.5 million already raised. In 2003, Koch Arena opened and soon became one of the best home-court advantages in college basketball.
Turgeon returned to the Roundhouse he helped build for the first time in 17 years on Thursday when he was honored at halftime of WSU’s game against Northern Iowa for his recent induction into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. He walked around in amazement at how far the building had come since his days at 21st and Hillside.
“I remember my office here if somebody was coming in and I was walking out, we couldn’t go through together,” Turgeon said. “And then we never showed a recruit the locker room until we built this building. I’m still really proud of what we did here and Charles Koch was instrumental in getting this going.
“He ended up giving us the money and the rest was history.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2024 at 7:03 AM.
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