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The UK Basketball Museum closed its doors this week. It will re-open in an altered form on campus sometime before the upcoming season begins.
The museum had a history of financial struggles dating to its inception in 1999. That history led, inevitably it seemed, to a University of Kentucky news release on Tuesday that officially, if vaguely, announced its demise.
Rob Mullens, UK's deputy director of athletics, confirmed that the museum had closed. As he did earlier this year, he pledged that the school would pay tribute to college basketball's winningest program in some fitting way.
“What we will do is find a way to represent the tradition of Kentucky basketball as it deserves to be represented,” Mullens said on Tuesday.
Most likely, the new museum will be in the Craft Center, UK's year-old practice facility. Mullens called the Craft Center “kind of the natural place” for a museum.
The new museum will be free to the public. It will recognize the many All-Americans who have played for Kentucky, the famous teams and the coaches who have guided the program, Mullens said.
What the new museum will not have is interactive exhibits such as the video display that provided the illusion of going one on one against, say, Dan Issel.
Besides being a way for fans to luxuriate in UK's basketball tradition, the new museum will also serve as a recruiting tool, Mullens said.
The museum, an entity separate from UK and the school's Athletics Association, owed more than $3 million to eight banks. Mullens said he understood that the banks that made the loan to help create the museum are willing to waive $2 million of that debt. But they want payment of the other $1 million by June 30.
Van Florence, who was brought in soon after the museum opened to help resuscitate its financial health, said Tuesday, “I'm saddened to see what I started eight years ago to do, I couldn't finish.”
UK assumed a debt of $1.2 million, which will be paid in annual payments of $100,000, Mullens said.
