The only basketball coach to win an NCAA national championship and an NBA title will return to Lawrence next weekend to raise funds for mental health services in Douglas County.
Larry Brown, Kansas University’s head coach during the 1988 title season and current Charlotte Bobcats coach, will headline Bert Nash Mental Health Center’s “An Evening with Larry Brown and Friends” Sept. 27 at Crown Toyota, 3430 Iowa. Brown will be joined by KU coach Bill Self, the 1988 hero and current KU assistant Danny Manning and 1988 team member Mike Maddox.
The theme for the night will be the excellence of the 1988 and 2008 teams. Self’s team won KU’s third NCAA title in April.
“We, at Bert Nash, have such high expectations of ourselves, and I think the Douglas County community has such high expectations of Bert Nash. That’s something that we’re always striving for, just like with those basketball teams,” said David Johnson, Bert Nash’s chief executive officer.
The annual “An Evening with” fundraiser is the biggest Bert Nash benefit for the organization’s endowment trust fund. It helps support services that either don’t bring in income or where reimbursement is static, such as elderly and homeless outreach. It also helped fund the WRAP program for at-risk students in schools last year.
Without it, the organization would have lost money the last few years, Johnson said.
“It really is the only real funding that we have that is within our control to make sure that Bert Nash is providing the best care we can to the thousands of people in Douglas County we serve every year,” he said.
Past honorees for the event, include the KU track program, the late community philanthropist Tensie Oldfather and former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum-Baker. It has traditionally raised $50,000.
Tickets cost $150, and they are available by calling (785) 830-1795. The event is from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Johnson said Brown agreed to do the event at the urging of his friends, Lawrence businessman Doug Compton and dentist Justin Anderson, whose family is a major supporter of KU athletics.
Monte Johnson, who played on the 1957 NCAA runner-up team and is a former KU athletic director, will serve as master of ceremonies. He served the same role on Oldfather’s night in 2005.
“I admire the way coaches like Bill Self and Larry Brown … how they manage to participate in so many worthwhile causes outside of their coaching responsibilities,” he said. “I think it’s probably as great a compliment to the agency they’re trying to help as anything you could imagine.”
Brown will serve on a panel with his “friends,” and the audience can submit written questions. Tickets include a barbecue dinner and social hour.
One special item up for auction is a program from the 40th anniversary of KU’s 1923 Helms Foundation national championship, autographed by legendary coach Phog Allen. Self and Brown will also sign it, giving it the signatures of KU’s three championship-winning coaches.
“I compliment whoever came up with that. That souvenir – that’d be an heirloom,” Monte Johnson said.