A legacy completed

Kansas volleyball coach Ray Bechard and his wife, Pam, were treated to a heck of a surprise earlier this week, when the two returned from a 3-week trip to Europe and found out that Bechard's already indelible stamp on the KU program was now there both literally and permanently.

Welcome to Ray Bechard Court at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena.

The official unveiling for all to see will come Friday night, when Matt Ulmer's current Kansas team takes on Houston in the Big 12 opener at 6 p.m. at Horejsi.

But the Bechard family got a sneak peek at it on Tuesday, and it left the same kind of mark on the family that Bechard left on the KU volleyball program — massive and from the heart.

"The level of surprise was pretty high until we looked over and saw all the grandkids, and that's when it got pretty emotional as well," Bechard said Thursday during a press conference at Allen Fieldhouse.

The longtime KU volleyball coach's appreciation for the gesture by KU AD Travis Goff, Associate AD Nicole Corcoran and the entire KU athletic department went well beyond seeing his name — a replica of his actual signature — emblazoned on the floor.

For him, this was a full circle moment, the completion of a legacy that stayed strong even into retirement but now feels even stronger than ever before.

"No doubt," Bechard said Thursday. "I can't really wrap my mind around the commitment they made to me, my family, and what we accomplished here with with doing this and really uniquely honored us in a way that we really weren't expecting."

Bechard, who retired after the 2024 season, racked up 496 victories in his 27 years in charge of the program. He led the Jayhawks to 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, three Sweet 16s, the Final Four in 2015 and a Big 12 title in 2015.

He left the game at around the same time that several of his good friends did, other veteran college volleyball coaches. And he noted on Thursday that in many of those cases, the old just kind of faded away.

The fact that KU was not interested in allowing him to do that here clearly meant something to him. He referenced it multiple times on Thursday and has spoke highly of his continued connection to all things KU volleyball in the past two years.

And that was before the department decided to name the court in his honor. Bechard and Ulmer have built a great relationship and the two have talked about the continual, albeit quieter, impact that KU's all-time volleyball wins leader still has on the program, both in name and legacy and as a shoulder for Ulmer to lean on.

He still attends most matches. He has deeply rooted relationships with several current players and remains close like family to so many alums. In fact, he joked Thursday that Pam used to make baby blankets for all the former players who grew up and had kids and acknowledged that she's had a hard time keeping up of late.

"I've had some pretty close friends over the last couple years who have coached a long time retire and just kind of drift away," Bechard explained. "Not that they got isolated by the university, but they didn't really get their arms wrapped around them like Kansas has done to me."

He continued: "It's kind of hard to describe that connection, but the connection is complete now because of how the administration continually embraced me, even though I wasn't an active member of the coaching staff, or how Matt and his staff continually embraced me, or how he continued to allow his team to continue to embrace me and my family. That's not the case everywhere, I can tell you, but in Kansas, that's why you love this place so much because it's different than most places are in that regard. So for that, I'm very thankful."

Bechard and nearly his entire family will be in attendance on Friday night, when the Jayhawks (7-3) take on Houston at 6 p.m. And the new name of the court will be officially recognized during a brief ceremony just before first serve.

By the time that rolls around, Bechard will have had a few days to process what has happened. He may even have pinched himself a few times just to make sure the whole thing is real.

And then, for the rest of his life and the lives of his grandchildren and their grandchildren, the family name will be right there on the court at whatever KU's volleyball arena comes to look like in the decades ahead.

True to form, though, Bechard made sure to point out on Thursday that even with the depth of his appreciation for the gesture, he wants all of those who were a part of his 27 years at Kansas — players, coaches, managers, administrators, fans and more — to feel like their impact shaped him and the program as much as he did.

"That court, it says Ray Bechard on there, but it belongs to all of us," he said. "You think about all the coaches that I've worked alongside, with all the student-athletes, all the great Kansas staff administratively, and all the people, strength coaches, athletic trainers, my family's been a huge part of this journey. So, the Ray Bechard court, yes, that carries special significance. But as people have been reaching out, I say it belongs to everybody, everybody that's been a part of the Ray Bechard journey in the last 27 years and beyond."

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