D’Ion Marley
Student Sports Media
Dr. Larry Abraham grew up in Wichita and attended West High and went on to attend Wichita State University before going into podiatry school in Chicago. In 1973, he landed in Kansas to start his practice in El Dorado.
After setting up in El Dorado, he was invited to a meeting for the Butler Booster Club. From that time on, Butler is the only athletic program he has financially supported.
“I chose to support Butler athletics because I’ve always loved sports, and Butler was easy to get involved with,” he said.
Abraham donates up to $30,000 a year to Butler athletics.
Athletic Director Todd Carter had some good things to say about Abraham.
“You’ll never find a person better than Dr. Abraham,” he said.
Abraham was responsible for the remodeling of the men’s football locker room, the sports medicine center and the men’s and women’s basketball locker rooms. He also used to provide the football team with rings when they won bowl games.
Abraham has fond memories of the athletic program.
“I loved being able to give the football teams little pep talks before the game,” Abraham said.
The pep talks would only consist of a few words, such as,“Come on guys; let’s get this win. Let’s try to stay focused.”
Another one was a 2007 bowl game in Salt Lake City, Utah when it snowed four-five inches and the football team was still able to get a National Championship. Butler beat Snow (Utah) College in that game, 56-27.
Since retiring from his practice in August of 2018 after 45 years, he wasn’t able to be as active with the teams like standing on the sidelines for a football game or being on the bench with the basketball team because of health issues. He said that since he retired now he would like to start golfing more, but hasn’t been able to because of bad weather and his health.
“I just bought a new set of golf clubs, and I’m ready to use them,” Abraham said. “Since I’m doing better with my health issues, I’ll continue to support Butler.”
He said he also bought a skybox so that he’d be able to watch the football team play, no matter the weather conditions. Butler decided to honor Abraham’s name by putting it on the basketball court in the Power Plant.
“I’m very humble about my name being on the court,” He said. “It’s the one the highest honors a sports donor could have.”
