LANSING — Three decades ago, Kurt Richardson walked the halls of Fairview Elementary School as a third-grader from the crosstown Cranbrook Housing Projects. A self-described “naughty kid,” it was here that he met a teacher who taught him that his choices — not his neighborhood — controlled his destiny.

Richardson returned Friday, Oct. 9, to his alma mater in Lansing, now called Pattengill Biotechnical Magnet School. Alongside more than a dozen Michigan State student athletes, he helped present a $50,000 donation of furniture to the school’s “Owl Room,” where a gaggle of elementary and middle school students hooted and hollered their thanks.

“This was the highlight of my weekend to get to come over here with all of you,” Richardson told the students.

In partnership with Michigan State, the College Football Playoff Foundation and Eckrich, the Big Ten’s “B1G Build” initiative made its third stop of the year at Pattengill, with previous projects at Rutgers and Indiana. The initiative will visit all 18 Big Ten campuses and a selected partner over the next three years.

B1G Build is the brainchild of Omar Brown, the conference’s senior vice president of community and impact. The initiative partners up Big Ten member schools with a local school, where a philanthropic initiative connects the two. The hope is to create long-lasting connections.

“The idea is, can we take a space that’s used by student athletes and teachers, modernize it, and make it really show these students here that they’re worth it and that investing in them is important,” Brown said.

“For a long time, we wanted to do something amazing with this space,” Pattengill principal Jaimi Nedziwe said, “and we just didn’t have the resources to do so, so we are very thankful today to everyone who chipped in.”

As MSU athletes including linebacker Jordan Hall, volleyball standout Malayah Long and the Sparty mascot himself riled the students up, All-American point guard Jeremy Fears Jr. gave them a speech. Before he spoke, someone asked if there were any basketball players in the crowd. One child, who loudly yelled “no,” brought out a roar of laughs from the other Spartans and a smile from Fears, who is a lot more comfortable with his spotlight than he used to be.

“This is actually my first time here,” Fears said afterward. “I really enjoyed it. I always ride past it. I never was actually able to go inside, so this was great. I definitely know my middle school, elementary school didn’t have rooms and areas, nice furniture and little things like that.”

One of Michigan State’s key staffers, Richardson, is someone who can take that message to heart. The visit brought a rush of nostalgia as he tried his best to explain to second- and third-graders his own story of a prodigal son.

“When I was here at this school, I got to come to this school from far, far away,” Richardson told the students. “At the time, there was an opportunity for kids that weren’t from this neighborhood to come to this school. … And all the kids that were here were a little bit different than the kids in my neighborhood.”

Richardson went to a roll call of Lansing educational institutions. Otto Middle School. Gardner. Dwight Rich. Still a troublemaker, he ran into his old teacher there.

I thought you were going to make different choices, she said. And that stuck with him.

Richardson went to high school at Lansing Eastern — right around the corner from Pattengill — where he became a standout football player and wrestler talented enough to play in college. It took stints at two schools before summer classes at Muskegon Community College sparked his fire. In his professional career, he preaches the motto that you can’t stop a go-getter. Since 2010, his company Encore Athletix connects professional and college athletes with professional opportunities to serve them after their athletic careers end. He has been with MSU since 2023 as its director of player engagement. He was elected to the Lansing Board of Education as a trustee in 2022.

“They asked for a representative of the university, and usually it’s somebody — you know, an AD, an associate dean,” said associate athletic director Angela Montie. “But his tie to this community and this school specifically, it’s amazing. I’m like, there’s no better story, right?”

“He’s been a guy that’s stuck around and been around,” Fears said. “… The fact that he stuck around and that he’s Lansing homegrown.”

Maybe there’s another Kurt Richardson sitting in that crowd of students Friday. Maybe someone who enters that “Owl Room” might find their spark like he once did. That’s why Richardson, Fears and others wanted to get involved in a project like this.

“Us kids right here from Lansing, from Pattengill, can go and do anything we want,” Richardson said. “So I’m so happy that we got to partner on this, someplace that’s really nostalgic to me.”

cearegood@detroitnews.com

@ConnorEaregood

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: MSU athletes, Big Ten cut ribbon on $50K donation to Lansing school

Reporting by Connor Earegood, The Detroit News / The Detroit News

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