 In 1994 Donnie Walsh, president and CEO of the Indiana Pacers, owned by the Simon brothers, decided to start the Pacers Foundation to support worthy community initiatives.Walsh discussed his plans with Mannheimer, who recounted to Walsh the earlier conversation with Conrad.Walsh immediately seized on the idea of a memorial as an ideal project to launch the Foundation and asked Mannheimer to work with Pacers executive Kathryn Jordan on the project.