Posted: 2/16/07
Baylor regents OK athletic/academic complex
WACO (ABP)—Baylor University’s board of regents has approved a plan that will begin integrating athletics into academic campus life at the school.
On Feb. 8, Baylor’s regents unanimously approved a $34 million plan to build an on-campus athletics facility and academic center.
It will mark the first time the athletics department and football-training grounds are located on Baylor’s main campus.
The new site will be called the Alwin and Dorothy Highers Athletics Complex and the Simpson Athletics and Academic Center. Its focus is a 96,300-square-foot main building that will sit next to the school’s Mayborn Museum Complex and other athletic facilities near the Brazos River.
An outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts and soccer field on the proposed construction site may be relocated to facilitate the additions, officials said.
Named after Baylor alumnus Bob Simpson, the Simpson Center will include training and equipment rooms, locker rooms, weight rooms and offices. The Highers complex will include three football fields.
The new training facilities will help attract top athletes to the school, said football Coach Guy Morriss,
The project was privately supported by a gift from the late Alwin Highers Jr. of Alexandria, La. It was the largest single monetary gift in Baylor’s history. School officials said the new complex would be completed by summer 2008.
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