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Spanos Sports and Recreation Complex

As Herky the Hornet swayed to-and-fro in the breeze, the Hornet football team moved from Sacramento State’s practice field to the south end of Hornet Stadium to participate in the groundbreaking of the Broad Athletic Facility Thursday morning.

A crowd of nearly 300 hundred people ?” including community leaders, alumni and athletes ?” joined President Alexander Gonzalez at the morning event that marked the first phase of the Spanos Sports and Recreation Complex project.

The Broad Athletic Facility, named after the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Foundation, is estimated to cost $11 million, with site work running until October and construction continuing from November until its completion in December 2007.

The new two-story field house will take up nearly 20,000 square feet along the southern area of Hornet Stadium and will include men and women’s locker rooms, a hydrotherapy facility, team lounge, coach offices and a video/production room, among other amenities. The old field house, located north of Hornet Stadium, will be torn down following the completion of the Broad Athletic Facility.

“The players who will be here when the facility is finished will be lifting weights right here in 18 months,” Gonzalez said.

The Eli and Edythe L. Broad foundation was represented by Holly Tiche, president of Placer Ranch, – a 2,200-acre property owned by Eli Broad, located on the boundaries of the cities of Roseville, Rocklin and Lincoln. The foundation has provided a $2 million donation for the construction of the field house, which is designed for intercollegiate athletics.

“Eli Broad wants to donate to a vision of education and the legacy that follows,” Tiche said.

Eli Broad’s parents were Lithuanian immigrants and he was the first from his family to use the opportunities of higher education and obtain a college degree. He is the founder of two Fortune 500 companies in KB Home and SunAmerica Inc.

Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, are now devoted to philanthropy. Their foundation focuses on art, science, education and civic development.

The $2 million donation provided by the philanthropists is set to help Sac State in its efforts to make its athletic programs a viable recruiting tool for prospective students and athletes.

At the ceremony, former NFL player and Sac State alumnus John Gesek described his experience as a member of the early- to mid- ’80s Hornet football teams during the ceremony.

“I remember 23 years ago they were promising us a new field house,” Gesek said. “We had a great group of guys and coaches, but no support from the school as a whole.”

Gesek, who was drafted by the Oakland Raiders and played for the Dallas Cowboys from 1990 until 1994, said the only change that has occurred to the current field house is the upgraded paint job.

With the help of the Gonzalez administration, Sac State will be able to recruit better athletes with facilities that rival other local schools, Gesek said.

Football coach Steve Mooshagian was also on hand and is looking forward to the new facility.

“We’ve been taking cold showers for a while now,” Mooshagian said. “It’s been pretty bad, and today just makes everything a reality.”

Gonzalez also used the ceremony to affirm that the Recreation Wellness Events Center is in its planning stages and that architects are currently designing the facility. He also called for an early 2008 groundbreaking. The center is to be built on the north end of the stadium and expected to be 142,000 square feet.

The entire Spanos Sports and Recreation Complex project (formerly Recreation and Wellness Center project) was approved on April 28, 2004 by the student body. Measure 1 produced the largest voter turnout in Associate Students Inc. history as 55.2 percent of the 4,985 students who voted agreed to increase tuition $110 per semester to pay for the facility after Gonzalez raised $25 million for the initial construction.

The ceremony ended with Tiche, co-chair of the President’s Executive Committee Pam Stewart, Athletics Director Terry Wanless and Gonzalez using shovels with golden heads to dig the first piece of dirt that will soon become the Broad Athletic Facility.

Blake Ellington can be reached at [email protected]