Oregon State Athletics Breaks Ground on New Track and Field Facility
June 14, 2011
Watch the entire Track and Field Facility Ground Breaking Ceremony
Track and Field Facility Groundbreaking Photo Gallery
Corvallis, Ore. – It was a mixture of Oregon State track and field past, present and future as the 400-plus guests gathered on Tuesday afternoon at the Track and Field Groundbreaking Ceremony to usher in the excitement for what’s to come for the program.
Oregon State Director of Athletics Bob De Carolis opened up the ceremony explaining the four phases and what each entailed before handing the floor over to head track and field coach Kelly Sullivan.
“This is very humbling to see people like Berny, Chuck, Pat and Sam here today and the rest of our alums and so many people that have been behind this program way before I ever even got here,” Sullivan said. “There’s no question that Oregon State University is an amazing place, a special place. It’s a university where about 80 percent of my family graduated from, so when the opportunity did come [to take the job here], it was home. I’m very proud of being a part of Oregon State and to be a part of something that a lot of people didn’t believe could happen.”
“This is a wonderful day,” 1968-69 NCAA Champion, 1968 Olympic gold medalist and revolutionary high jumper Dick Fosbury said. “We’re here today to start to reconstruct the chain of meets that were held on the Oregon State campus from 1896 until 1988. But that chain was broken. We’ve been resolved because the character of Oregon State student-athletes has held strong. Our character does not quit when we lose, we don’t surrender when we’re opposed.”
Oregon State President Ed Ray, head football coach Mike Riley, President and CEO of the OSU Foundation Mike Goodwin and principal donor Jim Whyte all followed, but the most important speeches of the day came from current track and field athlete Erin Jones and football player Jordan Bishop, who will be able to use the new facilities as they continue their athletic careers at Oregon State.
“As a team we cannot be more thrilled to have track back,” Jones said. “It is a place to grow and evolve into the best athletes that we dream to be. It defines us. We are track and field athletes. It gives us a sense of pride and confidence that it belongs to us and that we’ll be building a comprehensive team that involves throwers, jumpers, sprinters and hurdlers. We will truly be a track and field family.”
“It’s not easy to being a two-sport athlete here at Oregon State, but having such a flexible and supportive coach in Mike Riley makes it that much easier,” Bishop said. “I think by having a track it will help recruiting for other sports because so many people in high school love doing track in addition to other sports. Now we can tell recruits that we have a state-of-the-art facility right here.”
Over 60 former track and field alumni were in attendance including All-Americans Gerry Church (1955 – javelin), Gary Stenlund (1960, 1963 – javelin), Dan Likens (1961 – javelin), Jan Underwood (1964 – 800 yard run), Tom Woods (1972-75 – high jump), Dan Fulton (1979 – 5,000 meters), Tim Fox (1979 – discus), and five-time All-American Darrell Horn (1959-61 – long jump and triple jump). And former coaches Sam Bell (1959-65), Berny Wagner (1966-75), Chuck McNeil (1984-88) and Pat Ingram (1975) were also in the crowd.
Phase one of the track and field project will include an IAAF certified Olympic-caliber polyurethane surface, nine-lane track with one meter safety zone on the outer perimeter, steeplechase on the interior apex of the turn, dual high jump aprons, dual long jump/triple jump runways with oppositional pits, dual pole vault runways with oppositional plant boxes, dual shot put throw sectors, dual discus rings, oppositional east/west javelin runways, FieldTurf synthetic turf infield, NCAA and high school track markings and Oregon State graphics.
This only is the beginning to the multi-phase project. For more information or if interested in contributing, please contact Doug Oxsen, Director of Development for the OSU Foundation at (541) 737-7486 or doug.oxsen@oregonstate.edu.
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