MONMOUTH, Ill. — A date that Monmouth College has had circled for quite some time will arrive on Oct. 25, as the school will officially dedicate the new $22 million Huff Athletic Center at 10 a.m. as part of Homecoming Weekend festivities. The following day, the community is invited to an open house at the new facility from 2-4 p.m.

Incorporating the original gymnasium (1925) and the Glennie Gymnasium (1983), the Huff Athletic Center more than triples in size the existing facilities, adding a multipurpose fieldhouse with a six-lane running track, an eight-lane natatorium with a competition pool and a modern fitness/training area. The center also features a sauna, a steam room, two batting cages, a wellness suite, a climbing wall and a juice bar.

Upon its opening, the 155,000-square-foot complex will provide first-class amenities for fitness, recreation, physical education, intramural activities and intercollegiate competition. It will be on a par with the best small-college recreation facilities in the country.

The facility would not be possible without the unprecedented generosity of Walter Huff ’56. Huff and his wife, Elizabeth, made history with a $5 million gift to Monmouth College in 1983, and in 2001, history not only repeated itself, but Huff took it even farther, providing a $10 million naming gift for the facility in memory of Elizabeth. The first ceremonial shovels of dirt for the 17-month project were dug in the summer of 2002.

“This gift is an expression of thanks to Monmouth College for helping me financially as a student as well as for providing me with a liberal arts education,” Huff said at the time. “When viewed in retrospect, my education here was the foundation for much of the success I have had in my business career.”

Other recent donors who contributed major gifts to the new facility include Mr. and Mrs. David Byrnes ’72, who provided the lead gift for the educational wing; George ’47 and Maxine Murdy ’47 Trotter, whose gift funded the Trotter Fitness Complex; and the Niblock family, who funded the track in the yet-to-be named fieldhouse. Larry and Nancy Glennie ’53 Beck and

Isabel Bickett Marshall ’36 previously funded Glennie Gymnasium and the James Marshall Training Room, respectively.

For the college’s All-American track athletes and for its once-a-week joggers, the Huff Athletic Center will be a blessing. Track competitors have had to do with makeshift indoor training facilities for the entire history of the program, yet the men’s and women’s teams have won a combined 15 indoor conference championships since 1991. Coach Roger Haynes’ teams will now have the opportunity to train in a top-notch facility and can pursue even loftier goals on the national track scene.

“The Huff Athletic Center will have a tremendous impact on all students – whether they are varsity athletes or not – and the vast majority of the campus community will find ways to continue their healthy lifestyles in this outstanding recreational complex,” said MC president Richard Giese.