GAINESVILLE - The celebration was kept somewhat low-key, but Brenau University on Tuesday held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $4.4 million athletics park already under construction east of Gainesville.
Athletes from the softball, soccer, track and field, swimming and other sports took part in the ceremony next to the Milliken plant in New Holland on Jesse Jewell Parkway.
The athletes some of their coaches climbed aboard a piece of earth-moving equipment to pose for pictures, then queued up for chili dogs, hamburgers and onion rings from the Varsity food truck that the university arranged to have stop by.
“During finals week, with several teams still working their way toward playoff season, we wanted simply to get as many of our athletes as possible together one more time before the end of the academic year to show our appreciation for all they do for Brenau University,” said Brenau University President Ed Schrader. “No speeches. Just hotdogs.”
The site will be developed as the “home field” location for Golden Tigers intercollegiate teams: softball, soccer, and track and field. However, only the softball portion of the park is under construction now. The rest depends on successful fundraising in the university’s $40 million Forever Gold capital campaign or some alternate financing in the future.
South Carolina-based Pacolet Milliken Enterprises, Inc., donated a 16.8-acre tract of land for the development of a multipurpose athletics park at the site of the historic New Holland textile mill village.
The development of facilities for intercollegiate athletics complex in the New Holland area includes a gift from former Coca-Cola Chair and CEO Doug Ivester and his wife, Kay, both of whom grew up in the New Holland mill community. They contributed funding to complete the first stage of the complex, which has been named “Ernest Ledford Grindle Athletics Park” – in honor of Kay’s late father. The property includes the former site of the school where the Ivesters met in third grade and fittingly was the locale of the field for the textile mill village’s near-legendary baseball team.
Initial development on the site includes a softball field, parking, bleachers, field house and other improvements. Additional facilities at the park that will be built as additional financing occurs include a field for soccer and other field sports, a running track and common-use areas, like walking and jogging paths and others available for public use and special programs.
