Rice Center a step forward for USC athletics
The renovation of the South Carolina athletics community took another step forward with the ribbon-cutting of the $8.5 million Rice Athletic Center on Friday afternoon.
The Rice Center sits next to the Dodie Anderson Academic Enrichment Center and forms the entry point of the Roost Athletics Village across from Stone Stadium on the corner of Heyward Street.
The 68,683 square-foot, three-story facility will house most of USC’s coaching staffs and athletics administrators. The first floor features a two-story high Gamecock gallery with a trophy kiosk and graphics that tell the history of USC athletics. It also holds the Gamecocks Club offices along with media relations and the marketing and ticket office.
The second floor is the home to coaches offices, and the third floor will house the athletics administration, compliance and business and travel departments. Cheerleading, equestrian, golf, men’s and women’s soccer, swimming and diving, tennis and track and field will share space on the second floor. Baseball, basketball, football and volleyball will keep offices near their playing fields.
“After years of our coaches and support staffs working separately in make-shift offices or antiquated buildings, the Rice Athletic Center brings them together in structure that allows for us to work together more efficiently and projects the professionalism which our staff has always worked,” athletics director Ray Tanner said. “This provides the coaches a place to bring recruits and families for visits and meetings that displays our commitment to excellence beyond the playing field.”
The building is named after Joe and Lisa Rice, the major contributors for the facility. Their donation was combined with the contributions of the Gamecock Club and several individuals and businesses to make the center possible.
Joe Rice spoke to the estimated 150 people on hand for the dedication and hopes to sustain the building process. In recent years, South Carolina has added the Dodie Center, Carolina Stadium, a new tennis facility, the newly landscaped area that used to house the State Farmers Market and they are in the process of renovating the softball facility that sits beyond the Rice Athletics Center walls.
“I take this opportunity to challenge the board of trustees — don’t stop now,” Joe Rice said. “We have a long way to go and have other facilities in need. The coaches and student-athletes deserve it, and the alumni deserve it. This part of us. Stay with us because we have other things to do.”
Tanner was hired as baseball coach when most of what will be in the Rice Center was located in the Roundhouse building on Rosewood Drive. He is impressed at what has happened on the site that used to house Sarge Frye Field and the Roost Athletic Dormitory.
“We all stand together as the gateway to our athletics department is open. There are symbols to celebrate our past and the success to come in the future,” Tanner said. “It is truly the hub of all the behind the scenes activity that allows us to recruit the best student athletes and then give those young men and women the best college athletic experience in the country.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2012 at 10:03 PM.