The first time Georgia State coach Bill Curry walked into the building at 188 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive he looked around in despair.
Built before the Civil War and rumored to be a stable for Gen. Sherman’s horses during his stopover in Atlanta, the building was filthy.
This shell, covered in graffiti and surrounded by trash, would one day be the home of Curry’s football team? He guessed there might have still been some of Sherman’s horses somewhere in the building.
“This area was the defining picture of the most urban blight that I have ever seen in my life, and I played in Baltimore for a long time, so I know urban blight,” Curry said.
With the same work and determination he hopes to see from his football team when it opens preseason practice Thursday for its second season, the building was renovated. Today, the GSU Sports Complex is a $6 million example of the hopes and dreams of a campus, of coaches, of players and of fans.
The players got their first glimpse earlier this week. They were stunned:
- Thirty-inch-wide lockers, 114 of them, with the Panthers' logo laser-etched into them. They include three fans: one that dries the inside of their helmets, another for the inside of their shoulder pads and another for their new Nike cleats.
- Eight small meeting rooms, enough for each position group: defense on the building's right; offense on the left. An auditorium is in the middle where every player can assemble.
- A clock with the time ticking down until the Sept. 2 season opener against Clark Atlanta at the Georgia Dome.
- Phrases, mottoes and wisdom from Curry and other football greats are plastered everywhere on the white and blue walls.
- A photo of the inaugural team greets the players after they enter the building, walk down the hallway and make a left toward the locker room. It is one of several photos from the inaugural season.
It even has that new-building smell of paint mixed with hope, at least until almost 100 sweaty men come in from their first practice. However, that’s what the locker fans and state-of-the-art laundry room are for.
“It’s amazing, just looking back where we came from practicing in the old swimming facility. It’s breathtaking,” wide receiver Jordan Giles said.
Lastly, in a touch to the building’s past and something Curry’s wife, Carolyn, suggested the school keep during that inaugural heart-wrenching visit: Some of the original exterior brick and stone walls remain. The same is true of some of the wood in the ceiling.
As the players sit on one of eight treatment tables, they can look up or around and perhaps wonder who else might have once worked in the building, which is 21,643 square feet. Alumnus Parker “Pete” Petit donated $1.5 million toward the building, the largest amount given. The building is in the shadow of the Capitol, just east of Interstates 75 and 85.
By choice, Curry didn’t have too many recommendations for the design or functionality of the building’s interior. He did have suggestions for the size of the meeting spaces. There were things, such as the size and style of the lockers that he hoped would be included. The lockers are similar to ones used by the NFL’s Green Bay Packers, for whom Curry played from 1965-66.
However, what thrills him most about the building isn’t the photos, slogans, or meeting rooms — it’s the spiritual brick and mortar that made it happen.
“I could not have been more shocked as we began to see it develop,” Curry said. “Even better was our players’ responses to what they created because without these young men having the faith in our program to come here, this certainly would not have happened.
“Our players and coaching staff that came here as an act of faith, a wish, a promise, a vision, a hope and a dream, I’ll be eternally grateful to all of them. To see them walk in the locker room yesterday and hear them yelping, jumping up and down and raving that this is the best locker room they had ever seen. That is such a great thrill to me.”
The building may have a physical effect on the players as well as a motivational effect.
Because they were spread all over campus last year, the players walked an average of six miles a day last year from classes to practices to meals and the weight room, according to a flow chart Curry worked up.
This year, because of the new building, that distance will be cut to the 5- to 10-minute, three-block walk back and forth from the athletic offices to the new building. And that’s if the players don’t ride the shuttles that can carry them.
“That’s an awful lot of time and energy on the legs that won’t happen this time,” Curry said. “We should be much better coached than last year.”
Center Ben Jacoby and defensive end Christo Bilukidi said the one-stop-shopping combined with the technology will help them focus. Bilukidi said none of the players complained about how spread out everything was last year, but it did have an effect.
“Now when you come in here, we look like an established program that’s been here for 50 years,” Bilukidi said. “It will motivate this team.”
About the Author
