Marshall University Athletics
A Letter from the Desk of Athletic Director Mike Hamrick
2/27/2019 8:30:00 AM | Baseball, General, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Big Green Scholarship Foundation, Ticketing & Promotions
Mike Hamrick discusses new baseball stadium and capital campaign
Dear Thundering Herd fans:
The day the plans for Marshall's own baseball stadium were announced, my emotions hit me. As 92-year-old Jack Cook, our winningest coach ever, spoke about the trials and tribulations he faced with our baseball program and the promises that were never fulfilled, tears welled in my eyes. My passion for the pursuit of an on-campus baseball stadium was already intense, but as Coach Cook has done countless times throughout his life, he motivated me even more.
Folks, this is an ambitious undertaking. We will build a 3,500-seat state-of-the-art baseball stadium at the corner of 5th Avenue and 24th Street. This facility, like so many we have built in recent years, will be among the best in the country and the envy of our peers. As Huntington Mayor Steve Williams likes to say: "Make no little plans." This is a big, big plan, and one that will take all of us to execute.
We have launched The Herd Rises, a historic capital campaign. Previously, the Vision Campaign was a success and, as a result, we built the Chris Cline Indoor Athletic Facility, Buck Harless Student-Athlete Academic Center, Chad Pennington Hall of Fame, Marshall Sports Medicine Institute and the Hoops Family Field at Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex. Those facilities serve all of our 380 student-athletes. When these next projects are complete, we will have invested more than $70 million in new or renovated facilities in a decade.
Our student-athletes have benefited from those facilities immensely. The other day I ran into Wade Martin, a junior pitcher on our baseball team, and he told me what our newest facilities like the indoor, sports medicine facility and academic center have done for him. You see, Martin is an all-academic performer in Conference USA. He had offseason surgery. Even though baseball has not had a stadium in Huntington, Martin has used the indoor facility for baseball practice.
Wade told me that the facilities "have been fantastic" and, compared to others he has seen, "are incredible." What touched me most was he said the facilities we have given him show that the university and athletic department respect student-athletes. He feels like we don't just care about how he performs on the field, but in the classroom, too. We have given him a place to study, a place to rehabilitate his injuries and a place to hone his game. He ended our conversation by saying that we have set him up for success.
There were student-athletes before Wade who did not get to enjoy first-class facilities for academics and athletics, but thanks to the financial commitment from supporters of Marshall Athletics during our last campaign, Wade's experience here was completely transformed. Even though Wade will never play a game in our new baseball stadium, we can again make the future better and brighter for the next student-athlete.
That is why I am writing to you. This is the time to throw an arm around each other and pick each other up. Now is the time to rise up and continue to invest in Marshall Athletics and our student-athletes. We need to build a baseball stadium. We need to renovate Gullickson Hall for our two basketball programs. We need to erect a statue of Hal Greer.
We need your help.
Together, the Herd will rise. Please join me.
Go Herd!
