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Tulsa quarterbacks coach Beau Trahan (right) wipes sweat from his face as Luke Skipper gets a drink during an Aug. 4 practice at Harwell Field. The football team practices outdoors in all forms of weather, from hot and humid to rainy or cold. A proposed indoor practice facility is now on the back burner, according to athletic director Derrick Gragg. TOM GILBERT/Tulsa World
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Posted: Monday, August 15, 2016 8:30 pm
By BILL HAISTEN World Sports Writer | 0 comments
On July 31, 2012, then-University of Tulsa athletic director Ross Parmley discussed the need for an indoor practice facility.
“I do think it will get done,” Parmley told the Tulsa World. “It is a high-priority item for us.”
The next day, as Golden Hurricane players convened for the start of preseason camp, Tulsa’s high temperature was 112 degrees.
In January 2014, there was an update from Parmley’s successor — TU athletic director Derrick Gragg — on the status of the possible development of an indoor facility: “A strategic plan usually takes about a year, but we’re fast-tracking ours.”
In 2012, Dane Evans was a TU first-year freshman quarterback. His expectation probably was that he one day would take practice snaps in an indoor facility. Evans now is a fifth-year senior. TU still doesn’t have an indoor facility, and, apparently, won’t have one any time soon.
“The indoor practice facility — we moved that to the back burner,” Gragg said on Monday. “That’s not something we’re concentrating on now.”
The last couple of years won’t be remembered fondly by any organization that relies on donations. While he didn’t divulge all of the factors that result in TU’s turning away from the hoped-for indoor facility, Gragg did acknowledge that TU’s fund-raising campaigns have been adversely affected by the downturn in the energy industry.
“I definitely think it hurt,” Gragg said. “It has hurt a lot of people around here.”
The design and construction of even a modest indoor facility would cost at least $10 million.
Gragg now champions the pursuit of the funding necessary to build a student-athlete development center that would be located immediately east of the Case Athletic Complex, or actually be part of an expansion of the Case Athletic Complex (the football building positioned in the north end zone of H.A. Chapman Stadium). The development center would include a strength-and-conditioning facility and an academic center.
In regard to the size, design and cost of such a project, Gragg said, “We’re looking at all options right now. We’ve had good meetings with people who would be interested in helping finance it. We’re going to have to get about 100 percent of the funding before we’re able to move on it.
“We wanted to look at something that we feel is a lot more manageable. We don’t want to be stagnant. We want to be able to complete some projects for the betterment of our student-athletes. We think a new weight room and new academic center would be a good start.”
While TU has shelved its bid to build an indoor facility, two American Athletic Conference rival schools — SMU and Houston — are at the front end of the development of indoor facilities.
“I think everybody in our conference has some sort of plan or is doing some type of construction,” Gragg said. “Temple is talking about doing a stadium. UCF just did an academic support center. Everybody is moving in that type of direction.”
TU has taken a quantum leap forward with athletics facilities.
Since 1998, there was the construction of the Reynolds Center, the amazing Michael D. Case Tennis Center, the soccer and track stadium, the Collins Family Softball Complex and the Case Athletic Complex.
An indoor facility would be available to all TU athletes and would be a tremendous enhancement of the university’s profile.
Also, it would be a commitment statement to recruits.
“Obviously, we want it,” Hurricane football coach Philip Montgomery said last week. “The university wants it. I think our boosters want it. It’s going to help us all the way around.”
Nine of the last 13 Hurricane football teams have been bowl game participants.
Bowl practice happens in December. A Tulsa December can be cruel.
Spring practice happens in March and April. A Tulsa March can feel like a Tulsa December.
Since the current preseason camp began, one practice was delayed for several hours because of rain. During a heated morning session, a television reporter became ill.
“It can be 95 degrees here and not a cloud in the sky,” Evans said, “and two minutes later, it’s 60 degrees and pouring. We can’t wait all night to get our practice finished.”
While Gragg’s Monday announcement feels like a setback for the University of Tulsa, he says it isn’t.
Through two years of AAC membership, TU collected more team conference championships — a combined total of nine — than any other league member.
During the 2015-16 academic year, there were titles in women’s tennis, softball, men’s soccer, women’s cross country and men’s cross country.
There was a bowl game for the football team and an NCAA Tournament appearance for the men’s basketball team. That never before had occurred within a single academic year.
The lack of an indoor practice facility, Gragg says, seems to have no bearing on TU’s ability to win trophies.
“We just keep moving forward,” he said. “We do a lot more with less here. We have a blue-collar mentality. There are other schools that might have more extensive budgets, but we’ve won more championships than anybody else these past two years.
“We knew there would be an adjustment in the new conference, but we’re accustomed to winning championships here. We didn’t want that level to drop off any.”
Bill Haisten 918-581-8397
bill.haisten@tulsaworld.com
Tulsa quarterbacks coach Beau Trahan (right) wipes sweat from his face as Luke Skipper gets a drink during an Aug. 4 practice at Harwell Field. The football team practices outdoors in all forms of weather, from hot and humid to rainy or cold. A proposed indoor practice facility is now on the back burner, according to athletic director Derrick Gragg. TOM GILBERT/Tulsa World
Buy this photo
Posted: Monday, August 15, 2016 8:30 pm
By BILL HAISTEN World Sports Writer | 0 comments
On July 31, 2012, then-University of Tulsa athletic director Ross Parmley discussed the need for an indoor practice facility.
“I do think it will get done,” Parmley told the Tulsa World. “It is a high-priority item for us.”
The next day, as Golden Hurricane players convened for the start of preseason camp, Tulsa’s high temperature was 112 degrees.
In January 2014, there was an update from Parmley’s successor — TU athletic director Derrick Gragg — on the status of the possible development of an indoor facility: “A strategic plan usually takes about a year, but we’re fast-tracking ours.”
In 2012, Dane Evans was a TU first-year freshman quarterback. His expectation probably was that he one day would take practice snaps in an indoor facility. Evans now is a fifth-year senior. TU still doesn’t have an indoor facility, and, apparently, won’t have one any time soon.
“The indoor practice facility — we moved that to the back burner,” Gragg said on Monday. “That’s not something we’re concentrating on now.”
The last couple of years won’t be remembered fondly by any organization that relies on donations. While he didn’t divulge all of the factors that result in TU’s turning away from the hoped-for indoor facility, Gragg did acknowledge that TU’s fund-raising campaigns have been adversely affected by the downturn in the energy industry.
“I definitely think it hurt,” Gragg said. “It has hurt a lot of people around here.”
The design and construction of even a modest indoor facility would cost at least $10 million.
Gragg now champions the pursuit of the funding necessary to build a student-athlete development center that would be located immediately east of the Case Athletic Complex, or actually be part of an expansion of the Case Athletic Complex (the football building positioned in the north end zone of H.A. Chapman Stadium). The development center would include a strength-and-conditioning facility and an academic center.
In regard to the size, design and cost of such a project, Gragg said, “We’re looking at all options right now. We’ve had good meetings with people who would be interested in helping finance it. We’re going to have to get about 100 percent of the funding before we’re able to move on it.
“We wanted to look at something that we feel is a lot more manageable. We don’t want to be stagnant. We want to be able to complete some projects for the betterment of our student-athletes. We think a new weight room and new academic center would be a good start.”
While TU has shelved its bid to build an indoor facility, two American Athletic Conference rival schools — SMU and Houston — are at the front end of the development of indoor facilities.
“I think everybody in our conference has some sort of plan or is doing some type of construction,” Gragg said. “Temple is talking about doing a stadium. UCF just did an academic support center. Everybody is moving in that type of direction.”
TU has taken a quantum leap forward with athletics facilities.
Since 1998, there was the construction of the Reynolds Center, the amazing Michael D. Case Tennis Center, the soccer and track stadium, the Collins Family Softball Complex and the Case Athletic Complex.
An indoor facility would be available to all TU athletes and would be a tremendous enhancement of the university’s profile.
Also, it would be a commitment statement to recruits.
“Obviously, we want it,” Hurricane football coach Philip Montgomery said last week. “The university wants it. I think our boosters want it. It’s going to help us all the way around.”
Nine of the last 13 Hurricane football teams have been bowl game participants.
Bowl practice happens in December. A Tulsa December can be cruel.
Spring practice happens in March and April. A Tulsa March can feel like a Tulsa December.
Since the current preseason camp began, one practice was delayed for several hours because of rain. During a heated morning session, a television reporter became ill.
“It can be 95 degrees here and not a cloud in the sky,” Evans said, “and two minutes later, it’s 60 degrees and pouring. We can’t wait all night to get our practice finished.”
While Gragg’s Monday announcement feels like a setback for the University of Tulsa, he says it isn’t.
Through two years of AAC membership, TU collected more team conference championships — a combined total of nine — than any other league member.
During the 2015-16 academic year, there were titles in women’s tennis, softball, men’s soccer, women’s cross country and men’s cross country.
There was a bowl game for the football team and an NCAA Tournament appearance for the men’s basketball team. That never before had occurred within a single academic year.
The lack of an indoor practice facility, Gragg says, seems to have no bearing on TU’s ability to win trophies.
“We just keep moving forward,” he said. “We do a lot more with less here. We have a blue-collar mentality. There are other schools that might have more extensive budgets, but we’ve won more championships than anybody else these past two years.
“We knew there would be an adjustment in the new conference, but we’re accustomed to winning championships here. We didn’t want that level to drop off any.”
Bill Haisten 918-581-8397
bill.haisten@tulsaworld.com
