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University of New Hampshire Athletics
Among the members of the Steering Committee: Arnold Garron '84, Dave Brownell, Marty Scarano, Kerry Chandler '84 and Andy Lietz.
Photo by: David Murray
Scarano on Wildcat Stadium: 'An Enormous Sense of Pride'
10/12/2016 3:48:00 PM | Football, UNH Insider, Wildcat Stadium
The fans came in droves on Homecoming Saturday, a record crowd 20,000-something strong, filling the parking lots and the seats in the new Wildcat Stadium for the football game and thoroughly enjoying the University of New Hampshire's 21-12 win over William & Mary.
Build it and they did come.
They've come in record numbers to the first two football of the season games and the Wildcats play again at home on Saturday against James Madison University, one of the best teams in the Colonial Athletic Association and the country. Tickets are available at www.unhwildcats.com, by calling 603-862-4000 or at the Whittemore Center Box Office.
Friday night of Homecoming weekend, the builders came.
Many of the movers and the shakers instrumental in making the long-awaited stadium a reality gathered in the Service Credit Union Victory Club – a top-of-the-line spot that is offering an enhanced game-day experience unlike any other - for a reception honoring them and celebrating what they had helped accomplish.
UNH President Mark Huddleston warmly welcomed and thanked them all and so too did Debbie Dutton, vice president of advancement and president of the UNH Foundation.
They noted the contributions of lead donors Tom Arrix, '86, Service Credit Union and J. Morgan '84 and Tara Weiner Rutman, among many others.
"We are so pleased with the way the facility turned out," said Andy Lietz, former chairman of the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees during the event. "Everybody that I've come in contact with, whether they be alumni, students, or just guests of the university have been very impressed with the facility itself and the way that it's laid out and how it supports the fan experience. People are close to the field. They feel like they are really part of it. In the New Hampshire way, it's a not-over-the-top facility and people feel comfortable in it."
Lietz was involved in the project from the start and mentored director of athletics Marty Scarano through the process of building behind-the-scenes support for the project.
Like Wildcat Stadium's grand opening with a win over Holy Cross on Sept. 10 in front of 13,242 fans – a record for a UNH season-opening game – the Homecoming weekend event played to an enthusiastic crowd.
"It's overwhelming in some ways," Scarano said. "I've been here a long time now and I've never seen this kind of outpouring of joy and pride. I said to President Huddleston that my takeaway, the one word I've heard from now hundreds of people, is how proud they are of the facility. There's an enormous sense of pride. I'm so grateful for the benefactors and for President Huddleston helping us get this done."
Joe Bellavance of Bellavance Beverage Company of Nashua, a longtime benefactor of UNH athletics, contributed to the stadium and is one of many excited to see it come to fruition.
"It's been a long time coming," Bellavance said. "I get tired of going down to Gillette Stadium and sitting in traffic to see the Patriots - and to see UNH punish UMass. Twice. We need a facility like this, with a little comfort and a little more of an established facility here."
He'd get a little envious on his drives home to New Hampshire from Florida.
"I'd go right by James Madison's stadium and see the corner of it and say some day we're going to have something like that," Bellavance said. "Now we've got it. It puts New Hampshire on the map. No more do we have to play second fiddle to UMass and Maine and their facilities."
Kerry Chandler '84, a donor and new member of the UNH Foundation Board, loved Friday's event, and the stadium.
"To be very honest, when I first heard about the stadium I was skeptical," she said. "I'm not really a football person."
The more she heard and learned about the stadium, the more she came around.
"I really like that it's not just for football, it's for a lot of athletic teams and also for the community and the state," Chandler said. "It's great that everybody's going to get to enjoy those facilities. It's good for the university and brings people in."
She loves the stadium itself.
"It's so professional," Chandler said. "It's gorgeous. I'm especially fond of the patios. Ever since I saw the designs for the stadium, I said that's for me. That's where I want to be."
Lietz predicted the stadium will have a major impact moving forward.
"This facility in my view will turn out to be an absolute cornerstone and a portal into the campus for families, for alumni and for people in the state of New Hampshire," Lietz said. "When we went about developing this we said we wanted it to be a statewide facility and high school championships will be played here and other events like New Hampshire Special Olympics and activities that people from all over New Hampshire can come to. . . . It really, I think, reflects the quality of facilities that we want to have for our student-athletes as well the quality of the physical facilities on campus, whether they be academic or whether they be athletic."
Lietz talked about the arts as well.
"This morning in the Foundation meeting, I suggested that we take on as a challenge a performing arts center and museum as that next major project on campus," he said. "Just think about the improvements that we've had over the years – the science buildings, the refurbishment of Kingsbury Hall, the library, Hamilton-Smith right now, the new stadium, Paul College, the Hamel Recreation Center. If we have an arts facility, performing arts, museum, that will, I think, create a campus environment that the whole state will really use and enjoy."
This night, Wildcat Stadium was the focus.
Many in the Service Credit Union Victory Club on a Friday night before the big Homecoming game had gathered in a tent at the southern end of the stadium 16 months earlier for a groundbreaking ceremony.
That night there was no Service Credit Union Victory Club, there were no extra-comfy seats in the stadium, there were no suites, there were no decks for outside viewing and there was no expanded menu of concessions.
Now, there is all that and much more.
"In a lot of ways, the stadium was the culmination of many years' worth of effort," Scarano said. "We've been close a couple of times. Very close."
He mentioned longtime supporter and contributor, the late Ed Fish, among others.
"I think a lot about guys like Ed Fish who would have been so proud to have seen this happen," Scarano said. "He and others put so much into it and unfortunately they weren't here to appreciate it."
The list of people Scarano and Huddleston and Dutton thanked is long.
Former football coach Bill Bowes and present head coach Sean McDonnell - who played for Bowes, coached under him and then took over for him in 1999 as head coach - were high on Scarano's list.
"None of this would have happened without Bill Bowes and Sean McDonnell and the football teams they put on the field," Scarano said. "If we didn't have a successful program no one could support spending that kind of money. I think you've got to start with that. You've got to start with Bill Bowes and then you've got to talk about Sean McDonnell and all the players that played here. . . . A lot of things had to coalesce for this to happen and they did and I'm just thankful that it's here."
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
Build it and they did come.
They've come in record numbers to the first two football of the season games and the Wildcats play again at home on Saturday against James Madison University, one of the best teams in the Colonial Athletic Association and the country. Tickets are available at www.unhwildcats.com, by calling 603-862-4000 or at the Whittemore Center Box Office.
Friday night of Homecoming weekend, the builders came.
Many of the movers and the shakers instrumental in making the long-awaited stadium a reality gathered in the Service Credit Union Victory Club – a top-of-the-line spot that is offering an enhanced game-day experience unlike any other - for a reception honoring them and celebrating what they had helped accomplish.
UNH President Mark Huddleston warmly welcomed and thanked them all and so too did Debbie Dutton, vice president of advancement and president of the UNH Foundation.
They noted the contributions of lead donors Tom Arrix, '86, Service Credit Union and J. Morgan '84 and Tara Weiner Rutman, among many others.
"We are so pleased with the way the facility turned out," said Andy Lietz, former chairman of the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees during the event. "Everybody that I've come in contact with, whether they be alumni, students, or just guests of the university have been very impressed with the facility itself and the way that it's laid out and how it supports the fan experience. People are close to the field. They feel like they are really part of it. In the New Hampshire way, it's a not-over-the-top facility and people feel comfortable in it."
Lietz was involved in the project from the start and mentored director of athletics Marty Scarano through the process of building behind-the-scenes support for the project.
Like Wildcat Stadium's grand opening with a win over Holy Cross on Sept. 10 in front of 13,242 fans – a record for a UNH season-opening game – the Homecoming weekend event played to an enthusiastic crowd.
"It's overwhelming in some ways," Scarano said. "I've been here a long time now and I've never seen this kind of outpouring of joy and pride. I said to President Huddleston that my takeaway, the one word I've heard from now hundreds of people, is how proud they are of the facility. There's an enormous sense of pride. I'm so grateful for the benefactors and for President Huddleston helping us get this done."
Joe Bellavance of Bellavance Beverage Company of Nashua, a longtime benefactor of UNH athletics, contributed to the stadium and is one of many excited to see it come to fruition.
"It's been a long time coming," Bellavance said. "I get tired of going down to Gillette Stadium and sitting in traffic to see the Patriots - and to see UNH punish UMass. Twice. We need a facility like this, with a little comfort and a little more of an established facility here."
He'd get a little envious on his drives home to New Hampshire from Florida.
"I'd go right by James Madison's stadium and see the corner of it and say some day we're going to have something like that," Bellavance said. "Now we've got it. It puts New Hampshire on the map. No more do we have to play second fiddle to UMass and Maine and their facilities."
Kerry Chandler '84, a donor and new member of the UNH Foundation Board, loved Friday's event, and the stadium.
"To be very honest, when I first heard about the stadium I was skeptical," she said. "I'm not really a football person."
The more she heard and learned about the stadium, the more she came around.
"I really like that it's not just for football, it's for a lot of athletic teams and also for the community and the state," Chandler said. "It's great that everybody's going to get to enjoy those facilities. It's good for the university and brings people in."
She loves the stadium itself.
"It's so professional," Chandler said. "It's gorgeous. I'm especially fond of the patios. Ever since I saw the designs for the stadium, I said that's for me. That's where I want to be."
Lietz predicted the stadium will have a major impact moving forward.
"This facility in my view will turn out to be an absolute cornerstone and a portal into the campus for families, for alumni and for people in the state of New Hampshire," Lietz said. "When we went about developing this we said we wanted it to be a statewide facility and high school championships will be played here and other events like New Hampshire Special Olympics and activities that people from all over New Hampshire can come to. . . . It really, I think, reflects the quality of facilities that we want to have for our student-athletes as well the quality of the physical facilities on campus, whether they be academic or whether they be athletic."
Lietz talked about the arts as well.
"This morning in the Foundation meeting, I suggested that we take on as a challenge a performing arts center and museum as that next major project on campus," he said. "Just think about the improvements that we've had over the years – the science buildings, the refurbishment of Kingsbury Hall, the library, Hamilton-Smith right now, the new stadium, Paul College, the Hamel Recreation Center. If we have an arts facility, performing arts, museum, that will, I think, create a campus environment that the whole state will really use and enjoy."
This night, Wildcat Stadium was the focus.
Many in the Service Credit Union Victory Club on a Friday night before the big Homecoming game had gathered in a tent at the southern end of the stadium 16 months earlier for a groundbreaking ceremony.
That night there was no Service Credit Union Victory Club, there were no extra-comfy seats in the stadium, there were no suites, there were no decks for outside viewing and there was no expanded menu of concessions.
Now, there is all that and much more.
"In a lot of ways, the stadium was the culmination of many years' worth of effort," Scarano said. "We've been close a couple of times. Very close."
He mentioned longtime supporter and contributor, the late Ed Fish, among others.
"I think a lot about guys like Ed Fish who would have been so proud to have seen this happen," Scarano said. "He and others put so much into it and unfortunately they weren't here to appreciate it."
The list of people Scarano and Huddleston and Dutton thanked is long.
Former football coach Bill Bowes and present head coach Sean McDonnell - who played for Bowes, coached under him and then took over for him in 1999 as head coach - were high on Scarano's list.
"None of this would have happened without Bill Bowes and Sean McDonnell and the football teams they put on the field," Scarano said. "If we didn't have a successful program no one could support spending that kind of money. I think you've got to start with that. You've got to start with Bill Bowes and then you've got to talk about Sean McDonnell and all the players that played here. . . . A lot of things had to coalesce for this to happen and they did and I'm just thankful that it's here."
Allen Lessels
@UNHInsider
Allen.Lessels@unh.edu
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