University of Tennessee at Chattanooga vice chancellor and athletic director Mark Wharton recently had a conversation with a former UTC football player, talking about the new Wolford Family Athletic Complex, which had just been completed.
The player, who played at UTC from “roughly 2010 to 2014” according to Wharton, recalled coming for his recruiting visit and how the head coach at the time — likely former Mocs player and leader Russ Huesman — was excited back then about the potential creation of the new complex.
“The coach at the time pointed to a backhoe with caution tape over in the Blood Assurance Lot and said, ‘We’re going to break ground any day now, any day,” Wharton recalled in front of the group of donors, boosters, athletes and fans that assembled in the new center, which didn’t actually break ground until January of 2022 and was recently completed and opened to the public on Monday afternoon.
The new facility — which coaches raved about earlier this year — features brand new men’s and women’s locker rooms; additional equipment space; a state-of-the-art athletic training area with hot and cold tubs — one featuring a treadmill inside of it — medical offices that allow Erlanger doctors to treat the UTC student-athletes; a mental health specialist room, a physical therapy room and 150-seat team meeting room.
Football coaches got their own offices, which allows for position coaches to meet with their players — a far cry from when those same players were crammed in and around rooms on the fourth floor where the coaches’ offices used to reside.