#98-02-05
March 1, 1999
Contact: Peter BailleyKnox College to Name New Natatorium
Knox College will name its new natatorium after Harley Knosher, longtime Knox athletic director, golf coach and professor of sports studies. The College's Board of Trustees voted in February to name the swimming and diving complex--estimated to cost about $5 million--in honor of Knosher, who has been at Knox since 1960 and is planning to retire in 2000.
After Athletic Director Harley Knosher"On behalf of the Trustees of the College, I am glad to announce our commitment to name the natatorium in recognition of Harley Knosher's enormous influence on the course of athletics at Knox and, more importantly, on generations of Knox students," said Knox President Richard Millman.
The request to name the natatorium--currently in the planning stages--was put forward by Trustee Laurel Andrew, who with her mother has pledged more than $1 million toward construction of the facility.
"There's no one at Knox who has had as much of an impact on the athletic program as Harley Knosher," said Andrew, a 1986 Knox graduate who now lives in Las Vegas. "He's touched the lives of all Knox students who competed in sports, and many others who didn't play on any team."
Knosher is the College's longest-serving faculty member and administrator. During his 39-year career, he has coached baseball, basketball and football, and he currently coaches the men's golf team--the winningest men's golf team in the Midwest Conference. He has served on the NCAA National Committee for Men's Basketball and has written a book on coaching basketball.
"I'm deeply honored and humbled by Laurel's request," said Knosher. "I'm also delighted with the preliminary design for the natatorium. It will give the Knox community an outstanding competitive and recreational facility, and one that fits perfectly into the athletic complex already in place with Memorial Gymnasium and T. Fleming Fieldhouse."
The preliminary plans for the building were drawn by Cannon Design, Inc., of Chicago. Developed in consultation with a committee of Knox faculty, students, administrators and coaches, the plans include a 25-meter pool for both swimming and diving, additional locker space for Knox and visiting teams, and conversion of the existing Lay Natatorium to a dance studio.
Andrew and her mother, Edith Andrew of Orland Park, Illinois, have pledged $1 million, contingent on Knox raising an additional $750,000 in pledges for the swimming pool project. Laurel Andrew, a varsity swimmer when she was a student, also pledged an additional $100,000 to match new or increased gifts from alumni who competed in swimming and diving at Knox.
Fundraising for the natatorium is part of Knox's $125-million campaign Knox Now! Contributors have given more than $72-million toward the campaign that began last October and is planned to conclude in 2002.
Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college, located in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,100 students from 42 states and 33 nations. Knox's "Old Main," a National Historic Landmark, is the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.
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