With the call of “let’s dig in,” College President Dr. Roger Casey led a group of students, coaches, and trustee in breaking ground for McDaniel College’s new athletic stadium.
The new Kenneth R. Gill Stadium, which will replace the existing Scott Bair Stadium, “will provide first class seating that showcases the academic ridgeline of our campus,” according to Mr. Martin K. P. Hill, Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Mr. Hill reported in his remarks at the ceremony that the stadium committee has raised over $7.7 million in gifts and pledges toward the construction of the new stadium. $2.25 million of that total came from a donation given by the committee’s leader, Mr. Kenneth R. Gill.
According to Mr. Hill, the new stadium had been a part of the Board of Trustees’ campus master plan, approved in 2003.
Nearly a decade later, on the windy, sun-splashed afternoon of February 3, the plan moved one step closer to reality.
At the ceremony, Dr. Casey remarked, “today’s event is the culmination of much teamwork and much visionary leadership from my predecessor, Dr. Joan Develin Coley,” and called the new stadium’s construction a “high point” for the College.
In his speech, Mr. Gill, who graduated from Western Maryland College in 1961, spoke of friendships he made at the college that lasted a lifetime. Mr. Gill said “wherever my life has taken me, no place feels as close to my heart as this college. Whether you call it Western Maryland College, McDaniel College, or simply The Hill, I have benefitted from the lessons learned from the faculty, the coaches, and my classmates.”
“Today, I feel grateful to give back to them.”
Construction on the new Kenneth R. Gill Stadium is scheduled to be completed by next football season.
For more details on the stadium project, here is an article from November that outlines the financial aspects and design of the stadium.
