April 20, 2004

Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, will bless the site of the forthcoming Don F. and Flora Guglielmino Family Athletics Center in a public ceremony at 10:45 a.m. Saturday (April 24) at the building’s future location on Courtney Lane on the east side of the Notre Dame campus.

The $21.25-million center has been underwritten with a gift from the late Don F. Guglielmino and his wife, Flora. Mrs. Guglielmino will be in attendance, along with her children, son-in-law and grandchildren – Peter and Diane (Guglielmino) Terpeluk and their son Trey; Susan (Guglielmino) Poland and her son Taylor; and Michael Guglielmino.

Head football coach Tyrone Willingham and athletic director Kevin White are among the athletic department members who will attend the ceremony.

“The Gug,” as it quickly has become known, will be a 95,840-square-foot facility that will house the Irish football program’s locker rooms, offices and meeting rooms, as well as provide Notre Dame’s 800 student-athletes with enhanced space for training and sports medicine, strength and conditioning programs, and equipment.

A longtime supporter of Notre Dame, Guglielmino attended the University in the 1939-40 academic year. After the death of his father, he transferred to Stanford University and then left school to enlist in the Army Air Corps. He served in the Pacific theater during World War II.

After the war, Guglielmino returned to his hometown of Glendale, Calif., where he became a successful businessman. He founded Newhall Hardware Company in 1947 and helped found the Santa Clarita National Bank in the mid-1960s. He served as the bank’s chairman of the board until it was sold, first to Security Pacific National Bank in 1990 and later to Bank of America.

Though he spent just one year at Notre Dame as a student, Guglielmino had a lifelong love for the University. In addition to his commitment to Irish football – which included a long and close association with former coach Lou Holtz – he and Flora supported the scholarship fund of the Notre Dame Club of Los Angeles and were benefactors to the University’s Institute for Church Life.

In recognition of his generosity and unwavering support of the University and what it stands for, Guglielmino was recognized as an honorary alumnus of the University in 1996 and was inducted into the Notre Dame National Monogram Club after his death on May 31, 2001.

The first floor of “The Gug” will feature a strength and conditioning facility with state-of-the-art equipment that all student-athletes will use on a daily basis. There also will be a centralized athletic training center for all athletes and an equipment room.

Locker rooms for football players and coaches also are planned for the first floor, as well as a players’ lounge, meeting rooms and a large auditorium for team gatherings and presentations.

The second floor will house all of the football offices, with head coach Tyrone Willingham’s area overlooking the Cartier Field practice complex. Offices for the offensive and defensive staffs will be in separate hallways divided by a common video production and screening area. A recruiting lounge, reception area and conference room also will be located on the second floor.

The designer and builder for “The Gug” is McShane Construction of Chicago. The project will be completed for the start of the 2005 fall athletic seasons.