The Journal Record
The University of Oklahoma broke ground Tuesday at the site of a
planned $8.4 million indoor tennis facility intended to provide
better practice opportunities and perhaps bring more collegiate
tournaments to campus.
The planned 55,000-square-foot building with six indoor courts
will eliminate the need for tennis players to drive 30 miles to
Oklahoma City for practice when they’re chased from the
outdoor courts by inclement weather. The facility will be located
east of the existing outdoor courts and across a parking lot from
the university’s basketball arena, the Lloyd Noble
Center.
“We’ve had a vision for many years now,”
men’s tennis coach Paul Lockwood said. “(Women’s
coach) Mark Johnson and I would come out to these fields two
decades ago and pace off land and really just kind of dream of
maybe what it would be like someday.
“Sure enough, with the wonderful donors that have stepped
forward, it’s now becoming a reality.”
Lockwood and Johnson have been at Oklahoma through the lean
times, when a problem with the surface on the old outdoor courts
left the teams with nowhere on campus to practice or play home
matches. Lockwood has been the Oklahoma men’s coach since
1987, and Johnson has coached the women’s team since
1989.
OU’s outdoor tennis complex opened in 2001, and athletic
director Joe Castiglione said the new facility would make the
university competitive with some of the best collegiate venues in
the country.
“You could host conference championships here, you could
host regionals,” Castiglione said. “Depending on what the
requirements are for national championships, we’ve got six
courts. Not many facilities have many more than six, unless
it’s just a dedicated tennis center.”
Lockwood said OU already has plans to bid to host the
Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s regional championships at
the facility, which will be named The Gregg Wadley Pavilion after
its lead donor.
“Actually, the last time we hosted the Big 12 in 2004 was
the night Gregg Wadley was sitting in the stands when it was cold
and rainy and, honest to God, that was the night he decided,”
Lockwood said. “He said he kept running out to the car and
looking for blankets.”
The 2008 NCAA tennis national championships will be played at
the Michael D. Case Tennis Center at the University of Tulsa.
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