MARYLAND TERRAPINS DEDICATE A NEW COLE FIELD HOUSE
Published 8/2/17 on Montgomery Community Media
Strategic partners, the University of Maryland College Park (UMD) and University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) today marked the first phase completion of the new Cole Field House. In what can clearly be recognized as a rebirth of Cole, a second ground breaking took place after the football field dedication, known as the Terrapin Performance Center, on the new Center of Sports Medicine, Health and Human Performance in yet to be constructed space adjacent to Cole Field House. This new addition to Cole will also be home to the Academy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
It was a day for all Maryland Terrapins, those who recall taking final exams in the cavernous confines of Cole to those who cheered on teams and for a coach who lead his team to a national championship in basketball here. But most of all it was a day for future Marylanders to celebrate what clearly will be a state of the art facility for research, innovation, athletics and clinical practice all under one trademark arched roof line.
Wallace Loh, President UMD and Jay Perman, President UMB, alternated on the stage to outline what the future shall look like once the new Cole is finished and launches the state’s flagship universities towards national prominence for sports medicine research. The collaboration of UMD and UMB brings together their unique synergies under this arched roof.
A day at Maryland would not be complete without some athletic reference to what appeared to me to be a handoff of the keys to the time capsule that is Cole. Head Football Coach DJ Durkin will be the biggest beneficiary of the new indoor football practice field where once was a hardwood court. Durkin and former Basketball Head Coach Gary Williams joined state and university officials to open the field with a ribbon cutting on stage.
