The Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Red Hill Athletic Center, honoring former Abraham Baldwin College tennis coach Norman "Red" Hill, will be held April 7 at 2:30 p.m. near the tennis courts on the ABAC campus. After five years of planning, the project will move to the next stage as Hill turns the first shovelful of dirt.
Members of the college community and the ABAC Foundation invite everyone to attend the ceremony, which is one of the highlights of ABAC's Homecoming 2001 celebration. Plans for the facility will be available for viewing. Refreshments will be served.
According to ABAC Foundation President Melvin Merrill, the facility will greatly benefit the athletic program at ABAC and serve as a recruiting opportunity for students who visit the campus. The modern, centrally-located athletic complex will provide first-class facilities for ABAC's baseball, softball, and tennis (men's and women's) teams as well as accommodations for the coaches and umpires. The project will be paid for by the ABAC Foundation with private funds exclusively; no state funding was provided.
Merrill said the funding campaign has been successful.
"Each component of the funding campaign figures prominently into the future of the baseball, softball, and tennis programs at ABAC," Merrill said. "Winning teams build upon their success, and the ingredients of this campaign will build the complex. Now is the time to start putting all the pieces together to continue that success."
Hill, former tennis coach at ABAC, retired in 1999 after 34 years of service to the college. The winningest men's college tennis coach in the United States, Hill was named National Coach of the Year three times. He earned a national collegiate record 849 tennis victories and two National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) national championships, one in 1984 and one in 1999.
Hill's teams qualified for the NJCAA national tournament in all 34 years he coached. He was the fourth person ever inducted into the NJCAA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame in 1993 and received the Achievement in Sports Award from the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. Hill attended Georgia Southwestern from 1956-57 where he was an all-state baseball and tennis player. He was recently inducted into the Georgia Southwestern (GSW) Hall of Fame.
During Hill's career, only 16 of his players did not receive four-year degrees. Sixty-nine of his players were selected for All-America status; seventeen of his players have earned doctoral degrees.
Hill said it is an overwhelming honor for the ABAC faculty and staff to name the facility for him.
"I will always love ABAC and take pride in the accomplishments of our athletes," Hill said. "I appreciate the support and efforts of the Foundation, Dr. Harold Loyd, and Wayne Cooper, former chairman of the Physical Education Department. A very special thanks goes to the innumerable financial contributors who helped make this dream a reality. It is truly an indication of the kind of support this community has always given."
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