Athens, Ga. – The dedication ceremony for the newly expanded and renovated University of Georgia Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall will take place Feb. 24 at 3:30 p.m. One of the premier athletic facilities of its kind in the country, Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall is located at 1 Selig Circle, just off Lumpkin Street and Pinecrest Drive in Athens.
Home of Georgia football, as well as the headquarters of the UGA Athletic Association, Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall recently underwent a $33 million upgrade to the football areas that includes 53,000 square feet of new space and 23,000 square feet of renovated space. Additional renovation projects in other areas of the building are underway.
Scheduled to participate in the dedication ceremony are UGA President Michael F. Adams, Director of Athletics Greg McGarity, Head Football Coach Mark Richt, senior center Ben Jones and former Georgia All-American John Little, who captained the 1986 team that was the first to use Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall.
“The improvements made to Butts-Mehre have been everything our staff and student-athletes envisioned,” McGarity said. “The new football areas are cutting edge and state-of-the-art, and they will give us an advantage in practices and game preparation as well as in recruiting. The other changes will help make our building more functional for the day-to-day operations of our various departments. We could not be happier with the way all of this has come together.”
Highlights of the Butts-Mehre project include:
• football team segment and position meeting rooms with state-of-the-art technology;
• a multi-purpose room with synthetic turf that can be used for walkthroughs and staging;
• a 12,000-square-foot strength and conditioning area with new equipment;
• an 8,500-square-foot athletic training area that includes four therapy pools, an X-ray area and two physician examination rooms;
• new football coaches offices, including dedicated conference rooms and a video editing suite;
• a 1,900-square-foot student-athlete lounge, including televisions, game stations, recliners, sofas and home-theater style chairs;
• new connection to the third-floor museum with an expanded second-floor trophies and awards display area;
• graphics throughout the building trumpeting Georgia’s academic and athletic success;
• a sand-based practice field with improved drainage and irrigation systems to be completed in May; and,
• an underground cistern that will retain 115,000 gallons of rainwater for use in field irrigation.
The facility is named after two of Georgia’s most famous football coaches, Wallace Butts and Harry Mehre, and originally opened in 1987 at a cost of more than $12 million.
For more information about Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall and UGA athletics, see http://www.georgiadogs.com/.
