SFA Receives $750,000 Gift for Bo Pilgrim Park
2/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 1, 2007
NACOGDOCHES - Stephen F. Austin State University today announced a $750,000 gift made by the estate of Robert C. Banks to name the baseball stadium at Bo Pilgrim Park at SFA.
The Stephen F. Austin State University Board of Regents approved the named gift during a Jan. 30 meeting.
The gift will establish the Bob and Dot Banks Baseball Stadium at Bo Pilgrim Park, a $14 million NCAA Division I athletic complex that will be the on-campus home to baseball and softball.
Previously the university has received a $1 million gift from businessman Bo Pilgrim to name the athletic complex. During a 13-month campaign that began in December 2006, a total of $3.5 million in private donations will be solicited before construction begins.
"With this gift we have 50 percent of the private funds needed to begin construction of the project," said Robert Hill, SFA director of athletics. "Bob Banks loved athletics and especially the opportunities that student-athletes have to participate at the college level and earn a degree," said Hill. "That's why it's so fitting that he and his wife, Dot, will be forever associated with baseball at SFA."
Robert "Bob" Banks career began with McKinney Drilling Company in 1948 and ended with his retirement as president and chief executive officer in 2002. McKinney Drilling Company was a pioneer in the development of large diameter drilled pier foundations for the support of all types of commercial building projects. Banks' career with McKinney included stints in England, Pakistan and Nigeria as well as several cities throughout the United States before moving to Nacogdoches in 1982 to take over as president of the company.
Banks grew up in Mount Vernon, Texas, where he was a celebrated student-athlete who excelled in high school basketball. Banks' on-court skills helped him earn a basketball scholarship to attend North Texas State University. Throughout his adult life he followed collegiate and professional sports and was an avid golfer. Banks died in 2006.
Bo Pilgrim Park is scheduled to be built in Nacogdoches at the intersection of University Drive and East Starr Avenue on a 24.5-acre land tract owned by the university. Leo A. Daly, an internationally known sports architectural firm that designed Minute Maid Park in Houston, has developed plans for the stadium complex. J.E. Kingham Construction Company will manage construction of the facility.
Bo Pilgrim Park will feature a regulation-size baseball stadium and softball stadium, press boxes for each, a field house, training room and weight room. The baseball stadium will seat 1,200 fans, while the softball stadium will seat 600.
The facility will have an estimated $11.8 million annual economic impact on the Nacogdoches community, according to a study conducted by ImpactDataSource of Austin, Texas, and funded by the Nacogdoches Economic Development Corporation.
- SFA -
