USD Magazine, Winter/Spring 1997

GREAT SPORTS With a $10 million gift, Sid and Jenny Craig lead the way to a new USD multi-use sports facility.

Musi of the Craig family ware in town for the announcement.

S id Craig's mom always told him to give until it felt good. And she taught by example. Encouraged to give 50 cents to the PTA each semester during his grade school days, Craig remembers that his mom always gave a dollar - because she could. Craig must have felt downright terrific in December when 80 friends and family members gathered at his home for a Christmas party and he surprised his wife and business partner, Jenny Craig, with a $10 million gift in her name to the University of San Diego. From this gift, the largest individual donation in USD's history, $7 million will be used toward the development of the Jenny Craig Pavilion, a multi-use sports and activities facility that will be the home of USD's Toreros sports teams. The remaining $3 million will be used for future institutional needs. "This gift was one of those things that just felt right," says Craig, who with his wife founded Jenny Craig Inc., one of the largest weight management service companies in the world. "One of Jenny's favorite charities is education and one of her favorite colleges is USO. It was Christmas, which is the season of giving. "I was looking for something exciting for Jenny for Christmas, but I wasn't really looking for a $10 million gift," he adds, laughing. "Jenny has devoted her entire life to fitness and health, and the sports pavilion seemed like a natural tie-in." At the public announcement on the university's campus the next morning, Jenny Craig, a member of USD's board of trustees from 1990 to 1996, was delighted and visibly moved. "I've always been so impressed by the academic standards here and also the moral fiber and sense of community that permeates this whole campus,"

she said. "So I can't think of a better place I'd rather see my name than right here on this campus."

CROWN JEWEL The Jenny Craig Pavilion will take USO from the worst basketball facility in the West Coast Conference in terms of size and seating capacity - listed at 2,500 but coaches say 1,500 is a more realistic assessment - to the best. The pavilion, which will be located at the eastern end of campus between the football and baseball fields, will embrace the Spanish Renaissance architectural style used through– out Alcala Park. The finished building will encompass 110,000 to 125,000 square feet. Amenities will include a 5,100-seat gymnasi– um, administrative and coaching offices, classrooms, weight training and physical therapy facilities, showers and locker rooms, concession stands, a V.I.P. reception room and an entry plaza that will take advantage of the view across campus to the ocean. The Athletic Hall of Fame will be housed in the facility as well. Preliminary plans call for two-tiered gymnasium seating - the upper level will have permanent, theater seating, and the lower level will have seat-back bleachers that can be pushed back to expand the court size. In addition to serving as the home for the men's and women's basketball teams and the women's volleyball team, the pavilion will be used for recreation and intramural sports, and for Associated Students, academic and community events. "This will be the crown jewel of the USO campus," says Doug Manchester, a longtime USO trustee and chair of the board's facili– ties committee.

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