By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — When Ahmad Hawkins arrived at the University of Virginia in 1997, its football program was based in the McCue Center, which then ranked among the finest such support facilities in the ACC. But as the years rolled on, the building began showing its age, and the program outgrew it.
At times it seemed this day would never come, but 33 years after the McCue Center opened, UVA football finally has a new home. Thursday marked the grand opening of the 93,000-square-foot Molly and Robert Hardie Football Operations Center. The facility, named for UVA’s rector and his wife, sits next to the George Welsh Indoor Practice Facility and the team’s two practice fields.
“I’m just amazed,” said Hawkins, a former UVA standout who’s now an analyst on radio broadcast of his alma mater’s football games. “I’m at a loss for words, honestly.”
Members of the Board of Visitors, donors, football alumni, athletic department coaches and staff, and media members toured the operations center Thursday evening. The first look, though, went to UVA players, for whom the doors to the building were opened at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
“We went in and it was crazy,” defensive end Kam Butler recalled.
“It was awesome,” quarterback Tony Muskett said. “We came in and went through the locker room first, so we got to see all the new lockers, and then obviously got in the new weight room, which I think is my favorite, just because of high-vaulted ceilings and state-of-the-art equipment. So it was really cool. It’s going to make a huge difference just in terms of recruiting and our development.”
Butler said everything is “state of the art now. The McCue Center is great, but there’s so much more room in here. The training room feels like it’s three times the size of what it is in the McCue Center. So, we’re just excited to use those spaces and get to work.”
In September 2018, the Board of Visitors approved a master plan that would transform the athletics precinct on North Grounds. Its major components included a new football operations center, on which ground wasn’t broken in the summer of 2022, in part because of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some two years later came a day for celebration.
“Being here today, given our unique journey, is both humbling and joyous,” director of athletics Carla…