renovations began in September 2021<\/a> with coaches\u2019 offices, locker rooms and film rooms. Subsequent phases will include the addition of donor suites; improved student experience; enhanced food, beverage and merchandise concession areas; upgrades to the entrance and exterior; and changes to the court and seating area. A timeline for completing the project will depend on raising the balance of the $40 million total, but Donnelly said more than half of that total has been reached. Furman has partnered with Ken Betsch of Betsch and Associates for architectural design and with Harper General Contractors for construction management.<\/p>\n\u201cPaladin basketball teams are competitive, dynamic and fun to watch, thanks to coaches Jackie Carson \u201900 and Bob Richey and their staffs, and to our amazing student athletes,\u201d said Furman University President Elizabeth Davis. \u201cThis very generous pledge by Ravenel Curry will help us take basketball to the next level. It will greatly enrich experiences for our students and our fans in the Greenville area. When renovations are complete, Timmons Arena will be a college basketball showplace.”<\/p>\n
The renovations will immediately help recruit and retain top talent, Donnelly said. \u201cImproving and expanding the spaces in which all off-the-court activities occur is a critical need in order to elevate the competitive success of Furman basketball.\u201d He said the men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball teams and coaching staffs have been integral to providing creative direction and design for the spaces. \u201cTheir input and expertise have been critical as we have considered recruiting, retention, player development, competitiveness and gender equity for the renovation.\u201d<\/p>\n
As teams become more competitive nationally, they can expect more national exposure, which will help raise the profile of Furman in general.<\/p>\n
Curry\u2019s gift, and others that will fund the project, also represents Furman Athletics\u2019 shift to being funded by sports revenue and philanthropy, Donnelly said.<\/p>\n
Curry, a native of Greenwood, South Carolina, launched Eagle with his late wife, Beth Rivers Curry, in 1988. The company is now a $25 billion investment firm. He and his wife, Jane Moss, continue to support causes through the Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation. His $10 million gift makes Curry one of the university\u2019s largest living donors and the largest single donor to Furman Athletics. In 2004, a $1 million gift from their foundation greatly enhanced the Chinese studies program, including study away in China, which remains one of the most popular study away programs at Furman.<\/p>\n
Curry is a former member of Furman\u2019s Board of Trustees, former chair of the Investment Committee and former president of the Alumni Board. He also serves as a trustee of The Duke Endowment, the American Enterprise Institute, the Manhattan Institute and the Genetics Endowment of South Carolina, and as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.<\/p>\n
\u201cRavenel has repeatedly stepped forward as a leader for Furman University, and he has done so again with this gift,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe are fortunate to have as our alumnus not only one of the nation\u2019s leading investment professionals, but someone who is continually willing to help us develop world-class programs and facilities. The entire Furman community and I are grateful for his generosity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Furman Athletics plans to share details of the Timmons Arena renovations, and stories about philanthropic investors in the project, as they become available.<\/p>\n
Anyone interested in becoming a philanthropic partner to advance capital priorities for Furman Athletics may contact Erin Wissing, senior associate athletics director\/executive director of Athletics Development, at 864-294-3732 or erin.wissing@furman.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The gift is the largest in Furman Athletics history and will be the cornerstone of a $40 million project, funded primarily by donations, to make Timmons a premier venue among mid-major universities in the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":22560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,24,1922,27,5,30],"tags":[220,104,1037],"class_list":["post-22558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-athletics","category-clearly-furman","category-student-life","category-top-four-news-1st-story","category-top-stories","tag-athletics","tag-development","tag-timmons-arena"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22558"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33776,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22558\/revisions\/33776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2023\/01\/Curry-6362-602x768.jpeg\")