The Rathje Athletic Center was approved back in November of 2018, although construction only started a year and a half ago.
On September 19, 2023, Millikin broke ground on the David J. & Debra C. Rathje Athletic Center. This Center is located by the Griswold Center and the Center for Theatre & Dance. This building will take up around 17,655 sq ft.
The Rathje Athletic Center was entirely funded by donors and cost around $12.3 million to build.
There are many benefits from this center, including taking some pressure off the locker rooms in the Griswold Center.
The Rathje Athletic Center will have a weight room, training room, conference room, and extra locker space for athletes. It will also have more offices for coaches on campus. In addition, it will have 12 coaches’ offices, giving an opportunity for many coaches to move their offices there. The football, soccer, and track & field coaches will be moving their offices so they are closer for practices.
“I think it’s going to be a game changer,” Billy Riebock, new Millikin Football head coach, said.
These new locker rooms will be a great chance for track & field athletes to have a place to store their belongings.
This is an upgrade to Millikin’s athletics program and is going to overall improve student recruitment. Student athletes make up a large part of Millikin’s population, so this is important for them.
Since this building was entirely funded by donors and alumni this is a great step for Millikin.
“It’s a good point of pride for the community,” Bryan Marshall, Interim Athletic Director, said.
The process of proposing this Athletic Center was a long time coming and setting up the funding was tricky as the process has lasted many years, especially because a large portion of the fundraising and planning period was during the pandemic. In hopes of expanding Millikin’s athletic experience, many alumni and donors realized that Millikin had fewer lockers than they did athletes and wanted to give back to their community.
“The Rathje family obviously has donated so much, so what the facility symbolizes is an opportunity to train and to do what we do at a higher level,” Andrew Craycraft, Director of Cross Country and Track & Field, said. “It also represents this incredible amount of generosity and commitment and belief that people have in what we’re doing here.”
Once the center is fully built, it will welcome in a great new experience for student athletes and these new resources are going to help with recruitment for new athletes.
The Center was originally supposed to be completed by the end of 2024. Now, the finished project should be completed by the middle of 2025.
“We have weekly meetings with the contractor, and so far, everything’s on schedule,” Marshall said.
The Rathje Athletic Center should be completed this Summer, allowing it to be used by coaches and athletes during the 25-26 school year.
