Worth the wait

• By PERRYN KEYS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jul 14, 2009 - Page: 1C

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He stands more than 6 feet tall, with a barrel for a chest and muscles that tear open his shirts. But for years now, Thomas Hall has been something of a hidden man.

Since he took over as the strength and conditioning coach at Southern, Hall and his weight room have been tucked into a crevice of the F.G. Clark Activity Center, far away from plain sight.

The weight room has no doors. It sits below ground level, next to a hallway that serves as an emergency fallout shelter.

In other words, if you wanted to find Hall, you had to know where to look.

Not anymore.

Next month, assorted members of the athletic department will move into a brand-new, three-story, 84,000-square foot palace that not only closes the north end of A.W. Mumford Stadium, but give the Jaguars perhaps the best football facility in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

As for Hall, he will be on the first floor. His new weight room — ensconced in glass, right behind the first-floor lobby — will be a centerpiece, not a cubby hole.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” Hall said last month, with a grin that nearly matched his biceps.

No kidding.

Southern’s new facility marks a 180-degree turn in fortunes for the football coaches, who worked out of the Clark Center until 2002, when a fire forced them into the archaic Jesse Owens Hall. Shortly thereafter, head coach Pete Richardson sent a letter to the Board of Supervisors, informing them of the horrendous state of the athletics facilities.

Now, at long last, the football program has gotten an upgrade. A big one at that.

Last year, Southern borrowed $60 million through bonds for construction. The new facility will cost about $17.5 million, said Ernie Hughes, executive director of the Southern University System Foundation.

The massive complex is all but finished, save for furniture, décor, paint and a few fixtures.