Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/112399
Another Great Day to be a Hawkeye By Gary Barta A little over two weeks ago we celebrated the completion of the James M. Hoak Family Golf Complex. It was another great day to be a Hawkeye for a number of reasons. No. 1 ��� Vision. Successful individuals almost always have ���vision.��� University of Iowa men���s golf coach Mark Hankins was the driving force behind this effort. He had a clear vision to provide our talented student-athletes in men���s and women���s golf a state-of-the-art facility to become better at the sport they love. the first page��� No. 2 ��� Teamwork. Mark���s vision needed to be put to paper. We successfully turned to a team of staff from the UI and the UI Athletics Department who did exactly that, which enabled another team to do the work it does so well. 4 No. 3 ��� Resources. Many of you have heard me say, ���Vision without resources is irrelevant.��� We entered this particular project with one important requirement: It needed to be 100 percent funded through private donations. Accomplishing this was another team effort that included a long list of UI Athletics Department staff, National I-Club staff, and many other friends of the UI and Iowa Hawkeyes, and the sport of golf at the UI. At the top of that list was the Hoak family who rallied themselves and friends to make a $500,000 commitment to the $2 million project in honor of the leadership and accomplishments of the three-time UI golf letterwinner whose name is on the building. No. 4 ��� Academic Impact. We like initiatives that not only help our student-athletes compete more effectively on the golf course or basketball court or wrestling mat, but also help them achieve at a higher level in the classroom. The Hoak Family Golf Complex will allow our golfers to do just that, because the facility will provide them unprecedented flexibility in terms of fitting their workout schedule around their academic schedule. Lastly, in her remarks at the dedication of the new facility, which sits to the southwest of the green for hole No. 6 at the UI���s award-winning Finkbine Golf Course, UI President Sally Mason talked about our institution���s on-going commitment to be innovative in all that we do, and to maintain our position on the cutting-edge. Given that charge, I smiled to myself when the next day I read this in a story about the dedication of the facility in Hawk Talk Daily: ���The players came in for the first time yesterday, and their first impressions were all over the map whether they were most excited about the locker rooms, the architecture, or the putting green,��� said (UI women���s golf coach Megan) Menzel. ���One of our freshmen came up to me and said, ���This is the future of college golf ��� this is going to get great players to come here.��� To have a freshman recognize that right away is really fitting.��� Feb. 13, 2013, was indeed a great day to be a Hawkeye. And, as always, I believe there are many more great days to come. Go Hawks! Editor���s Note: You can read about the dedication of the James M. Hoak Family Golf Complex by clicking HERE. You can learn more about James Hoak by clicking HERE.