Mohawk Valley Community College broke ground Friday, June 18, on its new Robert R. Jorgensen Athletic Center with a ceremony held in front of the current Gymnasium Building on the Utica Campus.
"This is a great day to be a Hawk! It's a great day for our students, our college and our community," said MVCC President Randall J. VanWagoner, Ph.D. "The Robert R. Jorgensen Athletic Center will provide practice space for track teams; three basketball courts; and a main floor that can support soccer, lacrosse and baseball. The indoor track and first-rate fitness center will benefit not only our student-athletes, but also our students, employees, and neighbors who want to stay healthy and physically fit."
Built around the existing, 21,700-square-foot Gymnasium Building, the Jorgensen Center will add a 40,000 square foot practice facility and 5,000-square foot fitness center. Improvements to the current Gym will include an upgraded swimming pool and entryway renovations. Construction starts this month and is expected to be completed by January 2012.
In attendance and speaking at the ceremony were Jorgensen, the retired MVCC Athletics Director for whom the facility will be named; Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Dr. VanWagoner; Board of Trustees Chair William Calli, Jr.; MVCC alumnus Michael Briggs, who has been a driving force behind the planning of the facility; and about 125 faculty, staff, students, and community members.
Jorgensen is considered the architect of the development and success of athletics at MVCC. Jorgensen is well known at MVCC for his dedication, not just to the Hawks' teams, but to individual athletes. He left a positive mark on thousands of alumni over his 31 years at MVCC.
Jorgensen joined MVCC in 1960 and became Physical Education Department Head and Director of Athletics in 1963. Under his direction, MVCC's intercollegiate athletic program grew from five sports for men only into a total sports program of nine women's sports and 21 total. This made MVCC's athletic program one of the most diverse in the Northeast, a distinction it still holds.
He was promoted to full professor in September 1969 while continuing to coach cross country (1960), soccer (1961-1970), baseball (1961-1965), and golf (1965-1988). Jorgensen presided over a major expansion of the colleges physical education and athletic facilities, including the addition of a swimming pool, new classrooms, fitness center and locker rooms. Outdoor areas were expanded and improved for baseball, softball, track and field, tennis, and soccer.
He retired from MVCC in 1991.
In 1994, Jorgensen was inducted into the NJCAA Division II and III Golf Hall of Fame, the first inductee from a Division III college. Jorgensen coached golf for 23 seasons at MVCC where his teams recorded 416 wins, 93 losses and five ties. They won seven regional championships and placed second another seven times. In the fall of 1996, Jorgensen was among the first class of inductees into the MVCC Hall of Fame.
MVCC currently hosts 22 athletic teams. MVCC's athletic teams have achieved a collective winning percentage of more than 70 percent for the past decade, having won 17 team and 109 individual national championships. In the last six years, MVCC has won five national student-athlete of the year honors; no other college has won more than two over the last two decades. MVCC's coaching staff have been honored with 23 NJCAA National Coach of the Year awards with more than 450 student-athletes earning Athletic or Academic All-American honors.