One of the most storied athletic locations at UConn is about to begin a brand-new era.
Starting this spring, Guyer Gymnasium on Hillside Avenue will be fully overhauled, along with along with renovation of smaller spaces in the connecting Hugh S. Greer Field House and Wolff-Zackin Natatorium. Together, they will be known as the Bailey Student-Athlete Success Center, named in honor of Trisha Bailey ’99 (CLAS), whose lead gift is among the largest from any UConn graduate.
The project was kicked off with a groundbreaking ceremony on April 23 featuring Bailey, student athletes, coaches, Board of Trustees Chairman Dan Toscano, UConn President Radenka Maric, Director of Athletics David Benedict, and others.
“Congratulations, coaches. Congratulations, students. Congratulations, alumni,” said Maric. “Congratulations to our staff and everybody who supports our athletics and our university. This is the day that you waited for, for a long time.”
The project will bring athletics, research, academic support, sports medicine, and other programs together in one facility to build upon each other in support of the student success journey, one of the mainstays of UConn’s Strategic Plan. If all goes as scheduled, the new center will open in Spring 2027.
“The Bailey Student-Athlete Success Center will transform the college experience for young men and women who wear the Husky uniform,” said David Benedict, director of athletics.
Bailey, a former track athlete at UConn, founded Bailey’s Medical Equipment and Supplies after her time in Storrs. She quoted her grandmother at the ceremony: “’Dream so big that not even you can believe that these dreams can come true,’” said Bailey. “What does that mean? It means that when you dream, you need to go beyond what the dream looks like.”
Also on April 23, UConn announced a transformative $15 million commitment from longtime supporters Denis and Britta Nayden that will establish The Nayden Center for Academic Excellence within the Bailey Student-Athlete Success Center. At the core of this transformative project, the 12,000 square foot academic center will become the home for holistic development, academic accomplishment, and well-being for every student-athlete at UConn. This comprehensive space will facilitate learning, testing, meeting, tutoring, and all academic activities.
The gymnasium will be renovated to house UConn’s Student-Athlete Success Program (SASP), which supports student-athletes with tutoring, study spaces, post-graduation career or academic planning, and other academic services.
It will also house offices, support spaces, locker rooms, team meeting areas, and other spaces for women’s field hockey, women’s rowing, women’s tennis, women’s swimming & diving, women’s cross country, and men’s and women’s track & field.
“Thanks to Trisha Bailey’s anchor donation, the vision of a student-athlete success center took hold, and became real,” said Nayden ’76 (BUS) ’77 MBA. “I’ve seen the drawings, and I have no doubt that the new facility will be state of the art, beautiful and impressive. But what attracted us, and what was really impressive, is everything that would occur inside.”
Other speakers included former field hockey coach Nancy Stevens, men’s tennis coach Glenn Marshall, and student athletes Chioma Okafor ’26 (BUS, ENG) and Travis Roux ’25 (BUS).
The construction will turn the field house into a LEED-certified building and add an estimated 50 to 60 years of active use to the complex. The improvements help UConn take another step in its Sustainability Action Plan and will help UConn reach carbon neutrality by 2030.
New space will be created for the UConn Department of Kinesiology, strength and conditioning rooms, rehabilitation and recovery areas and hydrotherapy and biomedical analysis.
The field house, named for longtime men’s basketball coach and athletic director Hugh Greer, opened in 1954 and was the home of the men’s and women’s basketball teams until Gampel Pavilion opened in 1990.
“We want everyone to achieve excellence. This will be a learning center, a financial literacy center, a personal development center, a mental health center, a tutoring center, a nutrition center,” said Nayden. “It will be a social center. It will be a hub of life.”
