The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/743343
NOVEMBER 2016 ■ 27 BY JACEY ZEMBAL N C State athletics director Debbie Yow remembers her first impres- sions of Reynolds Coliseum after she arrived in Raleigh to take over leadership of the school's sports programs. "When I came home in the summer of 2010 and walked back into Reynolds, I had a sense of nostalgia, but also of sadness at the overall condition of the building," Yow said. "At that time, there was no plan to do any renovation. Then, the campus offered to pay $15 million of the $35 million it would take to do a substantive renovation. Without that $15 million commitment, this could never have occurred." NC State officials understand the deep emotional ties its fans and alumni have to the historic building, and that was a major consideration in the renovation. "One of the main things of the project was blending the old with the new, and retaining the character that Reynolds is most famous for, but bringing the modern amenities that everybody expects," said Michael Lipitz, who is NC State's deputy athletic director for internal operations. "I think we achieved that." NC State took the elongated oval shape from the original Reynolds Coliseum, and essentially used two-thirds of it for the basketball court/competition area and one- third for a celebration of Wolfpack sports. Fans can take a walk down memory lane with displays of former athletes voted into the Wolfpack Hall of Fame, past All-Amer- ALL PHOTOS BY KEN MARTIN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. Above Left New windows freshened up the look of the front facade of Reynolds Coliseum on the north side of the building. Below Left The NC State Athletics Walk of Fame and His- tory greets spectators who enter through the north entrance of Reynolds. Above The 12-foot tall wolf statue at the top of the Walk of Fame staircase was designed by Beth Nybeck from Kansas City.