First 100 Days Have Been Eventful
My first 100 days as the director of athletics have flown by. So many great things have happened that it would be hard to recap them all here, but as I keep telling everyone I meet, this is a great time to be a Wildcat!

Since I joined ACU on Dec. 1, I've met with each member of the ACU Athletics staff, and I've learned a lot about each of them. Each meeting was insightful and often inspirational. We have a tremendous team of people in place who love Jesus, care about ACU and are committed to serving our 330 student-athletes.

I’ve mentioned previously that we have crafted a new mission statement, vision statement and slogan for the ACU athletics department. I'm hopeful it will unite all of us as Wildcats. We want to recruit the best coaches, staff and student-athletes to ACU, and we want them all to "Honor Christ through Excellence in Academics and Athletics."

We also introduced some new traditions to spread school spirit. We say, “Go Wildcats!” to one another when we see each other around campus or in the community, wear ACU lapel pins at work and wear purple on Fridays. We are becoming more intentional about demonstrating our pride in being ACU Wildcats, and we hope you will join us.

Over the past 100 days, I have been honored to meet ACU alumni, lettermen, donors and fans. I’ve been so impressed by your commitment to ACU, as well as your love and passion for ACU Athletics. We are creating a new athletics fundraising program to give you an opportunity to make an impact on our Wildcat student-athletes. Be on the lookout early this summer for information on how you can join us in our new venture!

It's an honor to be the director of athletics at ACU, and my hope is that the next 1,000 days are as much of a blessing as the first 100 have been.

Football stadium update
One of the questions I’m most often asked is, “When is construction on the football stadium going to start?”

Last week, the demolition of old Elmer Gray Stadium began. The stands and press box were cleared off, and after our inaugural event at the new Elmer Gray Stadium (see below), we'll tear away other pieces of the old stadium, including the concession stand/restroom area and eventually the track itself.

After several months of brainstorming and research, we’re proud to announce that ACU has agreed to partner with industry leader HKS Architects to design the new football stadium and end zone complex.

Founded in 1939, HKS has more than 1,000 employees in 26 offices worldwide. It has projects located in 1,648 cities throughout 84 countries, and it’s built some of the best stadiums in the country: AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, the new stadium in Minnesota for the NFL’s Vikings, Apogee Stadium at North Texas, the re-development of Amon Carter Stadium in Fort Worth and the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland.

Our ACU team has met with HKS representatives – both in person and via conference call – allowing them to start designing our stadium. We believe HKS will design a complex that will best serve the needs of our football program and its support personnel, and be a source of pride for ACU and its alumni for years to come.

We’ll keep you updated on progress with HKS and the stadium as we move through each stage of the process. As we continue to remind people, construction will not begin until fundraising for the stadium is complete. We are two-thirds of the way there; if you are interested in helping us cross the finish line, please contact me directly.
 
New Elmer Gray grand opening
If you're in Abilene on Friday, April 10, please join us at 11:30 a.m. at the new Elmer Gray Stadium for the official grand opening. We'll be joined by several former track and field and women's soccer standouts – as well as our current teams – as we open the new stadium, which will be the home of our storied track and field program and our fast-rising soccer program.

At 6:30 that evening, join us for a special ACU Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Teague Special Events Center, where we will induct five track and field legends. Honored in this special ceremony will be Brian Amos, Ann (Foster) Faulknor, Waymond Griggs, Ian Morris and Dennis Richardson. You can still order tickets for the ceremony by calling 325-674-3453.

The next day – Saturday, April 11 – our track and field team will host the second Wes Kittley Invitational, the first competition in the new venue. ACU will be joined in the meet by Big 12 powers Texas Tech and TCU, among others. The meet is named in honor of the former ACU track and field coach – now the head coach at Texas Tech – who won 29 NCAA Division II national championships during his tenure here.

Field events start at 12:30 p.m. with running events set for 4:30 p.m. Join us as we celebrate our track and field program!

Don Smith Memorial
You have the opportunity to help our football program by playing in the 13th annual Don Smith Memorial Golf Tournament on Saturday, April 18, at the Diamondback Golf Club. The tournament is presented by AMC Solutions, a company owned and operated by former Wildcat all-America offensive lineman Britt Lively.

The tournament is set to begin at 9 a.m. with a scramble format. The tournament will benefit the Don and Barbara Smith Memorial Football Recruiting Fund.

Four-man teams are $750 apiece, while individual participants are $225. A corporate sponsorship is $1,000 and includes a foursome and hole signage. A premium sponsorship is $2,500 and includes a foursome, hole signage and an area sponsorship.

For more information, call ACU assistant director of athletics for external operations Grant Boone at 325-674-2924 or email him at grant.boone@acu.edu. To register, click here

Smith – a member of the ACU Sports Hall of Fame – played on ACU's undefeated 1950 football team and later coached Abilene Cooper High School to the 1964 state championship in track and field. He joined the ACU coaching staff in 1968 and coached 14 seasons.

"Grant Me This"
Grant Boone has done a masterful job writing the "Grant Me This" piece each week on the ACU Today blog. If you haven't been reading it, I would encourage you to find your way over to the archive and catch up on his writings. They are terrific and provide some great insight into the past, present and future of ACU athletics. Last week’s blog focused on the aforementioned Don Smith. If you haven’t read the story, make sure you take some time to read about this great legend of ACU athletics.

Go Wildcats!

Lee De Leon
Director of Athletics
Abilene Christian University