Mollenkopf Athletic Center

The Mollenkopf Athletic Center got a makeover during the spring of 2006. The 16-year-old AstroTurf was replaced with state-of-the-art FieldTurf, while the walls of the indoor practice facility were repainted and adorned with banners that pay tribute to Purdue's rich football heritage. The field was named after Richard, Alice and Kimra Schleicher, who made a lead gift of $400,000.

Built in 1990 at a cost of $10.3 million, the Mollenkopf Athletic Center contains an indoor practice field, weight training room, meeting rooms and coaches' offices. The mammoth structure has a full football field plus spacious sidelines - totaling 92,400 square feet - and reaches 86 feet high at the peak. The two-story weight training room covers nearly 14,000 square feet.

In the summer of 1994, the third floor and the mezzanine were completed, giving Purdue one of the finest facilities in the nation. The completion of the Mollenkopf Athletic Center was made possible by Howard R. "Monk" Kissell, Class of 1931, who provided the majority of the $1 million cost.

The third floor, which covers 14,000 square feet, is the home of head coach Danny Hope, his assistant coaches, and video and support staff. It also has a main team meeting room that holds as many as 125 players and two other conference rooms for the offensive and defensive coaches. In addition, the third floor has an adjoining suite of offices that house the facilities operations director, as well as head and assistant coaches in baseball, soccer and softball.

The mezzanine level, located above the weight room, consists of five position meeting rooms.

In 2004, Purdue Football acquired a state-of-the-art digital video analysis system. The tapeless system provides coaches limitless flexibility in creating video clips for players as they teach and prepare the Boilermakers. The clips can be tailored to offensive and defensive units, special teams, positions and individual players. Among the features: Time and space are eliminated as obstacles to better coaching as players can access coaches' video clips through a secure Internet connection; coaches not only can provide "cut-ups" from thousands of Purdue and opponent plays in an online database, but they can use the software to create video playbooks, training videos and printed statistical analysis reports. Coaches also use the software to view and categorize recruits, and the efficient digital workflow saves time and enables them to spend more time watching recruits and less time sorting through DVDs.

The Purdue Football Hall of Glory is an exhibit in the lobby of the Mollenkopf Center honoring Boilermakers past and present. The project was completed in 1998, thanks to gifts from former players.

The football locker room, players' lounge, athletic training room and equipment room are housed in the adjacent Intercollegiate Athletic Facility. The locker room was renovated in 1998, thanks to a six-figure donation by former Purdue defensive back and NFL standout Cris Dishman. The spacious players' lounge was renovated in 2000.

An outdoor practice venue with two lighted 100-yard fields - one Bermuda to match the surface in Ross-Ade Stadium and one FieldTurf - was built in 2009 as part of the Mackey Complex Project and resides north of the Mollenkopf Center.

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