$10.5 Million From Alumni Boosts Academic Center for Athletes

Posted on April 6, 2011

Gifts by alumni totaling $10.5 million have brought new academic support facilities for athletes closer to reality.

Charles Loudermilk Sr. ’50 has made a $7.5 million commitment to create the Loudermilk Center for Excellence, a 150,000-square-foot facility being built on the stadium’s east side. Within the center will be the John W. Pope Student-Athlete Academic Support Center, 29,000 square feet built with a $3 million gift from the foundation, which is named for John William Pope ’47. Pope’s son, Art Pope ’78, is the foundation’s chair and president.

The Loudermilk Center is part of a $70 million project that includes luxury suites and premium seating in the stadium’s east end, scheduled to be finished in time for the first football game, Sept. 3. The center will serve all of Carolina’s nearly 800 athletes across 28 sports. The project is being funded privately.

The center will provide classrooms for teaching and tutoring, advanced computer technology, a writing lab, reading rooms and office space. It also will be home to the Carolina Leadership Academy, which offers leadership training to Carolina athletes, coaches and staff.

Also housed in the Loudermilk Center will be a strength and conditioning center for Carolina’s Olympic sports programs, facilities for men’s lacrosse and a visitor’s locker room that can be split to host high school football championships.

Loudermilk is chair of Atlanta-based Aaron’s Inc , a sales and lease ownership corporation specializing in residential and office furniture and equipment. He earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce and now serves on the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Board of Visitors. His past support of Carolina includes gifts to fund building space for The Rams Club, UNC’s athletic booster organization, as well as $3 million to expand Kenan-Flagler’s executive education facilities at the Rizzo Conference Center.

The Pope Academic Support Center existed in part of Kenan Field House, which was torn down last summer to make way for the new addition. It opened in 1986. John W. Pope Sr. died in 2006.

Art Pope is CEO of Variety Wholesalers Inc. and is chair and president of the John William Pope Foundation. The foundation’s latest gift follows a long history of support for the University’s athletics program and academic units, including the College of Arts and Sciences, Kenan-Flagler Business School and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

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More online…

• Pope Family Gives $2.3 Million For Western Civ, Football Coaches
  News report from September 2006
• UNC Re-submits Western Civ Proposal to Pope Family
  News report from August 2005
• Donor Backs Off Proposal for Western Civ Program
  News report from April 2005
• The Wild, Wild West: Carolina takes a long look into a gift horse’s mouth, and everything old is new again. From the May/June 2005 issue of the Carolina Alumni Review, available online to Carolina Alumni members.

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