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| Donors John and Vickie Hoyt with
athletics director Wayne Hogan. |
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Grand gift
Griz fan's donation buys
athletics staff new offices
Intercollegiate athletics coaches, staff and administrators will have new
digs in the freshly renovated Adams Center, thanks to a $550,000 gift from Great Falls
attorney John C. Hoyt and his wife, Vickie. The Hoyts' gift -- one of the largest-ever
cash gifts received by Grizzly athletics -- along with other contributions, will be used
to complete the department's office complex located in the west wing of the Adams Center.
The wing will be named the John C. Hoyt Athletic Complex.
The Adams Center remodeling project, completed last fall, was financed through bond
sales but did not include sufficient funding for office renovations. Wayne Hogan, director
of athletics, said the project's priority was to provide adequate facilities for student
athletes and a comfortable, convenient and accessible venue for Grizzly fans. "Our
staff needs came third," Hogan said.
The Hoyts' gift will provide a major portion of the funding to create 40 offices for
coaches and administrative staff on the center's second level. The athletics department
staff and coaches have been housed in Washington-Grizzly Stadium sky boxes and in trailers
north of the Adams Center since July 1998 when the renovation project began.
"I get enormous pleasure from watching our teams," Mr. Hoyt told coaches and
athletics department administrative staff during a March 21 news conference to announce
his gift. He said the contribution was his way of giving back to the coaches who do such a
fine job for the University, its student athletes and Grizzly fans.
UM administrators and volunteers, working with the UM Foundation and athletics
department, contacted Griz fans across the state and received more than 40 gifts to
supplement Hoyt's contribution.
Mr. Hoyt, a 1948 graduate of UM's law school, practices with the Great Falls firm of
Hoyt & Blewett, which gave $150,000 in 1998 to build the UM law school a courtroom
with the latest technology. For the contribution, the University renamed the teaching
facility the Hoyt & Blewett Courtroom.
Hoyt is an avid Grizzly fan and a longtime financial supporter of the University's
intercollegiate sports program.
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