Alumni Gym Floor at Mississippi College Getting Upgrade

Mississippi College summer campers, MC table tennis players, cheerleaders, intramural athletes and many others on the Clinton campus make extensive use of Alumni Gym.

Last renovated in 1996-97, the MC gym space gets plenty of use year-round – from international student events to university preview days.

Fresh coats of paint, and sanding of the entire floor will spruce up the former home base for the MC Choctaws basketball teams. Alumni Gym will remain closed through late December to give workers with Hollingsworth Hardwood Floors time to complete the job. The project will cost $13,300, said Glenn Worley, Mississippi College director of facility planning and construction.

It’s a return trip to Mississippi College for workers with the Hattiesburg-based company who put down new flooring at the A.E. Wood Coliseum.

Over the years, company workers installed new flooring on basketball courts at Jones County Junior College, the University of Southern Mississippi and William Carey University. Their construction work stretches from the Hattiesburg area to metro Jackson, Meridian, Starkville and south Louisiana.

“It’s minimal floor work,” Worley said. It should take a little more than two weeks. Project work began December 8^th and is due to be completed December 30^th.

The 4,199-square foot floor basketball arena was used for decades by MC Choctaws home basketball teams until the A.E. Wood Coliseum opened in 1977. The coliseum hosts MC graduations, concerts, volleyball games, church gatherings and other special events.

Built in 1925-26, Alumni Hall includes an indoor pool, locker rooms, a Commons area with study areas for students, a coffee shop and a relaxing TV room. The three-story building is home to the student counseling center, the MC Department of Public Safety, meeting rooms and facilities to host receptions.

Funds from the Student Government Association helped pay for the Alumni Gym floor improvements. In early December, hundreds of MC student-athletes used the gym floor for a party to shower 17 area children with Christmas gifts. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes sponsored the event.

Jimmy Hollingsworth of Hollingsworth Hardwood Floors says the Alumni Gym’s storage closets, scoreboard, windows, and lighting are not part of the December project.