ELON COLLEGE – Peggy and Warren (Dusty) Rhodes, of Gibsonville, have made a $1 million gift to the fund drive for a new on-campus football stadium and athletics complex at Elon College. The gift was announced today by Elon President Leo M. Lambert at a College Coffee event held on campus.
Lambert declared today Peggy and Dusty Rhodes Day at the college, and he also announced that the football field in the new stadium will be named Rhodes Field in recognition of the gift.
Peggy and Dusty Rhodes have been active supporters of the college for many years and are among the largest benefactors in Elon College history. The library and main lecture hall in the new McMichael Science Center, several rooms in the new Elon library, and the athletic training room in Koury Center are named in recognition of the Rhodes family contributions. They have also provided educational funding for a scholarship in sports medicine and individual aid for Elon students.
Dusty Rhodes has been a member of the Elon College Board of Trustees since 1997. The Rhodeses’ son, Larry, graduated from Elon in 1986, and their son-in-law, Mike Ford, is a 1984 Elon alumnus.
“This gift to the campaign is a major step toward securing full funding for the stadium,” Lambert said. “Dusty and Peggy Rhodes have once again given unselfishly of their resources, and we are grateful for their commitment to this exciting project.”
In March, the board of trustees authorized architectural drawings for the $12.8 million project. The tentative schedule calls for bids to be let late this year with construction to begin in April 2000. The goal is to have the stadium ready for the 2001 football season.
The Rhodes are natives of Fremont, Ohio. Dusty is a 1956 graduate of Purdue University, and was a four-year letterman in baseball for the Boilermakers. He continued his interest in athletics after graduation, taking a position at Edsel Ford High School in Dearborn, Mich., as a science teacher, coach and athletic trainer. During his spare time in the late 1950s he traveled with the Los Angeles Rams football team as an assistant athletic trainer.
Dusty Rhodes held many positions in education, engineering, communications and the computer industry during his career. In 1964, he sold General Electric computer equipment to NASA to support the Gemini and Apollo space programs. In 1965 he worked with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese, adding computer data and statistics to the New York Yankee’s Game of the Week on CBS television.
In 1988, he joined Cisco Systems Inc., a small start-up company which grew to become the world leader in networking technology and equipment for the Internet. He managed the company’s first direct sales team in 1989. In 1990, he opened a Cisco sales office in Research Triangle Park, and the couple moved to the Elon College area. He retired in 1992.
“We love walking on the campus – the whole atmosphere,” Peggy Rhodes said. “We believe in the college and I don’t think we could have picked a better place to retire.”
“The people at Elon are like family, and we’re thrilled to spark the completion of the Elon Vision and help finish this campus for the students and alumni,” Dusty Rhodes said.
Fund raising for the stadium, including the Rhodes gift, currently stands at $4.5 million. The new stadium is part of the Elon Vision, the college’s $80-million strategic plan to ensure continued excellence in the 21st century.
Elon’s football team currently plays in Burlington Memorial Stadium, which is located several miles from campus at Williams High School in Burlington. An on-campus stadium is a key step in the college’s transition from NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics to Division I-A. All athletic teams except the football team will have full membership in the Big South Conference in August 1999. The football program will have a Division I-AA independent status.
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