UC San Diego on Wednesday announced a $100,000 donation from longtime contractor Doug Barnhart and his wife, Nancy, to establish an athletic rehabilitation center and support other programs for Triton student-athletes.
The gift will create an endowment for the rehabilitation center, pay for audio-video equipment at the 7-month-old Alex G. Spanos Athletic Performance Center and support a nutrition program.
“We are so grateful to Doug and Nancy Barnhart for their generous support of the new Athletic Rehabilitation Center,” said UCSD Athletic Director Earl Edwards. “This new state-of-the-art center will help ensure the health and well-being of our student-athletes, and provide the necessary tools for them to play at their optimal level of performance.”
The facility will support training and recovery programs, offer bikes that use biofeedback technology, a hydrotherapy pool and cardio equipment in which student-athletes can exercise without affecting their injuries. It will be housed in the Spanos building.
“We are pleased to support this project which will have a positive benefit on UC San Diego’s student-athletes,” said Doug Barnhart. “It is demanding to be a student-athlete and get through college, so our hope is that this gift will help keep these students healthy, thriving and performing at their best.”
Barnhart built Barnhart Construction Inc. into one of the nation’s largest builder of school facilities.
In July 2008, Barnhart has made a $2.5 million gift to modernize Scripps Mercy’s operating rooms used for minimally invasive robotic surgery. In January 2008, he received what a news release called “lifesaving prostate cancer surgery through the Scripps Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery Program.”
— City News Service contributed to this report.
