By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Falcon Marching Band now has a place to practice fitting for the second largest such ensemble in the country.
Paul Hooker, a 1975 BGSU graduate and now national trustee, thinks the band is “arguably, the best marching band in the country.”
That’s behind his donation of $1.5 million toward creating a new lighted, synthetic turf practice field for the band as well as for intramural sports. The total cost of the project is $5 million.
The BGSU Board of Trustees Friday (5/2/2025) approved naming the field just west of the Perry Field House The Student Green.
Hooker also is providing another $1.5 million to install turf and lights at Steller Field, the home of the Falcon baseball team.
At Friday’s trustees meeting, Hooker said the marching band project is important for several reasons. Band director Jon Waters told Hooker he could bring in visiting bands for performances. The field can also be used by high school bands that conduct their summer camps on campus.
“We’re hoping the bulldozers are going to get moving within a matter of days,” Hooker said, with the aim for the work to be completed sometime in August just before students arrive on campus.
Having a turf field will enable the band to rehearse even when the surface is wet. Now if the field was used after it rains, the marchers tear up the grass and turn it into a mud pit.
In addition to the turf, the field will have a tower where the conductor can be seen by the band members and where the director can view the band’s formations.
Also, the field will be available for intramural sports. Hooker said he can imagine students playing soccer on the field at 2 a.m.
Hooker connected this to the university’s recruitment efforts. “Students love to play sports all through high school and then they stop in college or they’ll play intramurals if not good enough to play NCAA Division I,” he said. “So we have a very, very strong club sports.”
The university has more than 40 club teams. That helps attract students to BGSU.
Steller Field upgrade
Hooker was inspired to provide the money for Steller Field by the team’s MAC championship season in 2024. When the university extended coach Kyle Halleck for five years along with his three coaches, that gave Hooker the confidence that the program would continue to excel.
He said he wouldn’t have made the donation if he thought Halleck would be leaving.
Hooker, who coached high school baseball in New Jersey, got involved in 2020, when the university had announced it would end its baseball program. Hooker said he was frustrated with the process and reached out to the athletic director and pushed to raise money to save baseball.
The campaign lasted “just a matter of days” with contributions pouring in from former players and other supporters.
The baseball program’s biggest name, All-Star pitcher Orel Hershiser was among those who supported that $1.5 million campaign. Hershiser returns to BGSU Saturday as speaker at three graduation ceremonies.
Hooker said the improvements to the field will help with recruitment and allow the team to practice outside when otherwise they’d be inside the Perry Fieldhouse across the street.
The Falcons are one of the few teams without synthetic turf.
Hooker, retired CEO of SFERRA Fine Linens, a New Jersey-based luxury bedding, bath and home decor store, has also provided funding for the Paul J. Hooker Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership as well as the national RallyCap Sports program that provides sports opportunities for children with special needs.
Library murals
The university has also concluded its campaign to raise $1 million to refurbish the Donald Drumm murals on Jerome Library.
The library’s exterior envelope is being repaired now. That is a separate $4.4 million project.
The work on the mural will be done in August, and take about 30 days on each side, Bushong said.
Pam Conlin, the vice president for Bowling Green State University Advancement and the president and CEO of the BGSU Foundation, credited Bushong and the Library Leadership Council with leading the effort.
Pam Conlin retiring
Also, at the meeting it was announced that Conlin, who came to BGSU seven years ago in the middle of a major fundraising campaign, will be retiring.
She said this was the right time with another campaign successfully completed and another in the wings. She and her husband, Steve, plan to remain in the area and stay connected to BGSU.
Math Emporium getting new home
The trustees also approved spending approximately $2 million to renovate the fourth floor of McLeod Hall. The renovated space will provide a new home for the Math Emporium, a hands-on, computer-aided math learning center as well as renovated faculty offices and associated support space. The main office and faculty offices of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics are in McLeod Hall. The emporium will be on the floor above Life Design. The program was started more than a dozen years ago, and is currently located in Olscamp Hall.
Sheri Stoll, the university’s chief financial officer, noted , with Conlin sitting next to her, that the emporium represents a naming opportunity for a donor.
