Holmes Sports Center

Student weight lifting in the Holmes Sport Center

Recognizing the need for a large, multipurpose sports center, Simmons College began the Sports for Simmons Capital Campaign to raise money for the construction of a sports center. The William J. Holmes Sports and Fitness Center opened in May 1989 and houses a weight room, hardwood courts, an indoor track, and a swimming pool.

Sports Center Sportstacular celebration

In 1987, after decades of students’ dreaming, plans for a new multimillion Sports Center were finalized. The Center would include an athletic training room, a dance studio, an intensively equipped gym, rowing tanks, an indoor running track, racquet ball and squash courts, a swimming pool, a weight-training room, a locker room, jacuzzi, equipment and storage rooms, offices, and laundry facilities. President Holmes stated that there was a “vital need for an athletic facility of high caliber to match the interests and abilities of Simmons women today.” The Sports Center would be a far cry from the small former classroom in the west wing of the Main College Building that functioned as a gymnasium for seventy years, from 1909 until 1979. In 1979, as part of the PRIDE I renovations of the MCB, the fourth floor auditorium was designated as the gymnasium.

President Holmes and students at the Sports Center Groundbreaking Ceremony (1987)

Ground breaking events, “Sports for Simmons,” were held October 16 and 18 in Alumnae Hall, overlooking the construction site at the corner of Brookline Avenue and Short Street. There was also a brunch at the Embassy Suites Hotel on the Charles River, where many students, alumnae, and parents had gathered to cheer the Simmons crew teams during the Head of the Charles Regatta. Co-chairmen of the “Sports for Simmons” campaign were Janet Hyde Gildea ‘45 and Joan Melber Warburg ‘45, former undergraduate roommates and singles tennis enthusiasts. Under their leadership and direction, alumnae/i and friends made numerous gifts to provide for the outfitting of various sections of the Sports Center: the track (Ruby Winslow Linn ‘32), the pool spectator gallery (Class of 1938), the dance office (Class of 1976), a sauna (Class of 1945), the rowing tank (Class of 1951), the squash court (Class of 1944), the pool timer and scoreboard (Class of 1969), the first floor lobby (Elinor Haines Ward ‘35 and Kay Heggie ‘35), the women’s locker room (Barbara Holes Marshall ‘51 and Edward Marshall), the free weight room (Class of 1961), and the cardiovascular lobby (Class of 1940). The long-awaited grand opening and dedication of the Holmes Sports Center was held on September 22-23, 1989.