Historic donation paves way for new center at Uconn
Business owner Bailey a 1999 grad, former 2-sport athlete
The University of Connecticut announced plans Friday for a new state-of-the-art student-athlete performance and academic support center, thanks to the largest cash donation ever received from an alumnus.
Entrepreneur Trisha Bailey, who was a member of Uconn cross country and track & field teams and graduated in 1999, made the donation for the new facility, which will bear her name, pending Uconn Board of Trustees approval Oct. 26.
Bailey, a current resident of Orlando, Florida, was born in Jamaica and raised in East Hartford. She is a business owner, philanthropist, public speaker and the founder of several successful companies such as Bailey’s Pharmacy, Bailey’s Medical Equipment and Supplies, Bailey’s Scrubs, Bailey’s Real Estate, Bailey’s Ideal Choice Homes International Real Estate Division, Bailey Charitable Foundation and Serenity Ranch.
“It’s not so much the journey that I found to be most important,” Bailey said in a Uconn press release. “It’s the way I treated those along the way that mattered the most, and when I look at the beginning of it all, Uconn was right there.”
Bailey’s donation will help fund an 80,000-square-foot renovation and expansion of the Storrs campus’ previous recreation center and parts of the Hugh S. Greer Field House.
Once completed, the Bailey Student Athlete Success Center will include “an academic center, clinical space for sports medicine and mental health services, kinesiology teaching space, a rowing practice tank, strength and conditioning apparatus, a communal kitchen and nutrition area, and multipurpose training and meeting spaces,” according to the press release.
The project will also feature new locker rooms, team offices and a landscaped pedestrian walkway.
In the release, David Benedict, Uconn’s director of athletics, said that it is an honor to have Bailey’s name on the facility that will
be an “enduring legacy for generations to come.”
“Trisha Bailey is an American success story that has its roots in the classroom and in competition at Uconn,” Benedict said. “She is the ideal model for our student-athletes to aspire to become champions in all they pursue well after their playing days are over. Her unprecedented and transformational
generosity will dramatically elevate the academic, nutrition and mental wellness needs for all of our more than 600 student-athletes. It also will provide a new home to six of our Olympic sports — five of which are women’s programs.”