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UMHB Celebrates Momentum With Fireworks Extravaganza

May 18, 2018

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Belton, Texas – On Friday, May 18, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor celebrated the close of its recent fundraising efforts with a bang. The university hosted a special fireworks extravaganza in Crusader Stadium for the donors who made Momentum: The Campaign for Mary Hardin-Baylor such a success.

The gates to Crusader Stadium opened at 7:00 p.m. More than 900 guests enjoyed music and more than a dozen tables of carnival-inspired foods including cotton candy, fried Oreos, and Banana Nutella Cru-sants. Just before 9:00 p.m. President Randy O’Rear addressed the crowd, thanking the donors for their support of the university’s mission and highlighting some of the campus improvements that had been made possible through their generosity.

Following O’Rear’s comments, the lights in and around Crusader Stadium and the Bawcom Student Union began to go dark, and a countdown clock filled the video screen of the stadium’s scoreboard. When the clock struck zero, the pyrotechnics began.

Fireworks over Crusader Stadium as seen from above

The fireworks display began with large plumes of purple flames shooting across the football field. The show continued to synchronized music for another 12 minutes. Each new explosion was met with cries of delight from the hundreds of donors sitting in the stands.

Throughout the evening, high-powered spotlights burned brightly in front of several campus buildings, drawing visitors’ attention to some of the new facilities made possible by the Momentum campaign.

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor publicly launched the Momentum campaign in 2012 with the ambitious goal of raising $60 million. By the end of 2017, a total of $82,190,901 had been given, exceeding the original goal by more than $22 million. Those donations were made by 4,488 different donors.

Momentum Celebration Slideshow

The campaign identified six areas where improvements could escalate the university’s effectiveness and growth: student life, visual arts, performing arts, nursing education, football, and scholarships. By the campaign’s end, donors to Momentum had given $18.6 million for scholarships, and the face of the campus had been dramatically changed by the addition of six new facilities and the repurposing of several more. The campus improvements included:

  • Construction of Cummins Field House (2011) next to the football practice fields at the SportsPlex, which doubled the football program’s space for locker rooms, staff offices, and training and meeting areas
  • Construction of the Baugh Center for the Visual Arts (2012), which houses art classrooms, studio spaces for students, art faculty offices, and a gallery for rotating exhibits
  • Construction of the 76,100-square-foot Isabelle Rutherford Meyer Nursing Education Center (2013), which includes state-of-the-art learning labs, a simulated hospital wing where students practice their clinical skills, Phelps Chapel, and the Leroy and Merle Weir Lecture Hall
  • Construction of Crusader Stadium (2013), the university’s first on-campus stadium which quickly set the standard for NCAA Division III football facilities across the nation; located at the heart of the student activity zone, the venue is also used for graduation ceremonies and student life activities throughout the year
  • Relocation of the J.W. Williams Service Center to Belton Industrial Park (2013) to create workspaces for the school’s Physical Plant crews and climate-controlled storage areas for the UMHB museum and other campus groups.
  • Construction of Bawcom Student Union (2014), which offers expanded campus dining options and includes a new campus store, Farris Band Hall, McLane Great Hall, meeting spaces and activity areas for student organizations, and unified offices for the Student Life staff
  • Renovation of the former student union building to create the Mabee Student Success Center (2015), which houses student support services such as a writing center, tutoring services, campus police, the post office, a career center, a copy center, and student counseling and health services
  • Renovation of Hardy Hall (2015) to create classrooms, laboratories, and faculty offices for UMHB’s new Doctor of Physical Therapy program
  • Renovation of College View Apartments (2016) to add 414 beds to the university’s on-campus housing for students
  • Construction of the Sue & Frank Mayborn Performing Arts Center (2017), an on-campus venue for music education and performances, which includes Fikes Chamber Hall, Paul and Jane Meyer Rehearsal Hall, and the 524-seat Baugh Performance Hall
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