Cal Poly announces plans to build John Madden Football Center

At halftime of Cal Poly’s Homecoming matchup against Sacramento State, Cal Poly President Jeffery Armstrong announced plans to build the John Madden Football Center at Alex G. Spanos Stadium, in partnership with the Madden family.

Madden played football and baseball at Cal Poly in the late 1950s before embarking on a Hall of Fame coaching and broadcasting career in the NFL. He died in December at 85.

“This facility will not only celebrate the life and legacy of John Madden, but it will be the future of Cal Poly football,” Armstrong said during the presentation at midfield.

According to a Cal Poly news release, the new two-story headquarters will cost $30 million dollars and encompass 30,000 square feet, including a locker room, hall of champions, a weight room, fueling stations, a team lounge, offices for coaches, equipment for trainers, and a theater that seats 125 people.

The building was designed in collaboration with the Madden family, who were in attendance for the announcement.

That included Virginia Madden, John Madden’s wife and a Cal Poly alumna, and her sons, Mike and Joe Madden, and grandson, Jack Madden, a Cal Poly nutrition major.

“We’ve been at every table. Every meeting we’ve been allowed to participate,” said John Madden’s son, Mike Madden.

The idea was sparked when Mike Madden and his son went on a recruiting trip to Lafayette College and they saw the school’s football facilities.

“I was like ‘Hey, Jesse, what do you think about putting one of those Lafayette College football buildings in that endzone?”

The new facility will be similarly placed at the south end of the stadium behind the end zone and adjacent to Mustang Memorial Plaza, which honors the lives of the 16 players and the team manager who died in a plane crash on Oct. 29, 1960, in Toledo, Ohio.

For the football program itself, the new facility “elevates our program,” according to Cal Poly athletic director Don Oberhelman, and gives the team a centralized place of operations.

Currently, the football team’s headquarters is in Mott Athletic Center along with all the other athletic programs. However, the building is distant from the football team’s practice field and Spanos Stadium.

“I think this makes it a much better team environment. It gives our team a better chance to develop a culture and a winning culture if they’re there together a lot more often,” said Oberhelman.

The building will also serve to attract future recruits to Cal Poly.

“I think certainly you’re going to see a big boost. We’re building it for our current student athletes. I think once this thing is built, people will come in and see Cal Poly football is serious about championship football,” he added.

The center that is to be built besides Alex G. Spanos stadium is projected to be completed in two years. It is 80% funded with $6 million remaining to be raised.

Anyone who’d like to donate to the project should contact Ashley Offermann, senior associate director of athletics for development, at 805-440-9792 or by email at aofferma@calpoly.edu.