Tech athletics opens $5.56 million dining hall

Kirby Hocutt joked to a small crowd on Tuesday that he ate his share of macaroni and cheese and ramen noodles during his time as a college football player at Kansas State.

As the Texas Tech athletics director said that, he was addressing an audience inside the newly opened Cash Family Sports Nutrition Center, a $5.56 million dining hall that will serve Tech athletes. The disparity shows how far food service for college athletes has come.

“It’s a beautiful new sports nutrition center that’s state of the art in every way,” Hocutt said at an opening event Tuesday afternoon. “It’ll be a home for our student-athletes. ... It’s top of the line for them, and that’s what they deserve. It’s such a critical component.

“As we talk about being a developmental program, nutrition and how they fuel their bodies are important lessons that we’re going to be able to teach at a greater level than we have to this point in time. So we couldn’t be more excited about what this facility will provide to us.”

Hocutt said the project, built in conjunction with MWM Architects and Teinert Construction, was entirely funded via private donations to the Campaign for Fearless Champions. Plans originally called for the project to be funded through the Revenue Finance System and repaid with gifts to the university of $4 million and an athletics quasi-endowment funding of $1.56 million.

“We experienced such great fund-raising success on this project,” Hocutt said Tuesday, “that we didn’t have to go to the quasi-endowment.”

The new building is located within walking distance southwest of Jones AT&T Stadium, between the Frazier Alumni Pavilion and Dan Law Field/Rip Griffin Park. It will be open weekdays from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for breakfast and lunch meals, Hocutt said, “and then as determined by sports’ needs after that.”

It also will be available for evening team dinners, special events and recruiting events. Top Tier Catering, which handles food service for the university, will staff and operate the facility, including day-to-day management, food preparation, serving and cleanup.

The 8,988-square-foot facility includes multiple dining areas, an educational kitchen, a full service kitchen with storage, scullery, restrooms, office space and a service area.

The educational kitchen is a component Tech is especially proud of. Director of sports nutrition Dayna McCutchin and her staff will give athletes instruction on how to shop for and prepare their own healthy meals at home.

“When I was in college, I lived on macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles,” Hocutt said, “and we’re trying to teach our student-athletes that’s not how you fuel your body for peak performance. This educational kitchen is groundbreaking and one of a kind in the country.”

A number of Tech athletics staff and coaches attended Tuesday’s event. Hocutt told the crowd the dining hall could have benefits beyond nutrition.

“Coach (Tom) Stone said, ’This is a game-changer for us. This is a game changer in many ways, not only for our student-athletes on campus, but what it will do for recruiting’,” Hocutt said.

Hocutt said the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents will be asked next week in Amarillo to give final approval for a Jones Stadium east-side building administrative offices project.

That $9.4 million endeavor is designed to build out the empty second and third floors of the east-side stadium building with office space, as long envisioned. When that project is completed, Tech athletics staff who work in the south end of the stadium will move to the new east-side offices.

The other initiatives remaining on the Campaign for Fearless Champions are a renovation of the Football Training Facility, a Jones Stadium south end zone building, an indoor tennis facility and a baseball stadium clubhouse renovation.