Vanderbilt basketball receives $5 million gift for facility upgrades

Vanderbilt announced a $5 million gift to the men's basketball program from alumnus George B. Huber and his wife, Cathy, on Friday.

It will be used to enhance basketball facilities and support services, according to the university release.

Huber is a Seattle-based businessman as the founder, president and CEO of Equity Investment Group, Inc. (EIG), an investment holding company out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. He also is the co-founder and managing partner of Finback Investment Partners, a Miami-based merchant banking firm.

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Why the Hubers gave to basketball program

George Huber, a 1979 Vanderbilt graduate, has been an avid Commodores basketball fan for decades. He said it began when he cheered on the famed F-Troop of the 1970s, a trio of 1,000-point scorers that included Butch Feher, Joe Ford and Jeff Fosnes.

"When I was a freshman, the F-Troop, an NCAA Tournament team, led the Vanderbilt men’s team as seniors," Huber said in the release. "From then on, we supported Charles Davis, a Nashville native and one of the best players in the country who went on to play eight seasons in the NBA."

The Hubers' son, Tyler, graduated from Vanderbilt in 2014. And in 2016, they established the Huber Family Scholarship in Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science.

"The student-athlete community is an essential part of the Vanderbilt experience and the university's identity," Huber said. "The men's basketball team has the building blocks to become a perennial powerhouse, and we’re excited by the opportunity to strengthen the broader Vanderbilt community through the program."

The Vanderbilt basketball program began in 1900. It has a winning tradition, amassing 1,619 wins, 15 NCAA Tournament appearances, four Sweet 16s, one Elite Eight, 12 NIT berths and five SEC titles.

The Commodores are led by Jerry Stackhouse, the 28th coach in program history. He was hired by Malcolm Turner, who took over as athletics director on Feb. 1, 2019.

"We are humbled and honored to have the Huber name associated with our program, and we will work to make them proud of what we will accomplish across all aspects of the Vanderbilt student-athlete experience," Stackhouse said.

How will Vanderbilt basketball utilize the $5 million?

Vanderbilt has not announced specifically how it will use the $5 million gift.

In 2018, former athletics director David Williams said Vanderbilt was in the "planning stage" of a renovation to Memorial Gym, which opened in 1952. He estimated that the installation of an air-conditioning system would cost at least $5 million, which was seen as a priority for the 68-year-old facility.

Williams, who died Feb. 8, 2019, also predicted that Memorial Gym would be upgraded before Vanderbilt's football stadium, which has not undergone a major renovation since 1981.

This season, Memorial Gym debuted new state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems. In May, Turner said the basketball locker rooms would undergo renovations.

When Turner, the former NBA G-League president, was hired, he was tasked with solving Vanderbilt's longstanding problem of an aging football stadium. But while discussing plans for the stadium, he has routinely mentioned facility needs of other athletic programs, as well, including basketball.

In August, Turner said phase one of an athletic facilities master plan — “the diligence phase” — had just ended. Perkins and Will, an architecture and design firm, completed an audit of Vanderbilt athletic facilities to gauge what needs upgrades and what is up to date.

“(There are) areas that have created some gaps, where frankly we are behind,” Turner said. “That’s across all our entire footprint. But, yes, football is included.”

Reach Adam Sparks at asparks@tennessean.com and on Twitter @AdamSparks.