Simmons Bank's $2.5M donation is biggest ever for UAPB

University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Chancellor Laurence B. Alexander talks with football players Tuesday after the announcement that Simmons Bank is giving the school $2.5 million for improvements to its football and baseball facilities.
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Chancellor Laurence B. Alexander talks with football players Tuesday after the announcement that Simmons Bank is giving the school $2.5 million for improvements to its football and baseball facilities.

PINE BLUFF -- A $2.5 million gift from Simmons Bank will upgrade the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff's athletic facilities, paying to install artificial turf and a digital scoreboard at its football stadium and complete a baseball media box and concession pavilion, university and bank officials announced Tuesday.

The donation by Pine Bluff-based Simmons Bank is the largest donation ever to UAPB, school officials confirmed.

With the gift, UAPB is renaming its football stadium Simmons Bank Field, with an image of the team's Golden Lion mascot to be on the new artificial turf at the 50-yard line. The baseball media box and concession stand will be named Simmons Bank Pavilion at Torii Hunter Stadium.

Acceptance of the gift is pending the UA System board of trustees' approval at its meeting today and Thursday. UA System President Donald Bobbitt and several trustees were on hand as UAPB Chancellor Laurence Alexander and other administrators received the ceremonial check from bank officials during a Tuesday morning news conference on campus.

"This donation will directly benefit our student-athletes by assisting them in reaching and exceeding their athletic and academic performance goals," Alexander said during the ceremony attended by about 175 people. The news conference took on a game-day atmosphere, starting with a performance by Golden Lion cheerleaders and pom squad and ending with a tailgate-type reception.

Simmons First National Corp., founded in 1903, is one of the largest financial companies based in Arkansas. Simmons Bank's downtown complex is Pine Bluff's tallest building.

George Makris Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of parent company Simmons First National Corp., announced the amount of the donation, mentioning how athletics can broaden a university's visibility.

"Athletics links a university to its past and to its future," Makris said. "Student-athletes are ambassadors to an institution."

Marty Casteel, chairman and chief executive officer of Simmons Bank, said after the news conference that the donation resulted from "lots of conversations" with Alexander and athletic administrators and built on the bank's "long partnership" with UAPB.

"We felt it would be a good opportunity for us to make a statement of commitment to UAPB and, in general, to the community of Pine Bluff as a whole," Casteel said.

Simmons Bank's offices are also home to Go Forward Pine Bluff, a separate initiative by an independent committee that began three years ago in a partnership with the City Council. The initiative is funded by a five-eighths percent sales tax approved by Pine Bluff voters last June that is estimated to generate more than $32 million over seven years.

Among the initiative's goals are improving job-training programs at UAPB and building up downtown. It aims to help draw much-needed economic development and tourism to the city, which has experienced years of population decline, a dwindling tax base and the disrepair or abandonment of many buildings.

Casteel said that while Simmons Bank's new UAPB donation isn't connected to the Go Forward campaign, "it is in good alignment with that initiative" toward citywide improvements.

"It shows continued momentum in the community as a whole," Casteel said.

The scheduled improvements will put UAPB's football stadium "right at the middle to the top" of facilities elsewhere in UAPB's Southwestern Athletic Conference, interim Athletic Director Alyse Wells-Kilbert said. The 16,000-seat stadium opened in 2000.

"This is a game changer for us," Wells-Kilbert said. "Our players will be able to go out onto new turf and see their pictures up on the scoreboard. They will see instant replay after every play. We're extremely excited."

Head football coach Cedric Thomas said the upgrade will help with player recruiting, because they "will want to stay in the state of Arkansas."

The new Simmons Bank Pavilion will help to complete construction at the Torii Hunter Complex that opened in 2011. Hunter, a Pine Bluff native and former Major League Baseball player and five-time All-Star selection, previously donated $500,000 for the initial construction of the baseball and softball complex, the largest contribution to UAPB before the Simmons Bank gift, a university foundation official said.

"That's what it's all about. One man has to start the act, then it's like a domino effect," said Hunter, who was present for Tuesday's announcement. "Simmons First is doing something very special in completing this. Simmons First is stepping up to the plate and getting it done."

Metro on 05/23/2018

Upcoming Events