May 24, 2006

Facility to feature tribute to
former Hornets coach Clemons

A gathering spot for the Sacramento State football team in the new Broad Athletic Facility will be named in honor of a beloved former football coach. As the result of a $62,000 gift from alumni Gary and Judy Quattrin, the football team lounge will be named in memory of Ray Clemons.

Clemons coached Sacramento State from 1961-75 and also served as the University’s athletic director and as executive director of the Alumni Association. Clemons was the first person inducted into the Sacramento State Athletics Hall of Fame and was named an honorary alumnus in 2004. Gary Quattrin calls him “the founding father of football at Sacramento State.”

Gary (’65 Physical Education) and Judy (’66 and ’99 Recreation Administration) Quattrin met while students at Sacramento State. “(Clemons) recruited me to play football and I went on to coach with him,” Gary Quattrin says. “He became a role model to me and to Judy.”

Quattrin says naming the lounge for Clemons is their way to give back. “Everyone should have someone like Ray Clemons in their life. We hope that the athletes of today will have someone like him in their lives.”

The couple picked the team lounge to honor Clemons because it is where the football team will gather. “It’s a way of building tradition for today’s players to know who some of the coaches and players who came before them were,” Quattrin says.

The Broad Athletic Facility is part of the University’s Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex. In addition to the football team lounge, the 26,000 square-foot Athletic Facility will include a weight room, as well as locker rooms and coaches’ offices. Groundbreaking will be in fall 2006 with completion expected in late 2007.

Media assistance is available by contacting the Sacramento State public affairs office at (916) 278-6156.

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