Presbyterian College kicked off a busy “Pack the Pondo” weekend of athletic events Friday afternoon by thanking donors at a “Celebration Under the Lights” at Elton Pollock Field.

As the Blue Hose baseball team warmed up for its game against UNC Asheville, PC gathered supporters of the college’s $8 million athletic initiative, “The Championship Spirit: Building on a Proud Legacy,” for an informal outdoor reception.

PC president Dr. Matthew vandenBerg hailed the college’s legendary championship coaches – the late football coach Cally Gault, assistant football coach Bob Strock, former head basketball coach Gregg Nibert – and current legend Elton Pollock.

Through their example and through generous support, he said, PC’s championship spirit is alive and well.

“I think a lot about PC’s history of championship spirit,” vandenBerg said. “That phrase came from President William Plumer Jacobs II, who took over PC in 1935, six years into the Great Depression. We were quite literally looking at the prospect of closing the doors. But President Jacobs, the grandson of our founder, was to tackle our problems head on and to invest in student experiences and to walk with confidence and moxie and swagger in everything that PC did.”

It worked, and now PC is adopting the same strategy of meeting its challenges straight on – confidently working to grow the college’s enrollment and giving to new heights, vandenBerg said.

That same spirit is behind the college’s ambitious plans to invest in baseball and softball facilities, upgrade Templeton Physical Education Center, and build a new facility for acrobatics and tumbling, competitive cheer, and men’s and women’s wrestling.

Celebrating this moment in PC’s history under Pollock Field’s new lights is most fitting, said vandenBerg.

“This project that we celebrate tonight, it’s more than just having physical infrastructure that lets us play a game into the evening hours,” he said. “It’s a metaphor. These lights and this project we are celebrating is shining a light down on PC’s championship spirit – and we are working together to make sure that PC’s brightest and best days are ahead of us.”

PC alumnus Wes Nalley ’86 with President Matthew vandenBerg