In March 2005, the Yawkey Athletics Center opened at Boston College. Home to the BC football staff and players, as well as the Office of Learning Resources for Student-Athletes, the Yawkey Athletics Center is a $27 million, 72,000-square-foot facility located behind Alumni Stadium's north end zone. It includes football offices, meeting and breakout rooms, the team's locker rooms, a state-of-the-art sports medicine suite, strength and conditioning facility, the Eagles' football-specific equipment room, theater-style classrooms, recruiting amenities, and player lounges.
Named after its majority donor, the Yawkey Foundation, the building also features the Murray Family Function Room, the Athletic Department's largest multi-function room that also benefits the entire BC campus. It also includes the Hajjar Family Football Museum. After viewing DJS Design’s impressive work at the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University, and Virginia Tech University, BC contracted the firm for the concept, design, and construction of the museum.
Located in the main entry lobby, the museum features a soaring bronze eagle atop a lighted granite pedestal as its centerpiece. A multimedia kiosk enables visitors to watch video highlights of great games and players in BC football history. Visitors are allowed to touch and have photos taken with legendary BC college football player Doug Flutie's Heisman Trophy, which is displayed in the open with no glass enclosure.
In 2003, BC received a commitment of $15 million from the Yawkey Foundation to help fund the new building and other athletics-related improvements to enhance intercollegiate, intramural and club sports. To date, it is one of the largest gifts in the college's history. However, it is not the only contribution by the Yawkey Foundation to Boston College throughout the college's history. In 1986, Jean Yawkey, wife of Tom Yawkey - the owner of the Boston Red Sox and founder of the Yawkey Foundation - established the Thomas A. Yawkey Scholarship Fund through the Yawkey Foundation to provide tuition support for minority student-athlete baseball players from the Greater Boston area. The Yawkey Foundation continues to uphold the generous and philanthropic spirit of Jean and Tom Yawkey, donating to organizations within the Boston, Massachusetts area and Georgetown County, South Carolina that are focused on healthcare, education, human services, youth and amateur athletics, arts and culture, and conversation and wildlife. To date, they have provided more than $530 million to impactful organizations.Aside from the major donation from the Yawkey Foundation, other benefactors generously donated the rest of the funds needed to complete the construction, making the Yawkey Athletics Center the first structure on the BC campus to be built entirely with private funds.
Completion of the Yawkey Athletics Center created a domino effect of facility improvements across campus. Once the football and Learning Resources staff completed their move to the Yawkey Athletics Center, workers began multi-million dollar renovation to Conte Forum.
Heading into the 2015 season, the football team's locker rooms received a major renovation and now serve as the Yawkey Athletics Center's hub of activity year-round.
