Originally opened in April 2005 as a home to Bulldog football, the 46,000-square foot Holliman Athletic Center now houses the track and field locker rooms, team lounge, meeting room, and equipment room along with the Columbus Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Center.
The Holliman Athletic Center is named in honor of MSU graduate and long-time university and athletic program supporter W.G. "Mickey" Holliman of Tupelo, Miss. A native of Shuqualak, Miss., Holliman was the co-founder of Action Industries, now known as Lane Furniture, and is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Furniture Brands International. He serves on the executive committee of the Bulldog Club, the Board of Directors of the MSU Foundation and is currently president of the Bulldog Foundation.
On the ground floor of the building, the Columbus Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Center is the primary sports medicine facility for the track and field and tennis teams and is a secondary facility for soccer, softball, volleyball, and women’s golf. It also serves as an administrative hub for the sports medicine and performance department, including the department of counseling and sport psychology.
The 4,500-square foot athletic training facility was made possible through a naming gift from the Columbus Orthopaedic Clinic, whose surgeons began handling the sports medicine needs of MSU student-athletes in 1981. Six of the orthopaedic surgeons at the clinic are State graduates themselves.
During initial development of the Holliman Athletic Center, the first gift earmarked for the facility was made by Julia and Jim Rouse, of Houston, Texas. Their donation earned naming rights for a 9,000-square foot strength and conditioning room - the Julia and Jim Rouse Weight Room. Mr. Rouse, a 1962 graduate of MSU and an original member of the Bulldog Foundation, is the retired vice president of Exxon Mobile.
The F.L. Crane Company completed the Holliman Athletic Center in 2005 as an addition to the existing Shira Complex. Dedication of the facility occurred 317 days after project approval by the Board of Trustees, Institutions of Higher Learning.