Penn Athletics launches the Track & Field and Cross Country Campaign for Excellence

 The University of Pennsylvania launched The Penn Track & Field and Cross Country Campaign for Excellence, an initiative to raise $44 million as part of Penn Athletics’ Game Onward Campaign. Also announced was a leadership gift from Wharton undergraduate alumni and former track athletes David and Jane Ott.

Rendering of Aerial view from the north of the planned Jane and David Ott Center for Track & Field at the University of Pennsylvania.
Aerial view from the north of the planned Jane and David Ott Center for Track & Field. (Image: Ewing Cole)

The centerpiece of the new Campaign is a planned indoor track & field facility to be located at the southeast corner of campus. Once fully funded and constructed, it will be named the Jane and David Ott Center for Track & Field, and will be the only collegiate indoor facility of its type in the greater Philadelphia region.

“The Campaign for Excellence truly signals the start of a new era for track & field at Penn that builds on a legacy of achievement by our athletes dating back to the late 19th century,” says Penn President Amy Gutmann. “Penn has won three dozen Heptagonal team championships and has had eight individual national champions. Thirty-three Penn athletes have medaled at the Olympics, with 16 winning gold. We are profoundly grateful to David and Jane Ott for their extraordinary commitment to Penn Athletics and for this foundational gift, which we anticipate will inspire others to participate in the Campaign. The Ott Center promises to be a significant addition to our Athletics facilities—a state-of-the-art space that will impact the future of sports at Penn.”

Read more at Penn Athletics.