NORMAL – It was a busy day around campus on April 12 at Illinois State University, as several athletics and community events converged to make it a bustling atmosphere during the morning and afternoon hours. The beginning of the day featured a fun celebration, as ISU Athletics and OSF HealthCare hosted an open house to officially celebrate the naming of the OSF HealthCare Athletics Training Facility.

OSF made a significant financial contribution to the long-anticipated ISU athletic indoor practice facility on the heels of a five-year agreement that made OSF HealthCare the official health care provider for Illinois State University athletics in an exclusive partnership. As part of that agreement, OSF HealthCare provides Illinois State University student-athletes with access to athletic trainers, sports medicine providers, orthopedic surgeons, and behavioral health professionals.

Redbird Athletics dedicated and officially opened the newly minted OSF HealthCare Athletics Training Center on September 30, 2023. The facility is a heated, opaque dual-membrane fabric air dome with insulation pockets designed for year-round use by Redbird student-athletes and community groups (by rental). The 79,000-square-foot facility sits directly north of Horton Field House and features a 100-yard practice field with a single endzone with run off areas and a FieldTurf surface to match the current one at Hancock Stadium. 

Once rentals became available for community groups in early 2025, the facility became one of the busiest spots on campus, especially for Redbird student-athletes. The field may be painted with lines for football and soccer, but all Redbird sports are taking advantage of the new space.

"Our golf team loves this space because they can chip and see the trajectory of the ball," ISU Director of Athletics Dr. Jeri Beggs stated. "Baseball and softball play almost legitimate games in here. Softball says it's basically a real field for them except right field is a little short. So, all our sports come in here. It has changed every sport that we have."

With the new signage on the side of the building featuring the OSF HealthCare logo installed earlier in the week, Illinois State student-athletes, coaches, staff and administrators joined representative from OSF HealthCare to welcome in community members to one of the busiest spaces on campus. 

Kids in attendance played various games and engaged with Redbird-student athletes at the open house celebration held prior to the Illinois State football spring game. OSF STEAM hosted a table where kids learned about color blindness with special 3D glasses, plus they explored the human brain with specimens they could experience hands-on. They also took away a coloring page as part of activities designed to engage young people to think about the wonders of science and a potential career in medicine.

"It's important that we take care of each other," OSF HealthCare Eastern Region Chief Medical Officer Carol Friesen said. "Health care and academics are the lynchpin of every community and if we're strong, then the whole community is vibrant. So, we wanted to make an investment in a meaningful way that would further what's going on here at ISU."