SANDRA ESKENAZI INDIANA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM CENTER FEATURES STATE-OF-THE-ART SPACES MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROSITY OF OTHER PASSIONATE IU SUPPORTERS
For Immediate Release
February 24, 2023
Bloomington, Indiana – Since opening last fall, the Sandra Eskenazi Indiana Women’s Basketball Team Center has provided Coach Teri Moren’s team with a state-of-the-art space in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall to call home.
Named in recognition of a major gift to Women’s Excellence by Sandra Eskenazi, the new team center features nearly 2,000-square feet of renovated and reimagined space off the northwest corner of Branch McCracken Court. One of the Big Ten’s best women’s basketball team spaces, the Sandra Eskenazi Women’s Basketball Team Center includes five distinct areas, each of which was made possible by the generosity of other Hoosier supporters.
Those spaces are:
Courtney Cox Cole Locker Room – This space became a reality thanks to a generous gift from the Courtney Cox Cole family. The locker room provides team members with an expansive space, new lockers, and other first-rate amenities to utilize on game days and throughout the season.
A two-sport athlete at IU from 1990-93, Cox was the second-leading scorer as a freshman and a member of IU’s 1991 NWIT runner-up women’s basketball team. After her sophomore year, she turned her attention to golf, where she was a three-time All-Big Ten selection and a member of the 1992 Big Ten Championship squad. A product of Noblesville, Ind., Cox went on to become a highly-successful businesswoman after graduation. She was known by many as the co-owner of Hare Chevrolet in Noblesville, along with her sister, Monica Peck. Cole tragically passed away in 2019 at the age of 48 after a long and courageous battle with cancer.
Edson W. Sample Team Lounge – Located adjacent to the Courtney Cox Cole Locker Room, the program’s new team lounge offers a spacious area that is used exclusively by the members of the Hoosier women’s basketball program. It offers multiple big screen televisions, lounge chairs, desk and table space, and other recreational items.
This area is named in recognition of a generous gift from long-time passionate supporter of IU Athletics, Edson W. Sample, who passed away in December 2022. While best known to many in IU circles for his philanthropic efforts that made the iconic Sample Gates possible, he impacted IU and IU Athletics in many other ways. In addition to his gift to support this space, the top level of the IU Excellence Academy is named Sample Terrace in recognition of his support of that project.
McCarty Family Coach Meeting Room – The new meeting room offers Coach Moren and her staff a dedicated and private space that can be used during pregame, halftime, postgame or throughout the week.
This space is named in recognition of the generosity of long-time IU Women’s Basketball and IU Athletics supporter Darby McCarty. A regular at the Hoosier women’s games, McCarty is the CEO and Chairwoman of the Board of Smithville. She and her family have been Varsity Club contributors for 50-plus years, men’s basketball season ticket holders for more than 40, and she is a pillar of the Bloomington business community as the head of Indiana’s largest privately owned telecommunications company.
Greene Bealer Training Room – This space provides the basketball program and its medical and training staffs with a dedicated space inside the program’s Team Center. It features multiple training tables and stations, plus ample medical storage space to meet all the team’s practice and gameday training needs.
Long-time IU and IU Athletics supporters David E. Greene and Barbara J. Bealer made a generous gift to Women’s Excellence in support of this project and because of their passionate support of Coach Moren and IU Women’s Basketball. A graduate of the Kelley School of Business and the Maurer School of Law, Greene has been a member of the Kelley School faculty since 1997. Bealer, meanwhile, enjoyed a distinguished career in accounting before her retirement. The couple has been involved in a variety of philanthropic efforts in support of IU and IU Athletics, including the establishment of the David Greene and Barbara Bealer Scholarship in the Athletic Endowment Fund, and the David E. Greene and Barbara J. Bealer Endowed Scholarship at the Maurer School of Law.
Batdorf Fancher Legacy Wall – Housed inside the Eskenazi Team Center, the Batdorf Fancher Legacy Wall serves as a tribute to program alums who return to Bloomington. In the shape of the state of Indiana, the wall is a reminder of the pioneers and players who laid the foundation for the successes that the program enjoys today.
Two of those program pioneers are Linda Batdorf and Terri Fancher, sisters who played for the program from 1969-72 and 1972-73, respectively. As pre-Title IX student-athletes, they have been inspired to support the program ever since, while also highlighting and championing the work done by student-athletes past, present and future.
In 2021, Linda and Terri co-founded the Linda C. Batdorf and Teresa K. Batdorf Fancher Family Legacy Endowment in the Women’s Excellence initiative. The support from the endowment will be used to further the leadership development and community service experience for IU’s women’s varsity teams. Linda and Terri come from a family who believe in the power of education and sport to develop the leaders of tomorrow.