The H.D. Smith Foundation has announced a $20 million gift to the University of Illinois Foundation in support of the university's Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.

The lion's share ($15 million) of the largest gift ever in support of the athletics department will be earmarked for the Fighting Illini Football Performance Center. To be completed in time for the 2019 football season, the 107,650-square-foot facility adjoining the south end of the Irwin Indoor Practice Facility will feature new and expanded space for strength and conditioning, coaches' offices, position meeting rooms, player development areas, locker rooms, and areas for prospect hosting and recruitment. In recognition of the gift, the facility will be named the Henry Dale and Betty Smith Football Center.

In addition, $3 million will be set aside for scholarships that enable former student-athletes to return to campus to complete their degrees, while the remaining $2 million will support innovative research at the intersection of medicine, engineering, and athletics at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine.

Dale and Chris ('79) Smith, president and vice president of the foundation, respectively, are honoring their parents with the gift. The Smith family moved to central Illinois in 1953 from South Carolina and in 1954 founded H.D. Smith, which became a national medical wholesaler. For more than two decades, the brothers have been loyal supporters of the university's I FUND , and their mother, Betty, at the age of 88, still attends as many Fighting Illini games as possible.

"We are incredibly excited to be able to honor our parents' legacy in this way," said Dale Smith. "Athletics, and in particular Illinois sports, were a big part of their way of life. They loved central Illinois, their home for more than sixty years, and my mother is thrilled their support will help to build pride in this region through continued university success."

(Photo credit: Trevor Diedrich)