Cal Poly Names New Football Center After Alumnus John Madden

The NFL icon began attending the school in 1957.

NFL icon John Madden will be memorialized as the namesake of a new football facility at Cal Poly. 

Madden’s family and the school shared plans Saturday for the John Madden Football Facility, a $30 million football building that had been in the development process prior Pro Football Hall of Famer’s death in December. He was 85. 

Madden enrolled at Cal Poly in 1957 after attending three other colleges. He played football and baseball for the school, in addition to earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the university.

Cal Poly unveiled the plan for the 30,000-square-foot building during halftime of its game Saturday against Sacramento State.

“It shows that we’re not just an incredible university with a great academic history, but also that we’re committed to building a championship-level football program,” Cal Poly coach Beau Baldwin said in a statement. “We had the opportunity to watch a few football games with John, and it was amazing to listen to him talk about the game – after all those years as a commentator, deep down he was still a coach first. Ultimately as a coach you’re a teacher, and he wanted to do something special to really help our players develop.”

The Madden family provided an initial gift to initiate the process of building the facility, and Cal Poly said that fundraising is roughly 80% complete. The school plans to break ground on the facility in the spring and complete construction in about two years.

After leaving Cal Poly, Madden went onto to join the football coaching ranks, quickly working his way up to become head coach of the Raiders. He spent 10 seasons with Oakland, amassing a 103–32–7 record.

After retiring at the age of 42, Madden had a legendary broadcasting career and became the face of the iconic Madden NFL Football video game series.

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