In 2010, the Stallings family made the primary gift that led to the Stallings-Evans Sports Medicine Center on UNC’s campus. On Saturday, the university announced the family would once again be donating to grow it further.

Don and Billie Stallings and their family all stood at the center of the Dean Smith Center at halftime of Saturday’s game to announce their gift: the Stallings-Evans Sports Medicine Complex, a 30,000 square foot research facility. The complex will house and expand the Matthew Gfeller  Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, as well as the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes.

Currents plans are for the sports medicine complex to be built as an addition to Fetzer Hall, a building on South Road near the already-existing Stallings-Evans Sports Medicine Center. The use of the complex for both the Matthew Gfeller Center and Center for the Study of Retired Athletes will further their ability to work together on research, as well as provide more opportunities for UNC students.

“The new complex also gets Carolina closer to its aspirations for a new clinical program that addresses the treatment of patients dealing with symptoms related to chronic traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative disease,” reads the university release about the gift. “This gift will also allow for expansion of the existing sports medicine programming to allow more of the general student body to have access to these state-of-the-art services.”

Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, who co-directs the Gfeller Center, said the Stallings’ gift helps building on their remarkable legacy and will help UNC stay at the forefront of research and medicine.

“Our work in traumatic brain injury research and novel treatments has had a global impact because of the Stallings,” said Guskiewicz in the release, “and we are grateful for their commitment. Building on our culture of collaboration here at Carolina, this gift will enable us to continue that impact for years to come.”

The Stallings have been extensively involved at the university, with Don previously serving two terms on its Board of Trustees and Billie chairing the UNC School of Medicine’s cardiovascular medicine advisory board. They named both this complex and the existing sports medicine center after their son, Eddie Evans, who was born with a congenital heart defect and grew up a UNC fan.

“Sports medicine was very special to Eddie,” Billie Stallings said. “He wanted to be an athlete, but his heart condition wouldn’t allow it. He was a student athletic trainer for all sports at the Arendell Parrott Academy in Kinston, North Carolina, and always said he was going to excel in sports medicine and win a scholarship to UNC–Chapel Hill. This complex is the perfect tribute to him, because of the wonderful work it will do in his name on behalf of what he loved.”

The university said the Stallings’ gift goes towards the fundraising accrued for the Campaign for Carolina. Launched in 2017, the fundraising campaign now stands at $3.1 billion of its $4.25 billion goal.

Photo via Jeyhoun Allebaugh, University Development.

Related Stories
‹
UNC's Morehead-Cain Foundation Receives $10 Million Gift
The Morehead-Cain Foundation received its largest ever single donation from an alumnus in September. The $10 million gift from an anonymous donor will help the foundation keep providing scholarships to more UNC students for years to come. The gift did not come with any conditions or requests to alter the scholarship program in any way, […]
UNC Capital Campaign Hits $5 Billion Milestone Ahead of End Date
UNC announced Saturday it recently surpassed another major benchmark in its ongoing capital campaign: $5 billion. The university shared a release with the Campaign for Carolina update, as gifts from more than 215,000 donors reached the total just one month before the five-year fundraising effort comes to a close. The Campaign for Carolina launched in […]
UNC Officially Begins Business School Expansion, Shares Concept Art
Work to expand UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School officially got underway Thursday morning, as a groundbreaking ceremony was hosted in the school’s plaza area. While plans and fundraising work to create an expansion to the nationally-recognized school have been ongoing for years, the $150 million renovation earned the formal stamp of approval from Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz. […]
On Air Today: David Routh on UNC's Campaign for Carolina
UNC Vice Chancellor for Development David Routh joins 97.9 The Hill's Brighton McConnell to discuss the Campaign for Carolina on Thursday, January 13. With the fundraising effort hitting its ambitious goal a year earlier than anticipated, what comes next? Routh also shares thoughts on what the variety of donations means for the state's relationship with the university and the vision for these private gifts.
UNC Using Emergency Fund to Aid Students Impacted by COVID-19
A UNC emergency fund is aiming to help students financially impacted by COVID-19, which disrupted the university’s spring semester. The university announced Friday morning the Carolina Student Impact Fund is now being used to help students face any unexpected financial burdens due to the ongoing spread of the new coronavirus. A release from UNC said […]
New UNC Humanities Scholarship Formed by $10 Million Gift
Stephen Israel, a UNC graduate in the Class of 1966, gifted $10 million to create a new undergraduate humanities scholarship.
UNC's THRIVE Program Using New Home to Help More Veterans
The Matthew Gfeller Center at UNC is known for its leading research on head trauma and injuries for athletes. But the center is now building up a new program to help out a piece of our population: veterans. The THRIVE Program, or Transforming Health and Resilience in Veterans, recently moved to its own, […]
UNC Hits $4.25 Billion Fundraising Goal Early, Continues to Fundraise
Campaign for Carolina, UNC’s campus-wide fundraising drive, launched in October 2017 with the goal of reaching $4.25 billion by December 31, 2022. The university announced Thursday, it met this goal a year early. This makes UNC the eighth public university in the United States to surpass $4 billion in a single campaign.
UNC Will Provide Outreach Program for Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injuries
UNC will establish a new accessible treatment program for military veterans with traumatic brain injuries, thanks to a $12.5 million gift.
UNC Leaders React to Apple's Research Triangle Development Announcement
North Carolina received major news on Monday when the tech giant Apple announced it will spend $1 billion on a new campus in the Research Triangle Park. The development comes as part of an effort by Apple to increase investment as the U.S. begins rebuilding from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement from the […]
›