EAST LANSING – When does a building become worth celebrating?
Perhaps it’s when the space it provides for people helps them flourish and create meaningful relationships that might not have happened outside of its walls.
That’s the legacy of Michigan State’s Clara Bell Smith Student-Athlete Academic Center after 25 years, its imprint measured both in tangible data and countless stories of MSU athletes who’ve found their footing or passion or guidance in a building that, a quarter-century ago, was the first of its kind and has now been replicated throughout the country.
It is also the legacy of MSU basketball great Steve Smith, whose $2.5 million gift — the largest known donation from an athlete to his or her school at the time — helped make the center happen and led to its name, after Smith’s late mother. Smith wanted it to be named after his dad, too, but his father thought it should honor only his mom. Smith’s father was no less proud.
“He would drive by there every time he came up for games just to go by it to get a chance to see my mom, his wife,” Smith said of his dad, who passed away in 2019.