Sports Legend to Open £3.3m University Centre
12 July 2011
Former footballer and TV presenter Bob Wilson on his recent 500 mile charity bike ride around UK Premier League stadiums.
It is a great privilege for me to officially open this newly reburbished building at the University
”TV presenter and ex-international footballer Bob Wilson.
Donna Kellogg, Olympic badminton player, on a recent visit to the new Kirtley Building gym. (Left) University Deputy Chief Executive and Finance Director Hari Punchihewa, (right) Sports Development Manager Ollie Shearer and (rear) Team Derby student badminton players
Veteran TV presenter and football legend Bob Wilson will officially re-open a University of Derby building, following a £3.3m refit giving it one of the county's most advanced gyms.
The original single-storey 1960s-built Kirtley Building at the University's Kedleston Road site, in Derby, has been extended and another two storeys added to it. The project, by contractor OPL, was entirely funded from University budgets.
Bob, a Derby University Honorary, was a Scotland and Arsenal goalkeeper who became a key BBC and ITV sports presenter. He has recently completed a 500-mile bike ride around every Premier League football ground to raise £250,000 for the Willow Foundation; the charity set up in honour of his late daughter, Anna.
He will open the refurbished Kirtley Building at a ceremony beginning at 12 noon on Friday July 15. Attending will be University Vice-Chancellor Professor John Coyne, senior staff and invited guests.
As part of the event children from Kirk Langley Primary School will take part in activities on the Kirtley Building's floor dedicated to teacher training. Its other facilities include a physiology laboratory, and a research and consultancy room, for the University's Sport and Exercise degree students' training.
Most of the building's ground floor is taken up by a new gym which rivals the best in the county and is being run for the University by Nuffield Health. It replaces the University's former Fizeek gym.
The new gym includes a fully air conditioned 44 exercise station fitness suite with the latest Technogym equipment, a free weights area, changing rooms and TV monitors.
Gym members can use a 'virtual' personal trainer, a USB stick or computer data storage device, which plugs into each machine and tells them what they've done on their personal fitness programme and what they should be doing.
As well as staff and students the University has opened up the gym for use by its community sporting partners, such as the Derventio eXcel elite swimming, to help promote county sports. This will complement community clubs' current use of other University facilities, such as the all-weather sports pitch on the same site.
University managers want to assess the level of use by external clubs, and its own staff and students, for 12 months after which consideration will be given to opening up some gym sessions to the public.
Bob said: "It is a great privilege for me to officially open this newly reburbished building at the University.
"Sport has given me so much in my life both professionally and as recreation. This state of the art facility is guaranteed to provide great pleasure and learning to so many others who, like me, consider sport as an essential ingredient to a full life."
Professor Coyne added: "We're honoured that someone of Bob Wilson's standing in the sports world will officially open our refurbished Kirtley Building.
"This is the latest in our ongoing efforts to improve the University's sports provision, following the new all-weather sports pitch at Derby and our Buxton site's Harpur Hill centre. Kirtley will be a real boon to sports and fitness academia at Derby, our Team Derby sportsmen and women, and the wider Derbyshire community."
