South Dakota State University officials announced Saturday morning gifts totaling $6 million from the Dykhouse family and T. Denny Sanford to begin construction of a student-athlete development center on the Brookings campus.

The Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center will be located in the north end zone of Coughlin-Alumni Stadium. Preliminary components of the facility include a football locker room and football coaches’ offices, as well as strength and conditioning facilities, athletic training facilities and an academic center for all Jackrabbit teams. Further donations would allow for the addition of coaching offices and team meeting areas for a number of other SDSU teams.

“These extraordinary gifts will allow our student-athletes to reach their full potential for decades to come,” SDSU Director of Athletics Fred Oien said.

On Friday, the South Dakota Board of Regents approved the new facility to be named in honor of the Dykhouse family. Dana Dykhouse, who currently serves as president and chief executive officer of First PREMIER Bank in Sioux Falls, is a 1979 graduate of SDSU and former Jackrabbbit football player. His wife, LaDawn, also is a 1979 graduate of SDSU. They have two children, including son, Dan, who lettered in football for the Jackrabbits from 2004-06.

Dana Dykhouse currently serves as chairman of the SDSU Athletics Champions Council and is a past chairman of the SDSU Foundation Board of Directors. In addition, he has served as chairman of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, the Sioux Empire United Way Campaign and Junior Achievement of South Dakota.
Sanford owns First PREMIER Bank, along with the Premier BANKCARD credit card company, which together employ more than 2,500 people. In 2002, Sanford co-founded First PREMIER Capital in Minneapolis, which is engaged in the business of commercial equipment leasing. He remains active in the financial institutions and Threshold Ventures, a venture capital company he founded.

A well-known philanthropist, Sanford has donated more than $50 million since 2001 through the Sanford Foundation for charitable giving. In 2006, he pledged up to $70 million to the State of South Dakota for the Sanford Science Center at Homestake Mine in Lead. Earlier this year he announced a $400 million gift to the Sioux Valley Hospitals and Health System (now called Sanford Health).

Pending final approval from the Board of Regents and South Dakota Legislature, groundbreaking and construction of the Dykhouse Student-Athlete Center would begin in the spring of 2008. The building is expected to be available for occupancy by the spring of 2010.