FGCU Athletics Hall of Fame: Ben Hill Griffin III, Bill Merwin, Duane Swanson Sr. left legacies

The FGCU Athletics Hall of Fame will induct its own Mount Rushmore on Friday.

Head baseball coach Dave Tollett, who has been with the athletic department from its beginning in 2002, used the term to describe Dr. Ben Hill Griffin III, former President Bill Merwin, Duane Swanson Sr., Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale, and Olympic beach volleyball player Brooke Sweat.

"If we had a Mount Rushmore of FGCU athletics, this is it," Tollett said. "Instead of four (Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln), we have five."

Friday's ceremony comes almost two months after the FGCU men's basketball 2012-13 team, the Dunk City one that went to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, was inducted.

Related: College basketball: FGCU celebrates Dunk City, what it built at hall of fame induction ceremony

The faces of Sale and Sweat on FGCU's Rushmore are more recognizable and prominent.

Sale, a former FGCU star who came out of nowhere to become a national player of the year, has gone on to become a multiple MLB All-Star and won a World Series with the Red Sox. Sweat, who is from Estero and a Canterbury School graduate, starred in FGCU's indoor volleyball program in NCAA Division II from 2004-07, then switched to beach volleyball and played in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

The Rushmore faces of Griffin, Merwin, and Swanson are fairly hidden, compared to athletes but FGCU would not exist on the level it does athletically without them. They're part of the reason the Eagles program was able to go from the NAIA to NCAA Division II, and then to NCAA Division I in a five-year period. All three are being inducted into the FGCU Hall posthumously

Kavanagh remembered first visiting FGCU in 2008 when he was athletic director at Bradley and coming away saying "Holy cow" about what already was there. He had no idea he'd end up running the athletic department a year later.

"That holy cow and continued wow was generated in particular with the three individuals, Ben Hill, Dr. Merwin, and Duane Sr., that were a major piece of creating the atmosphere," he said.

Griffin's Alico Inc. donated 760 acres for the school campus, then an additional 215 acres, funding for three endowed chairs, scholarships, and $5 million for the athletic program. All of that is why the basketball and volleyball facility is named Alico Arena. Griffin died in July 2020.

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Merwin, who died in May 2011, was FGCU's second president, from 1999 until 2007, and played a big role in getting FGCU Athletics off the ground with the hiring of Carl McAloose as the first full-time athletic director. And he even was involved in the layout of that ground, wanting to make sure that the student dormitories were within walking distance of the athletic facilities so they could easily come and support those programs.

"His vision for athletics from the get-go once he hired Carl, we were on the go," Tollett said. "The plans for us to do this and be competitive early on is you have to have the support of the president to be able to do that.

"Going Division I, that's his call, and what a great call it was. Another decision made by one of these five that just changed this university and what this university is."

Merwin may have made the call on going Division I and getting athletics ready for that, but donors like Swanson, who passed away in March 2011, played just as important a role in making that happen. He was integral in the construction of the baseball stadium, which carries his name, and the softball stadium, plus the Outdoor Sports Complex that is home to 11 of FGCU's 15 programs.

"Duane, for me, was the greatest gift that we've ever had at this university," Tollett said. "The Swanson family was the greatest gift that this university from an athletic standpoint has ever seen.

"He'd say 'You all are thinking too small. You all are thinking too small.' He brought a bigger vision of what he thought this university could be."

Swanson was in poor health when he was honored with a plaque as an honorary letter winner prior to an FGCU baseball game against Michigan. The FGCU players lined up in front of the dugout to shake hands as Swanson came by in a wheelchair.

"This was his stadium," Kavanagh said. "He came that night, and I remember talking to Cookie (Swanson's wife) and she said 'He's been excited like a little kid, waiting by the door all day.'"

Swanson died six days later. That night the baseball team played USF and dedicated the game to Swanson. The Eagles won, and after the last out, saved the ball. The players all signed it, and the seniors presented it to Swanson's widow. He is the only person in FGCU history to be honored by having funeral services in Alico Arena.

Sale was a lanky, 6-foot-7 pitcher with one Division I scholarship offer out of Lakeland. Tollett made that offer.

"The rest is one of the best stories in college athletics," Tollett said.

That may sound a little biased, but consider Sale went from that one Division I offer to become the top pitcher in the ASUN, then the top pitcher in the country, and then to the 13th overall pick in the MLB draft. It all happened within three years.

"That's unheard of," Tollett said. "He's once in a lifetime. You're going to have one of those guys your whole coaching career, and some people never get that guy. He changed our landscape."

When Sale was a freshman, new foul poles came in for the stadium. The players had to paint them, but the wrong kind of paint was used, and it peeled off. So they had to repaint them. Two coats.

In 2017, Hurricane Irma snapped a foul pole in half.

"He joked I'm not buying you another foul pole, I'm just telling you," Tollett said. "Four weeks later, he said I will buy you a scoreboard. That foul pole can lay right where it's at.

"I've never asked Chris for anything. That's what's beautiful about it."

Sale may have left to go to the majors, but he's never left FGCU. If he's not there physically working out during the offseason, his support is there for fundraisers like the Night at the Nest or Laces of Love.

Last year, that Sale Family Videoboard debuted at Swanson Stadium. Saturday's basketball doubleheader against Liberty will be yet another Laces of Love fundraiser.

"What he's done after is just unbelievable," Tollett said. "He's very grateful for where he played, and he's very proud of where he played."

Sweat was Brooke Youngquist when she came down the road to FGCU, and her father Harvey also has been a big supporter of FGCU athletics. Back in 2004, Alico Arena was just two years old, and many of the adjacent parts of the venue did not exist.

"We were so small back then that we all knew each other," Tollett said. "Brooke was like family for us."

Sweat has played all over the world, and came up just short of competing in her second Olympics, this time with legend Kerri Walsh Jennings, in Tokyo. But she still finds the time to come back to Southwest Florida. And to follow the volleyball program. She was at FGCU's first NCAA Tournament appearance when the Eagles upset UCF.

"They bleed Green and Blue," Kavanagh said of Sale and Sweat. "That's the connection that they both maintain, and we are always proud of it."

So those are the five, all who played indelible roles in FGCU Athletics becoming what it is in just its 21st year.

"We're going to have great coaches and great athletes go in the Hall of Fame, but without these five, this place is just different," Tollett said. "It would be totally different."

Greg Hardwig is a sports reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: @NDN_Ghardwig, email him at ghardwig@naplesnews.com. Support local journalism with this special subscription offer at https://cm.naplesnews.com/specialoffer/

FGCU Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony

When: 6 p.m., Friday

Where: Cohen Student Union Ballroom, FGCU

Tickets: $75 each

Info: fgcuathletics.com

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Late Ben Hill Griffin III, Bill Merwin, Duane Swanson to join FGCU Hall of Fame