Maggs Physical Activities Center

In 1967, plans for the construction of a new physical education complex were announced for Salisbury State College. With the construction of the College’s Tawes Gym six years prior, physical education had grown into one of the school’s most popular majors. Under SSC's president Dr. Norman Crawford, a new gym and physical education epicenter was completed in 1977. $5,320,400 was spent on this project. 

Initial plans for the new physical education center connected a new building to the already standing Tawes Gym with an indoor swimming pool. However, this notion of connecting the two gyms was abandoned for constructing the new building on the site of the college’s old baseball field. The new physical education center included two gymnasiums, classrooms, a 25-meter Olympic size pool, handball and squash courts, basketball courts, an indoor track, a wrestling room, dance studios, treatment rooms with whirlpool baths, lounges, weight rooms, and faculty offices. Tawes Gym would then be used for intramural sports and teaching.

By request of President Crawford, the new gym was named after Coach Benn Maggs, who had retired the previous year. Maggs worked at Salisbury State College for 43 years, from 1933 to 1976. The coach had been foundational in establishing not only a physical education program for the college, but also a student athletics program. Maggs had also been heavily involved in Salisbury State College’s music and photography programs. According to Crawford, "Every male student who attended Salisbury State College until [1976]'s entering class has known Coach Maggs." (Bradley)

Maggs Gym continues to operate as Salisbury University’s primary athletics center today. It also hosts university events in need of mass seating, as the building is home to a 3,000 seat gymnasium.

Bradley, Sylvia. Salisbury: From Normal School to University, 1925 - 2001. Salisbury, Maryland. Salisbury University Press, 2002.