Regents name Strutters Gallery in honor of Linda Fields

Posted by University News Service

May 25, 2012

The Texas State University System Board of Regents has voted to name the Strutters Gallery -- currently under construction at Texas State University’s Bobcat Stadium -- in honor of Linda Gregg Fields.

Linda Gregg Fields and her husband, Jerry D. Fields, are among Texas State’s most generous benefactors. They have donated more than $11.7 million to Texas State, including $1.35 million toward the construction and operation of the gallery which will depict the history and prominence of the Strutters organization at the university.

The Linda Gregg Fields Strutters Gallery will be located on the first floor of the Bobcat Stadium North Side Complex. The gallery will be dedicated at a special ceremony to be held Sept. 7. The first football game at the new stadium will be played Sept. 8 against Texas Tech.

Mrs. Fields earned a bachelor of science in education from Texas State in 1966. She was very active on campus, where she was a Strutter, a member of Chi Omega sorority and a Gaillardian (all-campus favorite). A San Marcos native, she taught school for seven years following her graduation.

The Fieldses have donated generously to the McCoy College of Business Administration and to the Department of Athletics. Their gift of $6 million is the largest single gift in Texas State history to athletics. In recognition of that donation, the Bobcat Stadium West Side Complex was named in their honor.

At a critical time for Texas State, Jerry D. and Linda Gregg Fields served as co-chairs of the university’s Pride in Action fund-raising campaign, providing valuable leadership in planning and strategy development. Earlier this month, they were awarded honorary doctoral degrees by the university.

The Strutters were the first precision dance team formed at a four-year university. They were founded in 1960 by Barbara Guinn Tidwell and are currently led by her successor, Susan Angell-Gonzalez. They are the largest precision dance team in the country with 113 dancers, and they boast more than 3,000 alumnae. They have performed in 24 countries on four continents.

The TSUS Board of Regents voted to name the Strutters Gallery in Fields’ honor during its regular meeting held May 24-25 in Beaumont on the campus of Lamar University.