Completed in , the facility is an addition on the south side of Si Melby Hall, and features a wrestling training facility, fitness center, classrooms, meeting space and offices for the Athletic and Health and Physical Education departments. The Kennedy Center was built as part of the college's Access to Excellence campaign in the summer of Kennedy was the first four-time All-Lutheran Tournament champion in the event's history, and was a co-captain of an NAIA national runner-up Augsburg squad.
Rice has spent a lifetime involved in competing, coaching and promoting amateur wrestling. He was a two-time high school state champion, two-time Big Ten champion and an All-American at Minnesota, and competed for more than a decade at the Olympic level. He coached the U. Greco-Roman wrestling team at the Munich Olympics. Alan and Gloria formed the Minnesota Amateur Wrestling Club in , which has become one of the most prominent in the country in developing Olympic-level wrestlers. The entrance is open and airy, with three stories of glass facing Murphy Square Park.
The display is named for Augsburg alumnus Lute Olson '56 , the longtime men's basketball coach at the University of Arizona who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Olson was an Augsburg student from , playing three sports football, basketball, baseball while earning a double major in history and physical education.
Olson was named the school's Honor Athlete in , received the Augsburg Distinguished Alumni award in and was inducted into the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame in He coached for more than 30 years on the major-college level Long Beach State , Iowa , Arizona , and won more than games. To the right of the Lute Olson Hall of Champions is the Alan and Gloria Rice Wrestling Center , one of the centerpieces of the Kennedy Center project, which serves as the practice facility for Augsburg's men's and women's wrestling teams.
Outside the facility is the Jeff Swenson '79 Wrestling Wall of Fame , celebrating the long and storied history of Augsburg's men's wrestling program. Adjacent to the facility are offices for the Augsburg men's wrestling and men's basketball coaches, along with a conference room.
