Hawkins Arena
basketball arena in Macon, Georgia, U.S
The Hawkins Arena is the basketball arena on the campus of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, United States. The arena is located in the University Center, a large multi-purpose facility centrally located on the university campus.
History
The University Center opened in 2004. The $40 million, 230,000-square-foot (21,000 m2) center, houses Mercer's athletics department, a 3,500-seat basketball arena, an indoor pool, work-out facilities, intramural basketball courts, offices, a food court, and numerous meeting facilities. Mercer's baseball and softball fields are located adjacent to the center along with the university's tennis complex and football-lacrosse complex Moye Complex.
The University Center replaced Porter Gym, which stood on the Mercer campus from 1937 to 2004; Porter Gym was located on the central quadrangle and was razed when the University Center opened. The center is also located on the central quadrangle on the site of the university's original fraternity row, which was razed after a new Greek Village opened. In 2007, a 101-room Hilton Garden Inn opened on university-owned land adjacent to the University Center. Parking lots are available for visitors-spectators arriving via the Mercer University Drive exit off Interstate 75.
The University Center arena was renamed Hawkins Arena in 2012 to honor J. B. Hawkins, former high school athletic director and basketball coach in Crawford County.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5685116. Authority coordinates are 32.830, -83.652. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2004, 1937, 2007 and 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hawkins Arena” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.