McGuire Center Damaged In Automobile Crash

An out of control vehicle struck the Al McGuire Center front doors on Marquette’s campus on Tuesday morning.

According to reporting by Marquette Wire’s Andrew Goldstein & John Steppe, the driver lost control of the vehicle shortly after 9am Central time, jumped the curb on the east side of 12th Street, and smashed into the main entrance of the combination athletics office and arena.

The only injury reported is a minor injury to a Marquette employee.

As you can see from the pictures, the exterior set of doors is a near complete loss, while the southern most interior pair of doors also appear to be completely destroyed.

Based on the picture from Steppe, it appears to have been a pretty sharp swing off 12th Street by what had to have been a southbound vehicle. The large blue “McGuire Center” sign looks to be completely intact while the planter about 15 feet south is smashed, and the FedEx box that usually sits outside the building was dragged into the atrium and is visible in the first picture.

A number of things had to be happening for the car to reach the McGuire Center in the first place. As mentioned, given the direction the SUV is pointed, it had to have been traveling southbound to begin with. That means that there had to be no northbound traffic in the other lane for it to strike, as well as no cars parked on 12th Street to cause an impediment as well.

The damage to the building is going to have immediate impact for Marquette, and I don’t mean in the accounting department. First, the volleyball team has home matches scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Second, just yesterday, Marquette announced that they would be hosting a men’s basketball exhibition against UW-Milwaukee at the McGuire Center on Sunday, with tickets going on sale on Thursday and proceeds going to hurricane relief. Third, and this is the least important item, Class of 2018 top 25 recruit Quentin Grimes is scheduled to visit Marquette starting on Friday. Given the major amount of repair work necessary, it seems highly unlikely that the main entrance will be usable in just three days, much less five days for the exhibition game. There are relatively simple workarounds, so keep your eyes and ears open as MU works to finalize plans for this weekend’s events.

UPDATE: The athletic department will be utilizing the northwest doors at the McGuire Center — near the corner of 12th and Wells — for the volleyball games and the exhibition basketball game.