Creighton Names New Athletic Facility “The Bill” to Honor Philanthropist Bill Scott
Creighton University’s future athletic facility will be named “The Bill” in honor of the late Bill Scott, longtime donor and friend to the University, city and state.
The family of Bill and Ruth Scott has made the lead gift to build The Bill, a 50,000 square-foot athletics facility for Creighton’s 300-plus student-athletes. Construction of the $65 million building, formerly referred to as the Sports Performance Center, began in the summer of 2025, with an official groundbreaking in November. The facility is expected to be completed in 2027.
Located at 20th and Burt Streets, The Bill will be immediately west of The Ruth (The Ruth Scott Training Center), the practice space for Creighton volleyball and women’s basketball. Opened in 2019, The Ruth was named in honor of Ruth Scott, Bill Scott’s wife of 73 years before his passing in 2024.
The Bill is part of Fly Together, a $300 million, donor-funded initiative to reshape Creighton’s 12-block athletic and recreational corridor with 11 new or upgraded facilities and outdoor spaces. The Bill will be the crown jewel of the University’s growing Athletic Village.
Through prior personal gifts and their family foundation, Bill and Ruth Scott contributed significantly to the entirety of Creighton’s east-campus athletic corridor — The McDermott Center, the Wayne and Eileen Ryan Athletic Center and D.J. Sokol Arena, The Ruth and the Rasmussen Center (named after the Scotts’ close friend, former McCormick Endowed Athletic Director Bruce Rasmussen).
"Our admiration for Bruce Rasmussen created a love for helping student-athletes," said Ruth Scott. "It hasn't been a custom to put our names on things, and when the volleyball team chose to name the practice facility 'The Ruth,' I felt awkward about it at first, but I grew to love it. When it became evident there would be another athletics building next to The Ruth, I knew that we had to support it and that it had to be named The Bill. I felt that, after 73 years of marriage, I still wanted to be close to Bill."
Bill Scott, a lifelong Nebraskan, started as one of Warren Buffett’s first two lieutenants, joining Buffett Partnership in 1959 and Berkshire Hathaway in 1970, where he remained until the early 1990s. Bill then started his second career — as a full-time philanthropist.
In 2014, Bill Scott said, “It is a privilege and obligation to support others. It is especially a privilege to support student-athletes as they pursue athletic and academic excellence in the best college environment possible. Creighton is that university.”
In September, the University announced the Fly Together initiative with the largest gift in Creighton’s history: $100 million from the Heider Family Foundation. In addition to the Heider Family Foundation and Ruth Scott, lead donors Don C. Scott, John Scott, Linda and Larry Pearson, and Rachel and CL Werner have supported Fly Together.
“The Bill and Ruth Scott family, including their sons, Don and John Scott, have made an impact on Creighton, Omaha and Nebraska that cannot be overstated,” said Creighton President the Rev. Daniel S. Hendrickson, SJ, PhD. “From athletics to academics, from student formation to beautiful campus facilities, the Scott family has made, and continues to make, so many transformational gains possible at Creighton. Their selfless dedication and focus on improving the lives of all Nebraskans are so inspirational. Truly beyond words.”
JE Dunn is constructing The Bill. The facility’s design is a collaboration between Holland Basham Architects and the Portland, Oregon-based marketing agency GLGR (Gallagher).
The Bill will feature approximately 10,000 square feet of new strength and conditioning space, an outdoor training area, a dining hall catering to the specific nutritional needs of student-athletes, areas for academic advising, sports medicine, and psychology services, and gathering spaces that reflect the University’s commitment to formation through community.
Currently, all of Creighton’s 300-plus student-athletes must schedule workouts around a single weight room, located in the McDermott Center. This results in many teams being forced to use the facility as early as 5 a.m. or late into the evening. Spacing issues have limited student-athletes’ access to sports medicine, psychology services and academic advising. And unlike many universities, Creighton Athletics doesn’t have a dedicated dining hall with nutritional services.
In the evolving landscape of college athletics, building elite facilities like The Bill is one of the most effective ways Creighton can continue to compete for the best student-athletes in the country, said Marcus Blossom, McCormick Endowed Athletic Director.
“This is an all-encompassing facility that covers the physical, mental and spiritual well-being and success of our student-athletes, so it’s fitting that it will be named after a man who supported Creighton students in every way,” Blossom said. “Our programs, in particular for female student-athletes, are largely where they are today because of Bill and Ruth Scott’s passion for Creighton athletics. In The Bill and The Ruth facilities, the Scott family’s legacy will carry on through multiple generations of Creighton student-athletes.”
The Bill and Ruth Scott Family
At Creighton, the Scott family also contributed significantly to the School of Dentistry building and the CL and Rachel Werner Center for Health Sciences Education, and has likewise established scholarships for medical students and student-athletes.
They have also helped to launch innovative services across multiple schools and colleges — from the After-hours Clinic in the School of Dentistry to a financial literacy program in the Heider College of Business to student-attorney-run legal clinics in the School of Law supporting juvenile clients and Omahans filing for bankruptcy. In 2025, the Don C. Scott Family Foundation started a new scholarship for accelerated College of Nursing students with a passion for providing mental healthcare to their communities.
Beyond Creighton, the family has given hundreds of millions of dollars to more than 150 local and statewide organizations, with much of their support extended to higher education. They have given to all four University of Nebraska campuses, in addition to Metropolitan Community College, Bellevue University, College of Saint Mary and Creighton University.
