Galen Center time flies when they have funds

Earlier this week, a wheelbarrow rested on bare concrete where the court will be tonight.

In the stands, sparks flew from a welder.

The lavish but not-yet-finished Galen Center -- the 10,258-seat arena USC has plotted to build for decades -- is finally scheduled to open tonight with a women's volleyball match between No. 4-ranked USC and No. 6 Stanford.

An Al Green concert Oct. 21 will serve as the arena's grand opening as an entertainment venue, and the men's basketball team -- finally liberated from the Sports Arena -- will play its regular-season opener in the new building on Nov. 16 against South Carolina. The women's basketball and men's volleyball teams will also play in the Galen Center, which has an adjoining practice facility so large that all four teams eventually will be able to practice at the same time.

"It's a huge scramble," said Carol Dougherty, the USC senior associate athletic director in charge of the project.

Dougherty wore a hard hat on a tour this week of the facility at the corner of Jefferson and Figueroa, while construction continued nearly around the clock to finish the public part of the building.

The coaches' offices remain shells, only 11 of the 22 luxury suites are complete, the weight room has no weights and tonight's match will be played on a basketball court because the volleyball floor isn't ready yet, but those amount to small details to USC officials, who like to say an on-campus arena has been more than a century in the making.

It might not be built yet if not for Louis and Helene Galen, who have contributed $50 million to a project Dougherty said will come in at $125-$130 million, including the practice pavilion.

"It's been a dream for almost 100 years," said Louis Galen, who recalls watching USC play basketball on the stage of the Shrine Auditorium and at the old Pan Pacific Auditorium.

"When we broke ground, there was an older couple there, and a guy stood up. He was 6-5, and introduced himself and said, 'I was recruited by USC in 1935 and they said then they were going to build an arena.' "

Galen, 81, used $12,000 in World War II military pay to help found Lynwood Savings and Loan in 1946. It went on to become part of World Savings, merged with Golden West Savings in the 1970s and recently was acquired by Wachovia.

How he and his wife came to make three large gifts to the arena project is a study of the subtle persistence of Don Winston, USC's senior associate athletic director and longtime department fund-raiser.