DAPHNE, Ala.—United States Sports Academy President Thomas P. Rosandich said he has set his sights on one particular goal: promote Daphne.

The Jubilee City—Baldwin County’s largest municipality—is budding with some 20,000 residents, but some believe tourism and commerce haven’t correlated with population growth. It was seen last fall when Councilman John Lake pushed for a recreational trails grant that would provide sidewalks and boardwalks behind the Jubilee Square Shopping Center—a $900,000 project to improve atmosphere and spike sales for the ailing mall. 2008 mayoral candidate Ernest Berger said, “We will either be a corridor … or we will become a destination,” campaigning for initiatives that would drive tourists to Daphne—as opposed to treating the stretch of U.S. Highway 98 south of U.S. 90 as a pit-stop to Gulf Shores; a bedroom community for out-of-town workers; or a go-between for Fairhope and Mobile.

This year, Rosandich echoed the sentiment; the goal, he said, is simple: “Make Daphne a destination.”

One way is by expanding the academy’s sport art collection. The campus’ American Sport Art Museum and Archives has commissioned Fairhope resident Bruce Larsen to craft a sculpture honoring seven-time Tour de France champion bicyclist and testicular cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. Rosandich said the academy has planned for two additional sculptures to grace the campus green: one of eight-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps and one that celebrates basketball and the style of recently deceased sport artist Ernie Barnes. 

The campus—which features two exterior Larsen sculptures of noted sports figures crafted from scrap materials, along with two murals—includes more than 1,000 sport-art pieces inside, making it the perceived largest housing of sport art.

See the rest of this story in the June 24 Daphne Bulletin.