Thanks to the largest donation ever by a former student-athlete, USC opened the nation's most up-to-date aquatics center to a large, celebratory crowd Friday.

Fred Uytengsu, who walked on as a Trojan swimmer in 1979 and finished up as USC captain in 1983, came back from his native Philippines where he heads his family's successful dairy business to do something that mattered for his alma mater.

Eventually, that involved putting up $8 milllion of the $16 million it took to get the Uytengsu Aquatics Center online and ready to go.

Uytengsu had help here with pavilions and lounges, the pool and the diving well, all endowed by friends and family of legendary USC swim coach Peter Daland, legendary Trojan diver Dr. Sammy Lee, former All-American swimmer Ron Orr, in charge of USC's athletics fundraising, and even a Bruin, UCLA's Tod Spieker, for whom that school's aquatics center is named.

All were present among a celebratory crowd of some 500 or so who toured the facility after the ribbon-cutting by the Uytengsu family.

They got to see the Swim With Mike Room and the Song Girls Dance Studio, an Olympian Tribute area and the nation's largest dry land training facility for divers in addition to all brand-new coaches offices, locker rooms and athletes' lounges, all illustrated with graphics that tell the story of USC swiiming and diving and water polo.

Not a bad story highlighted by what Uytengsu remembered on his return to the old USC swim stadium when his daughter was a student at USC. "I love the smell of chlorine in the morning," he said of going back to "the Dungeon," as it was called. "It smells like victory."

Indeed, USC swiimers and divers have produced 10 national titles, 150 Olympians with 131 Olympic medlas, 169 NCAA individual/relay titles and 856 All-Americans.

Men's and women's water polo have combined for 13 national titles, 10 national players of the year, 15 combined Olympic medals, 54 Olympians and 283 All-Americans.

"It's the finest state-of-the-art aquatics center in America," Associate AD Mark Jackson said of the third capital improvement in the last 18 months at USC that has been under construction for just over a year.

USC will host the NCAA women's water polo national championships this May in the first big event at the center directly across from the Film School and adjacent to Howard Jones Field and Dedeaux Field. In fact, there's a location on the balcony where you could watch a baseball game, a football practice and a swim meet all in one glance.