Tickets are going fast for UALR’s SpectacUALR, the university’s annual fundraising celebration of Trojan athletics. The gala is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11, in the Jack Stephens Center.

The event will honor Jack Kinnaman, a 2004 inductee into the UALR Athletics Hall of Fame and a major supporter over the past quarter century.

Tickets are $50 per person and can be ordered online or by calling Andrea Angel, 501-569-3393. Sponsorship opportunities are still available.

The event will include cocktails and heavy hors d’oeurves and silent and live auctions.

“SpectacUALR promises to be a great evening to celebrate the Trojan program and Jack Kinnaman’s long-time support for UALR,” said Bob Denman, vice chancellor for development at UALR.

Kinnaman founded Kinko Constructors Inc., a Little Rock based construction company, in July 1973 and served as its president and CEO for 27 years. In late 2000, Kinnaman sold the company to four long-time employees and formed Kinnaman Consulting LLC, a consulting firm with an emphasis on construction dispute resolution. He owned and operated this company until his retirement in 2006.

Kinnaman’s contributions to Trojan athletics are highlighted by numerous renovations and additions to the UALR baseball facilities. Most notably, Kinnaman’s work includes the construction of the Trojans’ indoor practice facility and the Wheeler Complex, which houses the player clubhouse, meeting room, umpire locker rooms, and coaching suite at Gary Hogan Field.

In 1988, Kinnaman provided the installation of new turf at what was then Curran Conway Field at no charge to the university. The building of the Trojans’ first indoor hitting facility in 1990 came next, followed by the construction of the Wheeler Complex in 2001. Kinnaman also built a new state-of-the-art indoor practice facility and pressbox for the Trojans during the renovation of Gary Hogan Field in 2004.

He also provided renovations to the men’s and women’s basketball offices, volleyball offices, and men’s and women’s basketball locker rooms in the mid-1990s at no cost to the university.

Kinnaman was instrumental in starting UALR’s construction management program. In support of the program, he has funded the Jack Kinnaman Constructor Endowed Scholarship and the Phyllis Kinnaman Memorial Scholarship in memory of his first wife. He has established a bequest to endow an athletic scholarship and to provide additional funding for construction scholarships.

Outside of his contributions to UALR, Kinnaman’s projects have included the expansion of Little Rock National Airport, construction of the Pavilion in the Park shopping center, and several projects for the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Kinnaman is a member and former national president of the American Institute of Construction (AIC), where he co-authored the AIC Code of Ethics and was a two-time recipient of the National AIC Professional Constructor Award. He is the founding member of the Arkansas chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors. In 1996 he was named “Business Executive of the Year” by Arkansas Business. In 2002, he was inducted into the Arkansas Construction Hall of Fame.

In addition to his service to UALR, he has served on the construction and architecture advisory committees at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Clemson University, Southern Arkansas University Tech, and John Brown University.