UA Receives 2 Gifts Worth $1.25 Million In Wake Of Petrino Firing

The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and its board chair, Fred Smith, announced two separate gifts to the University of Arkansas totaling $1.25 million. The money will be used to support a planned Student-Athlete Success Center, a multipurpose academic resource and study center and dining hall for use by the university’s 460 students participating in intercollegiate athletics.

The foundation gift was for $1 million, while Smith’s contribution was $250,000.

“The courageous leadership demonstrated by Jeff Long in the course of recent events has further affirmed our confidence in his leadership and his vision for intercollegiate athletics at the University of Arkansas,” Smith said. “Mr. Long acted with integrity and with the best interests of Razorback student-athletes and the University of Arkansas in mind.”

The Student-Athlete Success Center is one of the proposed facilities outlined in the recently released $23 million Razorback Athletic Master Facility Plan. The center will house academic support facilities, including group and individual tutorial rooms, study hall areas, a large auditorium, computer labs, multi-media, career planning, service learning and community service areas.

The center will also include a dining facility that will provide a training table for all 460 student-athletes competing in 19 sports. The dining facility will cater to the nutritional needs of student-athletes and provide flexibility to meet dining needs of student-athletes on weekends and during other irregular schedules.

In a press release from the university, Long said the news of the donations took him aback.

“When Chancellor Gearhart called to tell me that the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and Fred Smith had made substantial gifts in my name to our university, I was surprised and truly humbled,” Long said.