Former Duck Jonathan Stewart donates $250k to new football facility
EUGENE, Ore. – Former University of Oregon running back Jonathan Stewart will donate $250,000 to the Casanova Center expansion project, the university athletic department announced Tuesday.
Stewart’s donation is specifically earmarked for a “Running Backs’ Squad Room,” one of nine meeting rooms for different positions in the new 135,000 square-foot football facility.
“I feel truly blessed to be in a position to give back to the University of Oregon,” Stewart said in a UO news release. “I am blessed to be a part of such an outstanding legacy at the U of O, where I was able to succeed on the field as a player and grow off the field as a man.
“It gives me great pleasure to give back to a place that gave me so much.”
Stewart currently plays for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. He left the University of Oregon after the 2007 season, when he broke the Oregon single-season rushing record. That record has since been broken by LaMichael James.
The new Casanova Center expansion, which is privately funded through donations, is scheduled to be completed during the summer of 2013.
I think a far better cause would have been to donate the money to a local school district not another fancy football locker room.
 @peckishpete Better that he give any money, any at all, to any program than just hoard it.
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Let's not cut too thin a line here. The guy could have bought another Porsche or remarbled his bathroom... but he didn't.
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 @peckishpete And this coming from a Beaver fan. Bet you wouldn't be saying this if Stewart was a former Beaver giving back to the OSU athletic department.
@shek069 I most definitely would say the exact same thing. There is way too much money and commercial influence in college sports these days. Money is far better spent on academics than on the furthurence of athletics.Â
 @peckishpete  @shek069 You all realize that with the football teams' success has come with an extreme increase in applicants from all over the country resulting in raising the GPA requirements not once, but twice?  You must also not be aware that the football team is also one of only six university's that take $0 from the school and is completely self sufficient. ALSO, the school needs absolutely no money from the tax payers and tried to become a private university. There is a lot of money going to academics. I can assure you of that.Â
Good on Jonathan Stewart. All these athletic donations do raise the question of what would all the money spent on those facilities do if it were directed toward the real purpose of a university - education. It is great for Stewart to donate to athletics but it would be even greater if the alumni and former athletes donated to education.
In other news, UO tuition goes up 15 percent.
Two thumbs up, way up, to you sir,
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This is what is called "giving back."
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Of course some will say, "He makes 2mil a year, and all he gave was 250k." Well, I don't see those folks giving 250k themselves, so stuff it.
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