Donors give money to University athletics

Bob Feeney, Contributing Writer

On Wednesday, April 20, the University celebrated its “One Herd One Day” day of giving to support the bison athletics program. 

During the day of giving, each varsity and club athletic team has the opportunity for donations that directly benefit the team. The goal for this year’s One Herd One Day was to reach 2,022 donors, which was easily surpassed. At the end of the day, the grand total was $1,231,122 donated, which will “help provide Bucknell with the resources necessary to build champions in the classroom, in the community and in the competitive arenas” as noted by the fundraiser website.

The Universitys mens and women’s cross country and track and field program, or the “spiked shoe club,” topped all other teams and clubs with the most donors, with a total of 375. 

“The track and field/cross country program has a very large and loyal network of alumni and fundraising has always been very successful. There have only been two head coaches in the past 52 years and both Art Gulden and I have the same philosophy that once you are a Bison, you are always a Bison and we both want the alumni involved in our program,” Head Coach Kevin Donner said.

Donner said that sense of belonging starts in recruiting new athletes.

“I tell people in the recruiting process that you are not just committing to us for four years, but you are committing to us for 40 years or more. We have always had large teams and we take great pride in improvement and development and providing competitive opportunities to everyone in our lineup from the top to the bottom.  In order to do that, we need more resources and money through fundraising and our alumni always come through,” he said. 

With this sizable list of donors the “Spiked Shoe club” finished the day with a total of $96,755. While the Track team had the most donors, the Universitys baseball team led the day with a total of $145,963 raised in just 24 hours. 

When asked about the impact of the fundraising on his team, Head Coach Scott Heather said, “As a program, we are reliant on alumni and family donations to run the program. It is essential we have a big day on one-herd one-day in order to run the program in the proper way. To have so much support shows how the people a part of our program value what we are able to provide at Bucknell. Many people stepped to the plate with over 230 contributions for baseball and we are very thankful for everyone that participated.” 

All of the University’s varsity teams were able to benefit from this day, with contributions supporting over 750 student athletes on campus.

At the end of the day, there were a total of 2,946 donors who all contributed to support athletics at the University. Just under half of these donors were University alumni, many of which were varsity athletes themselves during their time at the University. With the help of these donors, current and future Bison will be able to continue to find success both inside and outside their respective sports.

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