Friday, June 13, 2014

Gerald Ensley: FAMU sports tries to play the money game

TALLAHASSEE, Florida  -- You could argue this is how Florida State University sports success started.

Forty years ago, in 1974, the FSU athletics program was $300,000 in debt. FSU President Stanley Marshall told the few hundred Seminole Boosters they needed to start raising money or there might be severe changes to the FSU sports program.

FSU boosters took that threat to heart. In a year, they had 1,500 members and raised $400,000 to erase the debt. In four years, they had 3,000 members and were raising more than $1 million a year. Today, there are 18,000 Seminole Boosters, the organization raises $43 million a year — and FSU has won three national football championships.

Which is the direction Florida A&M boosters are now trying to head. Two weeks ago, an advisory committee announced FAMU’s first serious sports fundraising campaign. The committee chair, Gregory Clark, set a goal of raising $3.2 million in the near future.

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