Takedown Report

$1 Million Gift Boosts Wrestling and Lacrosse Scholarships, Supports Athletics Done Right

Lowell Bryan ’68 gives his parents full credit for driving him to become the best student and the best athlete he could be. His father’s sport was baseball, and his mother’s was swimming. Bryan wrestled and played football for Davidson, and his daughter attended Davidson and competed in lacrosse. Now, a new $1 million gift will create scholarships for two of the programs near and dear to Bryan’s heart—$500,000 for the Lyman L. Bryan Wrestling Scholarship and $500,000 for the Louise Bryan Lacrosse Scholarship, in recognition of the influence and dedication of his parents.  These dollars were given as current-use funds to help both programs recruit leading competitors nationally and internationally.  “When we look at most of our programs compared to our conference competitors, we simply don’t have the scholarship dollars,” Bryan said. “I want to get us on the path to really try to make progress, at least in two of our sports. The goal is to fully endow these scholarships I’ve started, so we can work to recruit the very best athletes to Davidson.”  Davidson Athletics is in a category of its own, with 25 percent of the student body competing in Division I sports, while sacrificing nothing in the classroom. Athletic Director Chris Clunie ’06 acknowledges that any college should be careful to call itself unique—but, when it comes to doing athletics right, Davidson is distinctive.  “Nobody in the country is doing what we do,” Clunie said. “Scholarships are undeniably the most important thing to bring the best student athletes—the best students overall—to Davidson. We have to invest on the front end to build our programs.”

Wrestling

Last year, the Davidson wrestling program completed a $250,000 matching gift scholarship campaign. Combined with this new support, alumni, parents and friends of the program have brought in $1 million in a little over a year.  “There are no words great enough to express my gratitude for Lowell Bryan’s support and generosity,” Wrestling Head Coach Andy Lausier said. “This expendable scholarship gift is going to greatly advance the efforts to transform Davidson wrestling into a nationally competitive program. Success on the mat begins with success in recruiting and, thanks to Lowell, we have the resources to win.”  Rest of the story at https://www.davidson.edu/news/news-stories/181113-1-million-gift-boosts-wrestling-and-lacrosse-scholarships?utm_campaign=Regular&utm_content=1542121604&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&mc_cid=23c8b9da21&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

November 18, 2018 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized