{"id":116290,"date":"2023-06-24T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T17:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/?p=116290"},"modified":"2023-06-24T12:00:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T17:00:55","slug":"alumnus-major-gift-supports-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/alumnus-major-gift-supports-athletics\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus&#8217; Major Gift Supports Athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_116276\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/gift-supports-universitys-medical-center-libraries\/ucimg-2698\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-116276\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-116276\" class=\"size-shareaholic-thumbnail wp-image-116276\" src=\"http:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/UCIMG-2698-640x391.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"367\" srcset=\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/UCIMG-2698-640x391.jpg 640w, https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/UCIMG-2698-300x183.jpg 300w, https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/UCIMG-2698-768x469.jpg 768w, https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/UCIMG-2698-1536x938.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/UCIMG-2698.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-116276\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ole Miss Athletics Foundation CEO Denson Hollis (right) thanks Mike (left) and Donna Glenn for their $350,000 gift that will help improve the university&#8217;s athletics facilities and programs. Photo by Bill Dabney\/UM Foundation<\/p><\/div>\n<p>OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 When football players at the <a href=\"https:\/\/olemiss.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">University of Mississippi<\/a> leave the locker room for practice, they&#8217;ll soon pass through a foyer honoring one of many donors to Champions. Now., the <a href=\"https:\/\/givetoathletics.com\/about-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ole Miss Athletics Foundation<\/a>&#8216;s fundraising campaign focused on improving facilities.<\/p>\n<p>The Donna and Mike Glenn Walk-Off Foyer honors the Eads, Tennessee, couple&#8217;s $350,000 gift to the university.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A successful athletic program, as is often said, is the front porch to the university,&#8221; said Mike Glenn, a 1977 UM graduate and former executive vice president of market development and corporate communications for FedEx Corp. &#8220;When athletic programs are successful, enrollment increases as does awareness of our great university, and this helps accomplish academic goals.<\/p>\n<p>Last summer, Glenn witnessed the Ole Miss baseball team win the 2022 College World Series.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had the opportunity to attend, along with my son, and it was a memory of a lifetime,&#8221; said Glenn, adding that gathering with family and friends on football game days has also created special moments for him. &#8220;Donna and I tailgate less than 75 yards from where my brother and I started tailgating with my parents and aunt and uncle over 60 years ago.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He hopes his gift and those from others will enable such celebrations to continue for the Rebels.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You simply cannot compete at a championship level without private support from alumni and friends,&#8221; said Glenn, immediate past chair of the UM Foundation board of directors.<\/p>\n<p>The Glenns&#8217; gift will help expand and renovate the <a href=\"https:\/\/givetoathletics.com\/manning-center\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Olivia and Archie Manning Athletics Performance Center<\/a>, giving the Rebels a state-of-the-art practice facility, among other projects.<\/p>\n<p>Denson Hollis, the foundation&#8217;s CEO, expressed his appreciation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mike and Donna represent a multi-generational Ole Miss family who has shown great loyalty to Ole Miss athletics by sharing their resources, time and leadership,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We are thankful not only for their gifts that enhance our sports programs and facilities, but also for their longtime universitywide support.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And we are especially grateful to Mike for strengthening the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation through his service on its board of directors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This is the latest of many gifts the Glenns have made to the university.<\/p>\n<p>Most recently, the couple gave $150,000, which was used to modernize the university&#8217;s digital communications and marketing services. In 2017, Glenn honored his wife by endowing an Ole Miss Women&#8217;s Council scholarship in her name.<\/p>\n<p>The two met 38 years ago at FedEx. Donna Glenn is a graduate of the University of Memphis. Over the years, her own affinity for the university has grown so much that Glenn occasionally refers to his wife as a &#8220;walk-on alumna.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In 2007, when Mike Glenn co-chaired UM&#8217;s capital campaign, the couple pledged $500,000 to help support five different areas of the university: the School of Business Administration Endowment, Residential College Program, UMAA Basketball Campaign, Mike and Donna Glenn Ole Miss First Scholarship Endowment and the Glenn Family Quasi Endowment.<\/p>\n<p>Glenn, a Memphis, Tennessee, native, earned a bachelor&#8217;s degree in business administration from UM and an MBA from the University of Memphis. He joined FedEx in 1981 and held management positions in sales and marketing.<\/p>\n<p>The former executive was named to the Ole Miss Alumni Association Hall of Fame in 2008 and received the Alumni Association&#8217;s Alumni Service Award in 2016. He also is vice president of the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation board of governors and served on the Alumni Association board of directors and as a member of the UM Foundation&#8217;s Joint Committee on University Investments.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The university was instrumental in preparing me for my career at FedEx, and it is only appropriate that I give back to the university in any way I can,&#8221; Glenn said. &#8220;I am hopeful my family&#8217;s gift will inspire others to give as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To make a gift to Ole Miss athletics, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/givetoathletics.com\/champions-now\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Champions. Now.<\/a> or contact Denson Hollis at <a href=\"mailto:dhollis@olemiss.edu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">dhollis@olemiss.edu<\/a> or 615-957-4372.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 When football players at the University of Mississippi leave the locker room for practice, they&#8217;ll soon pass through a foyer honoring one of many donors to Champions. Now., the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation&#8216;s fundraising campaign focused on improving facilities. The Donna and Mike Glenn Walk-Off Foyer honors the Eads, Tennessee, couple&#8217;s $350,000<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/alumnus-major-gift-supports-athletics\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read the story &#x2026;<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":116277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[495,507,199,460],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Alumnus&#039; Major Gift Supports Athletics - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/alumnus-major-gift-supports-athletics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alumnus&#039; Major Gift Supports Athletics - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 When football players at the University of Mississippi leave the locker room for practice, they&#8217;ll soon pass through a foyer honoring one of many donors to Champions. Now., the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation&#8216;s fundraising campaign focused on improving facilities. 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