Hugh Culverhouse Jr. says University of Alabama athletics have been a part of his life "since the day I was born." His father, Hugh Culverhouse Sr., was a boxer for the Crimson Tide. His mother, Joy McCann Culverhouse, was on the golf team.
Culverhouse, a south Florida attorney, land owner and investor, would like to make sure he remains a part of the athletic department for years to come; even in perpetuity. He has already donated $1.5 million to Alabama athletics, and announced in June he would donate another $1 million if other donors would match his total commitment by giving $2.5 million towards endowed scholarships for women's sports in the next year.
"You get two bucks for one, and there aren't many deals like that in town," Culverhouse said.
Alabama athletics set a goal to raise $100 million for endowed scholarships in 2010, said Sam Branch, senior associate athletic director. UA would eventually like to fully endow every athletic scholarship, but that goal is a long way off.
It takes $300,000 to fully endow a scholarship, but donors can partially endow a scholarship with donations of $25,000 and up. A fully endowed scholarship has enough money invested that the interest it produces can fully fund an athletic scholarship year after year. If a scholarship is endowed, its tuition and costs are paid from the endowment rather than the athletic department's budget. That provides relief from one of the department's biggest expenses.
"I think everybody assumes that you don't need scholarships," Culverhouse said. "Whether it's women's or men's golf or baseball or whatever, those scholarships the university just provides. And it just occurs magically."
Said UA women's golf coach Mic Potter, "Anytime a scholarship is endowed, that frees up money to be used elsewhere. Every time we endow a scholarship, it means something to everyone else in the athletic department."
The athletic department is hoping that Culverhouse's offer to match donations could make women's golf the first fully endowed sport at the school. Women's golf currently has $2,931,610 of $5,497,920 funded. That's 53.3 percent, the highest amount of any sport.
That's largely due to Culverhouse's donations, and his offer to match other donations puts the final goal within striking distance. Athletics director Bill Battle had told Culverhouse one of his goals was to have one sport fully endowed before he retired.
"I told Bill, ‘Bill, I'm going to retire your (butt) real quick,'" Culverhouse said. "His wife looked at me and said, ‘Go Hugh.'"
The donations only have to be to women's sports and not for women's golf specifically for Culverhouse to provide his match. But most of the early donations have been to women's golf, he said.
"We want to endow as many sports as we can, and we feel like the first one we can endow is women's golf because you've got six scholarships there that you need," Branch said. "We're well on our way."
The recent success of women's golf and Culverhouse's donation have helped make the push for the program to be the first to be fully endowed. Potter led the team to a national championship in 2012, and Emma Talley won an individual national championship in 2015.
Endowed scholarships help connect current athletes in the program with the supporters who make them possible. Joy McCann Culverhouse, who passed away earlier this year, was the youngest winner of the Alabama state amateur. Endowing scholarships also provides a level of security for programs for years to come.
"The biggest benefit in my opinion is that I know that the work that we've done to make our program successful will go on in perpetuity," Potter said. "If we can fully endow this program, we know it will always be here."
Culverhouse's family has long had a connection to the athletic department and the school as a whole. The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration is named for Hugh Culverhouse Sr., who owned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Hugh Culverhouse Jr., 67, has also made significant donations for academic scholarships at UA.
Sophomore Lakareber Abe was the first recipient of the Joy McCann Culverhouse endowed scholarship in 2015. That's a stamp Culverhouse will always have on the program, and one he hopes to have for decades to come.
"It really doesn't matter what our name is," Culverhouse said. "What matters is, what have we left at Alabama that does good? The name doesn't matter. What matters is, what lasts that's good? The business school is good, the scholarship is good, the women's golf scholarship is good. I can't take that to my grave, but it's going to live on forever at the University of Alabama."
Reach Ben Jones at ben@tidesports.com or 205-722-0196.
