On a busy sports week in Tucson, UA athletic director Greg Byrne got little attention when he announced that mega-booster Michael Kasser has contributed $1 million to the school’s football facilities.
It was a headline THIS BIG in the 1990s when Wildcat booster Bill Hillenbrand donated close to $1.5 million for the UA to re-do its softball and swimming facilities, and also build a football auditorium and meeting theater at McKale.
But because Byrne has raised in excess of $50 million for facilities in his 4½ years at Arizona, a gift of $1 million no longer creates headlines or news-at-10 chatter.
Compare that to Arizona State, which needs more than $250 million to rebuild Sun Devil Stadium. Its only known gift is $500,000 from, ahem, football coach Todd Graham.
Arizona has five contemporary athletic boosters who have contributed at least $10 million to the school, a game-changer like none other. What is most remarkable is the background of those five.
Kasser is a chemical engineering graduate of MIT with an advanced degree from Harvard. He made his money in real estate and lumber.
Jeff Stevens is in the oil and gas business, a Phoenix native who graduated from the UA and is one of the largest benefactors in the Pac-12.
David Lowell, who played for the 1945 UA football team, was a miner of such reputation — he discovered 17 ore and copper mines globally — that some suggest he is the greatest miner in modern history.
Buzz Sands is an auto dealer from Phoenix whose father was a part of Arizona’s 1935 polo team.
Cole Davis, who is from Indiana, made his fortune in the RV industry.
Kasser. Stevens. Lowell. Sands. Davis. That’s the real Big Five in UA sports.
