General | May 12

Hello Huskies!

This spring has been a little busier than most around the NIU athletic department offices.
 
April and May are always MAC Championship months with all of our spring sports teams closing out their competition seasons.  Of course we also have graduation, always an exciting time for many of our student-athletes and their families as they complete their academic careers. I want to wish congratulations and good luck to all of our graduates. Remember, once a Huskie, always a Huskie!!

In addition to those relatively "normal" happenings of spring, we are preparing for the long-awaited 2017 NCAA Division I Golf Championships, hosted by NIU at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.  Beginning next week, we will welcome the finest collegiate golfers in the country, the NCAA staff, media from around the country and the Golf Channel to the "Home of the Huskies."  The NCAA Women's Championship takes place May 19-24, followed by the men's chase for the title May 26-31.  I hope you have made plans to come out and see these great young golfers play our showcase course.

We are also coming off one of the biggest departmental events of the year – the Second Annual Victor E. Ball, held Saturday April 29 on campus in the Kenneth and Ellen Chessick Practice Center.  Through a lot of hard work and planning, the place where so many of our student-athletes do much of their training was transformed into a ballroom for our premier fundraising event.

We had an amazing evening with a record crowd of almost 300 guests, the return of former head coach Jerry Kill as our keynote speaker, along with the conclusion of the silent auction and a spirited live auction. As usual, my favorite part of the Victor E. Ball was hearing from our student-athletes – both past and present.  You can see the video highlights of those moments here. In addition, for the first time, we presented the Core Values Awards to four extremely deserving current Huskie student-athletes.

To all of the donors and friends who supported this most important evening, whether you were able to be there in person or not – Thank You! I'm happy to say we surpassed the amount raised in the inaugural Victor E. Ball with nearly $200,000 in revenue. It truly was an inspiring night and I know that our student-athletes felt – and appreciated - the commitment you have to each of them and to NIU.

That commitment – and to be frank, generating increased financial support – is more important to NIU and to Huskie Athletics than ever before.  That is why, on the night of the Victor E. Ball, we officially launched the "Campaign to Sustain." 

The Campaign to Sustain is a call to action to ALL of Huskie nation. Simply put, we need you now more than ever. We need you in order to carry on the rich tradition established by generations of student-athletes.  We need you to lift future Huskie programs to new heights.  And we need you so that NIU Athletics can continue to be a shining beacon for our university and a catalyst for campus growth.

It's no secret that it's a tough time in higher education in Illinois right now. The state budget impasse is going into its third year. Our campus recently went through a Program Prioritization process reviewing every department and entity on campus, and the charge made to Huskie Athletics was clear – BECOME MORE SELF-SUSTAINING.

Our best shot to do that, to be able to move our agenda forward and to continue to produce programs and student-athletes that lift up our university through their athletic, academic and community accomplishments, is through the Campaign to Sustain. Believe me when I say this is the most important initiative undertaken by the department in my time at NIU. As you can see in the Campaign to Sustain booklet (click image to open), this fundraising initiative extends beyond NIU Athletics. We expect that a portion of every dollar raised through the Campaign will go to support the academic side of the university. This is an important element of the initiative as we firmly believe that Huskie Athletics can play an important role in the recruitment and retention of all students while also engaging alumni across all colleges.

Through the Campaign to Sustain there are opportunities for donors at all levels to make a long-lasting impact. A key element of the Campaign to Sustain is the Forever Huskies program as we look to endow as many as 235 Cost of Attendance scholarships, which will provide critical dollars and directly impact those student-athletes as well as our coaches' ability to recruit future Huskies.
   
Of course, we are also pursuing leadership gifts which will put us in a strong position to sustain our outstanding tradition across all sports and to move forward on the facility front. Every dollar will help put NIU Athletics on solid financial ground today and in the future.

The Huskie coaches, staff and student-athletes never forget that NIU Athletics' greatest resource is our loyal, passionate and generous alumni, fans and friends. Today, we need all of you to step up to ensure Huskie student-athletes can continue to succeed athletically and academically while providing them with the best possible experience.  At NIU, "the Hard Way" has become a way of life, our mantra and that is how we will achieve this goal. I hope you will join us.

As we close out the 2016-17 school year – both academically and competitively - and head full speed into 2017-18, this Campaign will be my focus, and the focus of our administrative staff.  You will be hearing much, much more about the Campaign to Sustain in the coming months and beyond. We need your support now, more than ever! Our need is great and the time is now.

As always, thank you and Go Huskies!


Sean T. Frazier
Associate Vice-President and Director of Athletics