The Generous Alumnus Head Coach of Football

Endowed professorships in higher education date back to 16^th century England, when Lady Margaret Beaufort established endowed chairs in divinity at Oxford and Cambridge. Lady Margaret, grandmother of Henry VIII, probably never imagined the practice spreading to the football fields of America half a millennium later.

But that’s exactly what’s happened. According to a recent New York Times article, seven of the eight Ivy League schools have an endowed head football coaching position, as do Stanford, Boston College, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt, with several other schools seeking to join them. These schools and others also have endowed head coaching positions in other sports, and in some cases, certain assistant coaching positions are also endowed.

The endowed positions are like endowed professorships in that the donation is invested, with annual payouts helping to fund the coach’s salary and easing pressure on the athletic department’s operating budget (or enabling it to offer a higher salary than it otherwise could). The required donation amounts vary depending on the coach and the sport, with the article stating that some schools are seeking a $5 million gift for a head football coach endowment. But unlike professorships, endowed coaching positions do not come with tenure.