A message from Director of Athletics Troy Dannen
Dec 20, 2021 | General
On behalf of Tulane Athletics, I want to wish you and your families a very happy holiday season and our best wishes for a healthy New Year.
As I look back on 2021, we have so much to be grateful for, despite having faced several challenges over the last twelve months, including the continued pandemic, Hurricane Ida, conference realignment, new Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules and impactful Supreme Court decisions, just to name a few. But we are united in purpose and grateful for our students, our coaches, our staff and all of you.
On the courts, fields, pools, tracks, waters, lanes and courses, many of our sports are in competition or preparing to begin (for spring), and expectations are high within the conference for most (and nationally for some).
To learn of the devastation caused by storms in neighboring states ten days ago was heartbreaking, and reminded us all of how lucky we were during Hurricane Ida. On August 28, just seven days before kickoff of one of the most anticipated home games in Tulane Football history versus #2 Oklahoma, several of our teams relocated to Birmingham, Alabama, where they would spend nearly four weeks, continuing their studies online as well as their competitive seasons, while our other teams missed practice.
Over 200 student-athletes, and 80 staff members, from athletic trainers to equipment and strength staff, academic advisors and coaches, spent nearly four weeks in Birmingham, all the while continuing our competitive seasons as if nothing had happened. Five of our staff members were at Tulane during Hurricane Katrina, but the experience was unprecedented for most of us, and certainly so for our student-athletes.
I am so proud of the resiliency and "no excuses" attitude demonstrated by our students, coaches and staff. We are thankful for the support and financial commitment from the University in our relocation efforts. It is my hope that soon, sans hurricanes and viruses, our student-athletes will find resiliency to be a word used solely to describe their performance, rather than have it be a core competency of our daily lives.
In July, the conference realignment carousel began again, resulting in three of our fellow American Athletic Conference (AAC) peers heading to the Big XII, while the AAC added Rice, North Texas, Charlotte, UAB, Texas-San Antonio and Florida Atlantic, expected to begin conference play in 2023.
In 2021, student-athletes across the nation gained an ability to profit from their Name, Image and Likeness as a result of deregulation by the NCAA and subsequent state laws and institutional rules. Tulane is believed to be the second institution in the country, behind the University of Colorado, to begin preparing for NIL back in 2020, by providing our student-athletes with brand and marketing educational programming. As of today, more than 60 Tulane student-athletes have signed deals with outside parties, including endorsements, advocacy work, product usage arrangements and autograph signings. Many of the deals have come about through alumni investment and involvement. Prospective student-athletes in many sports now want assurance that schools support their ability to secure NIL opportunities, and our alums and corporate partners have stepped up.
In our continued commitment to our core mission of providing a world-class experience for our student-athletes, 2021 saw the opening of the $2.5 million Don and Lora Peters Academic Center. The Center doubles our footprint and creates spaces for tutoring and academic support and space for the newly endowed McKeever Family Athletics Career Development position, which will guide and prepare our student-athletes for what lies ahead. And we have not stopped there.
A $3 million lead gift has propelled plans for design and construction of a new sports medicine facility with state-of-the-art technologies, with groundbreaking scheduled for this spring. Additionally, Tulane Athletics made a multi-million-dollar commitment to ensure the redesign and reconstruction of the University's swimming and diving pool and a new tennis facility is in the works.
Our strong partnership with our President and Provost continues, as we work on admission standards for our student-athletes. Tulane's Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, our students' GPA's and our most recent graduation rate (93%, among the top 10 of FBS institutions in the United States) are indicative of our commitment to graduating young men and women with a world-class degree.
This spring, Tulane is the host institution for the 2022 Men's Final Four and the National Sailing Championships. We will also host the first HBCU All-Star game in February, (to be broadcast on the NFL Network), and we just hosted two high school football state championship games earlier this month, so it has been—and will be—an extraordinarily busy stretch for our facilities and events crew. In addition, we will FINALLY have the opportunity to celebrate the Hall of Fame Classes of 2020 and 2021 for their contributions to our University. The date for the celebration will occur in conjunction with the baseball game versus ECU on April 23, 2022. We look forward to announcing more details on our Hall of Fame celebration this spring in the coming weeks.
Finally, we announced earlier this summer that Tulane Athletics had exceeded $100 million in financial commitments during the "Only the Audacious" campaign, with just over half of that support committed to capital projects. At the same time, the Olive and Blue Society, formed just over three years ago with a focus on unrestricted giving to support investment, where needed, within Green Wave Athletics, is now over 120 members strong. Each member has committed at least $25,000, with total giving now at $11 million. Additionally, the Green Wave Club has committed over $25 million to the campaign. The remarkable support from our fans and friends deserves a salute and our ongoing gratitude. We cannot do remarkable things without extraordinary support.
So, thank you, thank you, thank you. You mean so much to our students and staff. I would like to leave you with a video from our student-athletes, wishing you happy holidays in their native tongue. Please click here to view our holiday video.
From all of us at Tulane Athletics, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
Roll Wave,
Troy Dannen
Director of Athletics
As I look back on 2021, we have so much to be grateful for, despite having faced several challenges over the last twelve months, including the continued pandemic, Hurricane Ida, conference realignment, new Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules and impactful Supreme Court decisions, just to name a few. But we are united in purpose and grateful for our students, our coaches, our staff and all of you.
On the courts, fields, pools, tracks, waters, lanes and courses, many of our sports are in competition or preparing to begin (for spring), and expectations are high within the conference for most (and nationally for some).
To learn of the devastation caused by storms in neighboring states ten days ago was heartbreaking, and reminded us all of how lucky we were during Hurricane Ida. On August 28, just seven days before kickoff of one of the most anticipated home games in Tulane Football history versus #2 Oklahoma, several of our teams relocated to Birmingham, Alabama, where they would spend nearly four weeks, continuing their studies online as well as their competitive seasons, while our other teams missed practice.
Over 200 student-athletes, and 80 staff members, from athletic trainers to equipment and strength staff, academic advisors and coaches, spent nearly four weeks in Birmingham, all the while continuing our competitive seasons as if nothing had happened. Five of our staff members were at Tulane during Hurricane Katrina, but the experience was unprecedented for most of us, and certainly so for our student-athletes.
I am so proud of the resiliency and "no excuses" attitude demonstrated by our students, coaches and staff. We are thankful for the support and financial commitment from the University in our relocation efforts. It is my hope that soon, sans hurricanes and viruses, our student-athletes will find resiliency to be a word used solely to describe their performance, rather than have it be a core competency of our daily lives.
In July, the conference realignment carousel began again, resulting in three of our fellow American Athletic Conference (AAC) peers heading to the Big XII, while the AAC added Rice, North Texas, Charlotte, UAB, Texas-San Antonio and Florida Atlantic, expected to begin conference play in 2023.
In 2021, student-athletes across the nation gained an ability to profit from their Name, Image and Likeness as a result of deregulation by the NCAA and subsequent state laws and institutional rules. Tulane is believed to be the second institution in the country, behind the University of Colorado, to begin preparing for NIL back in 2020, by providing our student-athletes with brand and marketing educational programming. As of today, more than 60 Tulane student-athletes have signed deals with outside parties, including endorsements, advocacy work, product usage arrangements and autograph signings. Many of the deals have come about through alumni investment and involvement. Prospective student-athletes in many sports now want assurance that schools support their ability to secure NIL opportunities, and our alums and corporate partners have stepped up.
In our continued commitment to our core mission of providing a world-class experience for our student-athletes, 2021 saw the opening of the $2.5 million Don and Lora Peters Academic Center. The Center doubles our footprint and creates spaces for tutoring and academic support and space for the newly endowed McKeever Family Athletics Career Development position, which will guide and prepare our student-athletes for what lies ahead. And we have not stopped there.
A $3 million lead gift has propelled plans for design and construction of a new sports medicine facility with state-of-the-art technologies, with groundbreaking scheduled for this spring. Additionally, Tulane Athletics made a multi-million-dollar commitment to ensure the redesign and reconstruction of the University's swimming and diving pool and a new tennis facility is in the works.
Our strong partnership with our President and Provost continues, as we work on admission standards for our student-athletes. Tulane's Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, our students' GPA's and our most recent graduation rate (93%, among the top 10 of FBS institutions in the United States) are indicative of our commitment to graduating young men and women with a world-class degree.
This spring, Tulane is the host institution for the 2022 Men's Final Four and the National Sailing Championships. We will also host the first HBCU All-Star game in February, (to be broadcast on the NFL Network), and we just hosted two high school football state championship games earlier this month, so it has been—and will be—an extraordinarily busy stretch for our facilities and events crew. In addition, we will FINALLY have the opportunity to celebrate the Hall of Fame Classes of 2020 and 2021 for their contributions to our University. The date for the celebration will occur in conjunction with the baseball game versus ECU on April 23, 2022. We look forward to announcing more details on our Hall of Fame celebration this spring in the coming weeks.
Finally, we announced earlier this summer that Tulane Athletics had exceeded $100 million in financial commitments during the "Only the Audacious" campaign, with just over half of that support committed to capital projects. At the same time, the Olive and Blue Society, formed just over three years ago with a focus on unrestricted giving to support investment, where needed, within Green Wave Athletics, is now over 120 members strong. Each member has committed at least $25,000, with total giving now at $11 million. Additionally, the Green Wave Club has committed over $25 million to the campaign. The remarkable support from our fans and friends deserves a salute and our ongoing gratitude. We cannot do remarkable things without extraordinary support.
So, thank you, thank you, thank you. You mean so much to our students and staff. I would like to leave you with a video from our student-athletes, wishing you happy holidays in their native tongue. Please click here to view our holiday video.
From all of us at Tulane Athletics, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
Roll Wave,
Troy Dannen
Director of Athletics
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