Athletic director Ray Anderson poses with students at a men's basketball game on Feb. 14. Anderson and his wife, Buffie (not pictured), pledged $500,000 to the Momentum campaign.(Photo by Alexis Macklin)ASU athletic director Ray Anderson and his wife Buffie, and football coach Todd Graham and his wife Penni, have each pledged $500,000 to the Momentum campaign, the school announced at a press conference Monday.
The Momentum campaign was launched in January to as a plan to renovate Sun Devil Stadium, as well as improve other facets of the university.
"I think it speaks volumes of their personal commitment to what they do everyday and it sends a tremendous message across the country to how emotionally involved they are with the success of what's going on here at Arizona State University," Steve Butterfield, campaign co-chair of the Momentum campaign said.
Anderson spoke about how he had heard that the Grahams were planning to donate and how he and his wife wanted to follow their lead.
The project's purpose was to raise $50 million, according to the initial release. Anderson would not go into specifics into how much money has been raised, but he said that he is confident that specific amounts of money can be revealed within the next 48-72 hours.
"Buffie and I really want to thank Todd and Penni for leading the way," Anderson said. "When Butterfield informed me that Todd and Penni had stepped up in the way they had, I was just really moved and inspired because it really put an exclamation point on the statement of commitment to ASU that Coach Graham and Penni have made."
Anderson thanked his wife for understanding that they needed to give to what he called, "a project that really will be different from any that any other university has ever experienced."
"This isn't just a football project, this is a project that will benefit Sun Devil Athletics in our university and our community in so many ways by upgrading our ability to have academic facilities and medical facilities and training facilities and classroom facilities and multipurpose, multiuse facilities," Anderson said. "So this isn't myself and Buffie saying that we're contributing to a football project, it's much more than that."
ASU football head coach Todd Graham speaks at ASU football media day. Graham donated $500,000 to Sun Devil Stadium's renovations. (Photo by Fabian Ardaya)Graham, who has faced questions about his commitment to the program after coming to ASU after being at three different schools in the six years prior, said that he thinks this answers any questions about him staying at ASU.
"I think it's a lot easier to ask somebody if you're committed to do it yourself," Graham said. "To be real honest with you, it really wasn't something that Penni and I talked a whole lot about ... We're pretty much all in and that's something that I think helps you a lot when you ask someone else."
Graham went on to say that there needs to be a commitment from all fans, especially starting with the next home game.
"We need every Sun Devil, we need to fill the stadium on Thursday the 25th," Graham said. "This is obviously the biggest game of the year. This is what we work for, this is what the fans come to cheer for. It's about buying tickets, it's about stepping up and doing your very best. Sun Devils are stepping up at unprecedented levels, and that's what it's going to take to get a different result."
Anderson made the point that he and Graham will both feel more comfortable asking for money now that they have given to Momentum themselves.
"Pick the cliche: skin in the game, put your money where your mouth is, you've got to walk the walk," Anderson said. "I think intuitively the four of us understood that we needed to step up and be able to answer those challenges and we believe we have in a significant way to the extent that our circumstances allow. And so we are proud, because I know now Todd and I can go out much more credibly and much more comfortably to ask others to join us in this transformational experience for this university and this community and we can do it with much more emphaticness because, in fact, we've put skin in the game."
2014 season in photos
[slideshow_deploy id='149980']
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Tonis_The_Tiger
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article had a misleading caption with a different photo. This version has an updated caption and cropped photo.
