The Univ. of Maryland yesterday announced that former men's basketball coach Gary Williams will now be a "key figure" in the school's "athletic fundraising effort," according to Roman Stubbs of the WASHINGTON POST. Williams, who will assume the title of Senior Managing Dir of Alumni Relations & Athletic Development, said, "It’s something that’s interesting to me because it’s different. It’s a new position that hasn’t been there before.” Stubbs notes Williams will "oversee the school’s athletic fundraising operation, as well as work to integrate campus-wide alumni outreach, serve as spokesman for the Alumni Association’s new 25th Anniversary Celebration and help manage the University’s new regional development plan." UM’s athletic department raised more than $8.6M in "unrestricted giving" for FY '14, about "$500,000 more than last year" (WASHINGTON POST, 9/11). UM AD Kevin Anderson said, "There's nobody that I can think of at the University of Maryland that can do that (fundraising) better than Gary Williams. He's a great ambassador. He played here, he coached here, he's a Hall of Famer, he won a national championship." Williams said that one of his "first tasks will be helping raise funds for a new indoor football practice facility." In Baltimore, Don Markus cites sources as saying that "a number of plans are being considered, one being the possibility of renovating and enlarging Cole Field House to accommodate the kind of indoor football facility that exists or is being built at other Big Ten schools." A source said that the facility would "include space for academics and research" (Baltimore SUN, 9/11).
