Activision Blizzard CEO Helped Fund Michigan Football's Rome Trip

Michigan football coach JIM HARBAUGH said that alums BOBBY KOTICK and DON GRAHAM were the "donors responsible" for the team's trips to Europe the last two years, according to Nick Baumgardner of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. Kotick, who is Activision Blizzard CEO, "funded Rome alone," and both he and Graham, an investment banker, paid for UM's "trip to Paris this year." Harbaugh said, "Bobby doesn't want anything said, doesn't want anybody to know that. But it's a hard secret to keep." Kotick was an "honorary captain for a game at Michigan Stadium" in '16. Harbaugh has said that Kotick told the program he would be "willing to fund these trips for as long as Michigan wanted to do them." He said that talks for next year's tour are "already in the works, with possible destinations of South Africa, Greece, Cuba or Spain being mentioned." UM's trip to Italy last year "cost roughly $800,000." The Paris trip was "expected to cost around the same" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 5/3).