CONTACT: Vince Sweeney, vice chancellor for university relations, (608) 265-2822, vsweeney@wisc.edu
MADISON – University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin and invited guests will celebrate Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Allan H. “Bud” Selig and his connections with the university at the Milwaukee Brewers’ game Friday, Aug. 27, versus the Pittsburgh Pirates at Miller Park.
Selig earned his bachelor’s degrees in history and political science from UW- Madison in 1956. He has established the Allan H. Selig Chair in History at the university, and recent gifts – from three MLB owners and the Hank Aaron Chasing the Dream Foundation – have set up scholarships in his honor for UW-Madison students with financial need.
“Bud’s incredible generosity and the generosity he has inspired in others in Major League Baseball reflect a remarkable dedication to education and to UW-Madison,” says Martin. “These gifts strengthen our academic mission and help ensure that college costs won’t be a barrier to our next generation of leaders. We are deeply grateful for the leadership that made these gifts possible.”
The distinguished Selig chair will support a new faculty position in United States history that will focus on the relationship between sports and society from 1900 to the present.
“This is something that means a great deal to me,” Selig says, pointing to the importance of both scholarships and the study of the importance of sport in society. “I’m thrilled the owners and the Aarons have come through.”
The commissioner added: “Every time I go back to Madison, I have a great fondness for my time there. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. … When I left Madison a long time ago, I thought I’d return as a history professor.”
Three MLB owners have joined to create a Great People Scholarship at UW- Madison in honor of Selig and his wife, Suzanne. Mark Attanasio, chair and principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers; Lew Wolff, owner and managing partner of the Oakland A’s; and Tom Werner, co-owner and chair of the Boston Red Sox, have endowed the Suzanne and Allan “Bud” Selig Great People Scholarship. Great People Scholarships, Martin’s top fundraising priority on campus, are part of support packages that include student and family contributions, loans and work-study jobs.
And, as part of the Hank Aaron Chasing the Dream Foundation’s efforts at universities around the country, MLB Hall of Famer Hank Aaron and his wife, Billye, have established an endowed “4 for 4” Scholarship in honor of Selig at UW-Madison. The scholarship was established through the Dream Chaser Fund with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.
Accompanying releases contain more on each gift and its significance.
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Baseball Commissioner Selig endows history chair at UW-Madison
MADISON – Allan H. “Bud” Selig, commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB), has made a major gift to endow the Allan H. Selig Chair in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Selig, one-time owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, earned his bachelor’s degrees in history and political science from UW-Madison in 1956.
This distinguished chair will support a new faculty position in United States history that will focus on the relationship between sports and society from 1900 to the present. The scholar, who has yet to be chosen, will teach, conduct research and publish
scholarship on the development of American professional sports in their larger national and social contexts, including race, gender, labor relations, “mass culture” and economic organization.
“This gift from Commissioner Selig allows the department to take a leading place as a scholarly center for the study of sports in their larger social, economic and cultural contexts, thus adding a new dimension and added richness to our broad offerings in American history,” says Professor David McDonald, the outgoing department chair. “At the same time, we hope the scholar who occupies that chair will play a pioneering role in the development of American sports history, to complement the many existing ‘Wisconsin schools’ in diplomatic, Western, women’s, African, Latin American and other fields in our discipline.”
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin agreed that the gift will help expand the university’s scholarship.
“The commissioner’s gift will add an important new dimension to our history program and help us see sports from varied and important vantage points and understand how sports help shape us and our society,” Martin says.
McDonald says the chair will serve the Department of History and the larger profession in several important ways. One is the study of sports as an integral element in the lives of people in large parts of American society.
“Since the late 19th century, the growth of sports has both affected and reflected larger currents of American development, embracing millions of fans and observers who follow professional, amateur and high-profile collegiate sports in the press or in the stands,” McDonald says. “The growth and increasing pervasiveness of sports as a focus of American life provides excellent insight into the rise of modern business, labor relations and the role played by the media in American life.
“At the same time, the decline of classic ‘amateurism,’ the fierce debates over intercollegiate athletics, and the entry of previously marginalized groups and women
into the mainstream of American sports show the ways in which changes in American society have affected the seemingly timeless realm of athletic competition.”
Another facet for consideration is the way in which sports and teams have fostered civic and group identity. “A tour of any American city will inevitably lead one past a stadium or arena that acts as a focus for local civil life,” McDonald adds. “A historian of sports will help our students connect that prosaic fact with the larger currents of the nation’s history and – if one thinks of generations of immigrants and international athletes over the last century – its connections with larger global processes.”
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Owners fund Great People Scholarship in Seligs’ honor
MADISON – Three Major League Baseball (MLB) owners have joined to create a Great People Scholarship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in honor of Commissioner Allan H. “Bud” Selig and his wife, Suzanne.
Mark Attanasio, chair and principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers; Lew Wolff, owner and managing partner of the Oakland A’s; and Tom Werner, co-owner and chair of the Boston Red Sox, have endowed the Suzanne and Allan “Bud” Selig Great People Scholarship.
Bud Selig earned his bachelor’s degrees in history and political science from UW- Madison in 1956. Wolff, who earned his bachelor’s degree in business at UW-Madison in 1957, was a fraternity brother of Selig in Pi Lambda Phi.
“In the more than five years of my involvement with the Brewers, I have come to appreciate how important the University of Wisconsin-Madison is to our community,” Attanasio says. “For the three of us as Major League Baseball owners to be able to support one of the most important institutions in Bud’s life is an honor, recognizing his
passion for Wisconsin and education, and how the UW has helped forge the lives of so many of today’s leaders.”
Wolff said of the commissioner, who endowed a professorial chair in the Department of History: “Bud Selig is part of the fabric that makes the University of Wisconsin a great institution.”
Wolff called his years on campus “perhaps the best time of my life” and says his UW-Madison education “opened lots of worlds for me.”
Werner’s daughter, Amanda, earned her bachelor’s degree at UW-Madison this year. “Commissioner Selig is justifiably proud of his legacy in baseball, but he always talks about his education at Wisconsin as the starting point,” Werner says. “When my daughter attended there, graduating as a member of the class of 2010, I saw how the university is such an important part of one’s life and how the experiences there help form one’s character.
“This gift both honors the essential role the university played in Bud Selig’s life and will give many other students the opportunity of a UW-Madison education,” Werner says.
Great People Scholarships are UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin’s top fundraising priority on campus. The scholarships are part of support packages that include student and family contributions, loans and work-study jobs. The owners’ combined endowment gift was matched by the UW Foundation.
“It’s hard to overstate the importance of college affordability to Wisconsin and to its competitive future,” Martin says. “Gifts like these go far in helping the best and brightest students build productive, successful lives. They are an investment in our future and a recognition of the life-changing importance of a university degree.”
The first recipient of the Suzanne and Allan “Bud” Selig Great People Scholarship is Maha Baalbaki of Milwaukee. She is a junior majoring in sociology, and she is a first-generation college student.
“I am pleased to have the opportunity to help others through this tremendous scholarship,” Wolff says.
Great People Scholarships not only open doors for talented young students at UW-Madison. In combination with tuition resources, they enable the university the flexibility to meet opportunities and face fiscal challenges as they present themselves.
Learn more about Great People Scholarships at http://uwgreatpeople.org.
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Hank Aaron’s Chasing the Dream Foundation establishes scholarship at UW- Madison
MADISON – As part of the Hank Aaron Chasing the Dream Foundation’s efforts at universities around the country, Major League Baseball (MLB) Hall of Famer Hank Aaron and his wife, Billye, have established an endowed “4 for 4” Scholarship in honor of MLB Commissioner Allan H. “Bud” Selig at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the commissioner’s alma mater.
The first recipient of the UW-Madison “4 for 4” scholarship is Marisa Aronson, a student from Milwaukee who will begin her freshman year at the university this fall. The scholarship is designated for students with financial need from underrepresented groups, with preference for students who have participated in Boys and Girls Club of Milwaukee programs affiliated with the Chasing the Dream Foundation.
“I am very excited to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall,” Aronson says. “I am currently undecided about my major but am interested in international studies. I am extremely thankful to be a recipient of this scholarship. It will definitely relieve some of the financial burden my family and I will experience in the coming years.”
The UW-Madison scholarship was established through the Dream Chaser Fund with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. The Chasing the Dream Foundation in time will fund 12 such “4 for 4” scholarships at colleges and universities across the United States. The scholarship name references the 12 times in his baseball career that Aaron went 4- for-4 at the plate.
The foundation is endowing four-year scholarships for the benefit of deserving youngsters who have chosen to pursue their dreams by attending college. With particular emphasis on prior dream chasers who have now reached college age, Hank and Billye have introduced their second perpetual program by offering, in addition to the UW- Madison scholarship in honor of Selig, two scholarships at Morehouse College and one each at Texas College, Billye’s alma mater, in honor of Bishop Marshall Gilmore and Mrs. Lillie Claybon; and Fisk University.
The goal is to create 12 perpetual scholarships at a number of colleges and universities that will be granted each year to further assist dream chasers realize the goals they might otherwise never achieve. The scholarships represent the latest installment in the 15-year-old foundation, which Hank and Billye Aaron started to begin giving back to the children they believed were most at risk of never having a chance to dream or not having anyone who wanted to help them get a start in life.
The 4 for 4 Scholarship program, which will be administered by the selected schools, was, according to Billye Aaron, “a natural choice to extend our support to dream chasers new and old, as they enter the next stage of their lives.”
After achieving the original goal of assisting 755 children, MLB and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America joined the foundation’s efforts and created the “44 Forever”
program, which was endowed by MLB and will be administered by the Boys and Girls Clubs, in perpetuity.
“Billye and I have been blessed with a great many friends who were there for us during our lives and now join us in our efforts to help young people become more than even they can imagine,” says Hank Aaron. “It is so rewarding to know that children will continue to benefit from 44 Forever and 4 for 4 long after we are gone. We hope they will remember us for this work, not just for the records I set on the field.”
Billye Aaron adds, “I am particularly grateful to Major League Baseball and to the Boys and Girls Clubs for their support and their deep and genuine desire to create better tomorrows for the generations of dream chasers to follow.”
