Duke Basketball Program Gets Assistance From Grant Hill
Duke University Receives $1 Million Endowed Scholarship Fund
Grant Hill, former Duke basketball, All-America, and five-time NBA All-Star, and his wife Tamia, a four-time Grammy-nominated recording artist with Elektra Records, will give Duke University $1 million to establish an endowment fund for athletic scholarship support, Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane announced Thursday.
Grant Hill, a member of Duke’s class of 1994 who helped guide the Blue Devils to national championships in 1991 and 1992, was named chairman of the Duke Basketball Legacy Fund, an athletic fund-raising organization to support the basketball program at the university. The Legacy Fund, founded in November 1999, currently has 13 partners making gifts of $1 million or more to the program.
“We are most grateful to Grant and Tamia for their generosity,” Keohane said. “Grant has already given us a great deal—first during his four years at Duke, both as a student and an athlete, then as an accomplished professional player, who, with his family, continues to show interest in and support for his alma mater.”
The Hills’ gift, the largest to the university from a former basketball player, will create the Grant & Tamia Hill Scholarship Endowment Fund to provide financial aid for a Duke basketball player each year.
Hill recently joined the Orlando Magic basketball team after six years with the Detroit Pistons, which made him the third player selected in the 1994 National Basketball Association draft.
“We are glad to be able to support Duke basketball players as they pursue an education at a great university and play in a great college program,” the Hills said. “We hope others will join us in that support because that is how such places and programs are sustained.”
Head coach Mike Krzyzewski, now in his 21st year at Duke, said the gift “is a very gratifying occasion for our basketball program. Having a former player and his family believe in us to the degree that Grant and Tamia have is incredible. They are truly special people, but that is something I’ve known about Grant since I first met him.”
The endowed fund will provide full financial support for one Duke basketball player each year. The university’s ongoing fund-raising effort, the Campaign for Duke, is seeking $249 million in endowment funds for financial aid and scholarships.
In 1998, Grant Hill and his mother, Janet Hill, made gifts totaling $100,000 to help fund a Duke Divinity School scholarship honoring father and husband, respectively, former Yale and Dallas Cowboy football star Calvin Hill, a member of the Duke Divinity School’s Board of Visitors.
Duke admits students without regard to their financial circumstances. While this “need-blind” policy requires the great majority of more than $30 million the university spends annually on student aid, Duke also funds merit and athletic scholarships. Approximately 40 percent of Duke students receive some form of financial aid.
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