Mumas make $3-million donation to USF

USF's athletic department announced Wednesday that a $3-million donation from alums Leslie and Pamela Muma will be used as the lead gift to start fundraising for a proposed basketball practice facility that Bulls officials hope to have in place by the 2009-10 season.

Les Muma, a 1966 USF graduate, is the retired co-founder of Fiserv Inc., a financial technology firm. The Mumas have made significant donations to USF in the past, including a $6-million philanthropy in 2006 to support a partnership between USF and Tampa General Hospital for research and care of newborns. That gift was eligible for a matching state donation of $5-million.

The Mumas' donation is the second major gift USF's athletic department has received in the past two years; Frank and Carol Morsani donated $3-million in June 2006 to be used toward a new softball stadium and football practice fields.

(I've included an artist's rendering -- courtesy of USF -- of an aerial shot of what the practice facility might look like, but it's still very conceptual. USF has not yet made the decision whether to conceive the practice facility as a freestanding structure or as an adjoining wing to the Sun Dome, potentially on the north side. Just an idea of what it might look like.)

We'll have more on the Mumas' donation later Wednesday night ...

-- Recruiting update: I was able to talk Wednesday with the AAU coach for Gary Flowers, the coveted power forward from Chipola College who has been a recruiting target of Stan Heath's staff. Tony Johnson of the Dallas Mustangs had good news for Bulls fans: USF remains in contention for Flowers, with Seton Hall as another top contender; Flowers is also considering Maryland, West Virginia and Kansas State, according to Johnson; he's in the process of scheduling visits after Chipola finished its season last week in the consolation bracket of the Division I national junior college tournament.

-- Football recruiting! Offensive line will be a major priority in USF's 2009 football recruiting, and one local prospect who could be part of that group is Jon Halapio, a 6-foot-3, 302-pound right tackle from St. Pete Catholic. Halapio attended USF's junior day event and said his top choice right now would be USF, though he's being recruited by Florida, Florida State and Wake Forest. Besides being close to home, he has several ties to USF -- he's been friends with USF commitment Adaris Bellamy since middle school, and USF freshman David Fonua is a family friend. Like Fonua, Halapio's family is from the Pacific island of Tonga; he was born in California. He's also a cousin of former USF players Saiosi and Paul Uhatafe. He said he might not make a college decision until this winter, but is considering the Bulls enough that USF coaches have told him he and Bellamy could be roommates as freshmen.

Comments

[Biff]

Flowers AIN'T coming to USF. Sorry, champ.

[Brian]

Have to like those big islander types on a line.

[Dan]

Hey Greg,

How long do you think its going to be before we start reading about Stephen Garcia, SC QB in trouble, coming home to Tampa to be closer to his family where they can keep a close eye on him, and he enrolls at USF. Just curious?

[Bull Hooper]

Greg: sincere thanks for the great work with basketball updates!

[The Champ]

So Biff is the name you are using now huh?

Well just to be clear on something the player I want Stan and staff to get more then anybody on the known radar is Simmons.

If they get Flowers they get him, but losing him won't cause me any pain at all.

What I want with the next three scholies is Simmons and 2 athletic Big Men, names don't matter as long as they can defend, rebound, and catch and finish.

[The Champ]

People are sleeping on this news or just at work(I work at night btw), but finally getting one of the many rich alumni of USF put money into the basketball department is about as big of news there has been in a long time.

Renovactions was promised to Coach Heath by Woolard before Stan would agree to take this job and it now will come true.

Stan and his coaches will now be on a more even ground with the competition during the recruiting game.

The future of USF basketball just took a huge step foward today.

Also usf needs to get copies of those blue prints in the hands of the coaching staff asap so they can show these recruits what things are going to be like in a couple of years.

[G.A.]

Easy, champ. I don't know how major the gift is, but I don't think this is going to be something that pays for the Sun Dome renovations. It's a huge undertaking. This will be a significant help toward that goal, but I don't know that it will change any timetable.

USF has had artist's renderings of a new Sun Dome for some time and the coaches certainly use them with recruits.

[Mike Lakeland]

Yay! If the Sun Dome looks even half as good as the renderings, then I will be happy.

[JustinA]

A new Sun Dome sounds fantastic and so does an on campus football stadium now that I think about it. Let's make both of those things happen.

[Aaron]

Greg,

Can you confirm the amount of the donation? I heard it was supposed to be in the neighborhood of 3 million.

[reality]

Champ, calm down little guy. I was of the opinion that Flowers will be coming to USF, until I just read your post. You downplaying him means that he is going to Seton Hall. And you show how little you know about basketball with your "I want Simmons" quote. So on a team with no size, you want to bring in another guard, while turning up your nose at the best player to even seriously consider the Bulls in the HISTORY of the program.

YOU BIG DUMMY!

[Donald Trump]

i was thinking of donating $10 million to USF basketball, but then i realized they are committed to losing.

You're Fired!!

[Ari Hinkelberger]

3 million is a nice chunk of change.

Nice people.

[AGW]

$3 million is huge for the USF basketball program. When USF signed on to take the job, he voiced his need for USF to get a practice facility and to fly charter ont the road. Those were his conditions. Now, it looks like both will happen very soon. It would be huge if in the next 5 years we would have a new Sun Dome. Hopefully, we will have an on campus football stadium in the next 5-10 years as well. That would make us a serious contender in recruiting top tier talent in FLA and throughout the US. Now, we will be able to somewhat compete with bball facilities in the BEAST.

[AGW]

Stan Heath is who i was referring too. Sorry about that.

[Ari Hinkelberger]

I really don't think Stan Heath had much to do with this. My guess is this is another Doug Woolard pull..

Nice Job Doug.

Or

Nice job Doug for hiring that hard working individual in the fundraising department who approached these fine/generous USF alum.

I am sure some 40K dollar a year hard working joe in athletics pull this off.

Way to go. Hopefully the person gets the credit they deserve.

[Sanjay]

I believe Lee Roy Selmon deals with the larger donors. Average guy deals with people who post on internet boards.

[Ari Hinkelberger]

You don't know what you are talking about. It's actually the opposite. You would be surprised who raises all that cash for pres campaigns and university foundations.

Some 28 year old hot chick makes the initial call. She does a couple follow ups. Then if they want a few minutes with Lee Roy, she puts it together.

I'll teach you a few things kid.

[tj]

A $12 million practice facility does not guarantee an NCAA tournament bid, just ask Billy Donovan.

[Astro]

But it helps. This will be a major boost for recruiting. Do you want your own practice facility, or do you want to share the rec courts with the rest of the students. Easy choice.

[Dave W]

This is good for the program, but $3 mil actually isn't that much considering the extent of work needed to get up to the Big East standard for facilities. The Mumas have been quite generous to the school as a whole, and I think that the university needs to a better job recognizing the contributions of all alums, including the Mumas. An average student would have no idea of what they have done to improve the school.

I think the new basketball practice facility should be called the "Chris Howard Center: So You Don't End Up Playing Like Him."

[DELdaBULL]

Dave the place needs to be called the MUUUma Center. Goes great with BULLS!

[941]

If Heath builds a winner here like he did at Arkansas, the $$ will flow in. Tampa loves a winner and selling out 10K is nothing in bay area.

[Al]

http://www.gousfbulls.com/PhotoAlbum.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7700&PALBID=17992

[paul wall]

im a student and i've met les before... if students want to know whats going on its there choice. you can't really count on marketing anything to these kids.

[BA]

It's a great time to be a BULL! I would encourage the entire Bulls family (students, faculty, alumni, and friends) to join the USF Alumni Association. The Mumas are the exception to the philanthropy pie giving large donations. Every little bit helps build a great university. Visit www.usfalumni.net or call Merrell Dickey at 800-GO-BULLS

Go Bulls!

[reality]

I wish the Muma's would have thought about the Tampa community as opposed to Orlando, when they chose locations for their Florida operations.....At least their donations didnt go to 12 of the 64-12 fame.

[Stephen]

Why does a 15 member team need to fly charter to anything, what a waste of money. Sounds more to me that Stan wants to travel in style.

[Stephen]

Ahh Reality, they built the Florida operations where they felt they could get the best talent. Can't blame them for that.

[mike]

stephen you shouldnt comment on something you obviously dont know anything about. most college teams fly charter, its an embarrassment they have to fly commercial

[reality]

Real Big East basketball teams fly charter.

And Stephen, you must be from UCF, if you think Orlando has more qualified people than USF.

Since most of the jobs are customer service, I guess that maybe he did make the right choice.

[Ken]

I've been told by a person who has experience with both that flying by private plane is 10000% less stressful than flying commercial, and charter is much like a private plane. You don't have to get to the airport an hour and a half early, you don't stop anywhere (every stop takes nearly an hour plus the time on the ground), you don't have to wait for your luggage and find ground transportation, and you have decent and comfortable seating. Thus, it isn't just trying to keep up with the other schools in recruiting (although that's part of it), it allows the athletes to do their best in the sport and in school, and conserves the time they waste in transit. Remember the HUGE disadvantage we have relative to all those northeast schools in the BE that are so close they have short flights and sometimes don't have to fly at all.

[G.A.]

Guys, surely there are better sources of debate than authoritative banter on "People From Tampa Are Better-Suited For Jobs Than People From Orlando." Seriously, judging against an entire body of alums from another school is silly, but judging everyone in their general area? Please ...

[reality]

Greg, It is pretty obvious that UCF is just better than us. I wish we would just get past this supposed rivalry.