Men’s and women’s golf is coming to Howard University – and with the help of a golf-obsessed NBA superstar.
The Washington Post reported Monday that Golden State Warriors guard and avid golfer Stephen Curry is making a seven-figure donation to the Washington, D.C.-based university so that it can add a pair of Division-I golf programs to its athletics lineup.
“I was blessed at a young age that we could afford to play,” Curry told the paper. “I just think about how many kids, especially from underserved communities, have the talent to play but just don’t have the funds or the resources.”
Curry was partly inspired by Otis Ferguson, a senior at Howard who turned down an offer to play collegiate golf in order to attend the school, which is among more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the country (only 30 of them have golf programs). Ferguson, who helped form a golf club at Howard, had sent Curry several emails about the progress of the nearly-40-person group and how he had talked to the university president about possibly adding an official team.
After the NBA season ended, Curry got with Howard officials and worked out a sponsorship plan. The donation is reportedly set to be paid out over six years so that Howard, which hasn’t had a golf team since the 1970s and never a D-I program in its 152-year history, can have to time to become self-sustainable.
The school projects it will take about a year to hire coaches, recruit players and find a place to play and practice. Players on both teams will be expected to volunteer with Eat. Learn. Play., Curry’s foundation that encourages healthy development in children.