This thought has occurred to me as well. In fact, I’ve wondered if he or she might have had some influence on the way the university has handled this whole scandal. No inside information on that aspect of the situation, I’m just engaging in idle speculation.

Don’t ever question SBH and his inside source. It’s coming!

Any idea how large? To use a current cliche phrase that university fundraisers love, was it enough to be "transformative"?

If it’s a football alum that made their money playing football, this has to be an exceedingly small list of possible players.

- Zastudil
- Basham
- Carrie
- Nathan Rourke
- Mitchell
- Ouellette

Missing anyone?

You're all cold

Negative.

That's what I was getting at with my question about whether or not it was a transformative gift. It appears it's an older football alumnus, but younger than Tom Widdoes, who graduated circa 1963. SBH is keeping us guessing. It's an interesting parlor game. Sort like a game of 20 questions.

One of these three perhaps - a fellow in Fairfield County, one in Franklin County or one in Texas.

You are putting this in the past tense. This implies that the donation has been made. Assuming that this is the case, if the university doesn't make an announcement fairly soon, I may issue an FOIA request.  They may try to redact the donor's name, but they can't keep the amount secret as per State ex rel. Toledo Blade Co. v. University of Toledo Foundation (1992). This decision by the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the University of Toledo Foundation qualifies as a "public office" under Ohio law.  This classification is based on its role as a major fundraising entity for the University of Toledo, which receives public funding.  They may actually have trouble redacting the name of the donor, as the court further ruled that the names of donors to the Foundation are considered "public records."  Best, they release the amount of the donaton and its purpose now, to stop snoopy people like me getting the name of the donor.

20 billion. Anything without a "B" doesn't move mountains.

Long time follower, first time poster. I finally have some information on this gift.

Here are the details! Based on the board rules I'm not sure I can say the name but an Ohio QB in the early 1980's made the gift.

The rumors on this started nearly a year ago. But the agreement on the gift was made by former AD Julie Cromer and the donor. She got this gift secured before she departed for LSU and began conversations with others to begin the process of rolling this into a larger donation.

The gift is in the range of $2 million to the football program for various uses.

The athletic department has been holding off on announcing this because they are trying to wait to announce this until they can get more commitments to make a larger announcement. They were initially aiming for $20 million, but given how long this has been going on, my source says it's doubtful they get anywhere close to that. Nonetheless, they are using this gift as the foundation for the Stand Up For Ohio Football campaign, which some of you may have started to hear about from the OBC.

This was months of little conversations with my friend in the department who doesn't work directly in development, but adjacent to it.

So if the $20 million number isn’t attainable, is there still a higher level they are trying to reach before announcing?

Definitely not an insignificant amount of money. Would love to hear how it is going to be used - stadium, NIL, facilities, etc.