Purchased naming rights are all the rage in college football these days. Especially when it comes to the head coaching position at a well known school. A very wealthy donor, almost always an alum, gives an endowment for the school in exchange for having the Head Football Coaching position named after them.
Northwestern did it in 2013. Michigan in 2014. Now Notre Dame Football joins the party in 2015.
Brian Kelly will be the first Corbett Family Head Football Coach in Notre Dame football history. His position is the third coach in school history to be endowed (women’s basketball, women’s lacrosse)
According to a Notre Dame news release, two gifts totaling $35 million from Notre Dame alumnus Richard Corbett (pictured above) will fund the construction of a 280,000-square-foot building on the east side of Notre Dame Stadium and endow the head football coaching position at the University.
$25 million for Corbett Family Hall, $10 million for the coaching endowment.
After graduating from Notre Dame, Corbett worked on the John F. Kennedy presidential campaign and then worked in the White House. He then earned a MBA from Harvard and went on to serve as a financial manager for the Kennedy family in New York. He also held the title of business manager in Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign.
Today he’s CEO of Concorde Companies, a real estate investment firm in Tampa. Corbett has now also switched parties as he’s a member of the Florida Council of 100 and the Republican Governors Association Executive Round Table Group.
Obviously this is a huge day for the Notre Dame football program, Notre Dame football fans and the Notre Dame football Stadium.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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