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© St. Petersburg Times, published June 5, 2002
TAMPA -- South Florida athletic director Lee Roy Selmon on Tuesday announced a gift of $500,000 toward an academic enrichment center in the school's proposed Intercollegiate Athletic Facility.
Dr. Robert Daugherty, USF's medical dean, and his wife, Joy McCann Daugherty, committed the gift, which raises the amount of private funding pledged to the facility to $4-million. Mrs. Daugherty is the widow of one-time Bucs owner Hugh Culverhouse.
"This continues our excitement for this very important effort," Selmon said.
In March, USF's Board of Trustees unanimously approved plans for the facility and bond financing to pay for it. Selmon said he hopes to have private funding cover at least $10-million of the expected $15-million to $18-million cost for the 110,000 square foot facility.
"We've got a vicinity, a footprint, on the north side of the Sun Dome, but we're not yet sure where in that large footprint we'll end up putting it," Selmon said.
Selmon has explored several facilities, including at Kansas State, Clemson, Miami and Houston, to help "see what's workable for the University of South Florida and what fits our needs."
In March, USF said it hoped to start the project July 1, but Selmon said he expects to break ground during the fall semester.