I’m sure others got this email as well, very cool.
| Texas Athletics Closes out 2023-24 with Record-Setting Support The Longhorn Foundation surpassed all-time membership and production records during the 2023-24 academic year. The Longhorn Foundation posted several historic milestones and achievements that went hand-in-hand with Texas Athletics’ sensational performance on and off the field during the 2023-24 academic year. With two years left in the University’s What Starts Here campaign, Texas Athletics surpassed $1 billion since the beginning of the campus-wide fundraising effort. This marks one of the largest, if not the single largest, campaign total for any athletics program in the nation. If you look at the full impact of the What Starts Here campaign, the results are phenomenal. UT is the first university in Texas to raise over $1 billion for student support and is on pace to surpass its $6 billion campaign goal. A total of 24,996 Longhorn Foundation members contributed nearly $200 million in cash and pledges in 2023-24, the most in school history. The total number of current Longhorn Foundation members is also an all-time school record. The direct result of this incredible support from our donors was a banner year for Texas Athletics on the fields of competition and in the classroom. On the strength of two National Championships and three NCAA runner-up finishes along with an appearance in the College Football Playoff, the Longhorns claimed the LEARFIELD Directors’ Cup for the third time in the last four years as the nation’s top all-sports program. In addition, UT Women’s Athletics won the Capital One Cup as the most successful women’s sports program for the third straight year. In our final season in the Big 12 Conference, the Longhorns also captured a record 15 Big 12 team titles. In the classroom, a total of 127 current and former University of Texas student-athletes participated in either the Fall 2023 or Spring 2024 Commencement ceremonies or completed a graduate credential. Texas also had a school single-season record 13 individuals recognized as Academic All-Americans by the College Sports Communicators (CSC) during the 2023-24 academic year. The overall cumulative GPA for all sports following the Spring 2024 semester was 3.34, and over 77-percent of our student-athletes had a cumulative GPA above 3.0 after Spring 2024. “Our Longhorn Foundation donors are truly the wind beneath our wings and we are so grateful for their unwavering support,” said Chris Del Conte, Vice President and Lois and Richard Folger Athletic Director. “The success of our student-athletes and coaches is dependent upon support from our loyal fans, and you have given them the resources to succeed in the classroom and on the playing field. We cannot thank you enough.” Longhorn Foundation donors contributed more than $74.4 million to the annual fund, the most since the Foundation began in 1986. Of that total, more than $13M was designated to Longhorn Excellence, the philanthropic arm of the annual fund, more than doubling the previous all-time best amount. “We are so thankful to our Longhorn Foundation donors who have supported every initiative, answered every call to action, and actively engaged in one of the most dynamic times in college sports history,” said Andrew Hamor, Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director. “We say it all the time, but every success our student-athletes have is made possible by the support of Longhorn Nation.” The DeLoss Dodds Leadership Team, the highest-level annual giving society, now has an all-time record 668 members. This encompasses donors that give a minimum of 25k each year. In 2023 as a new initiative to recognize philanthropic multi-year pledges, the Longhorn Foundation launched the United Texas Circle. UTC now has 325 members who have pledged a minimum of 100k over five years to support ongoing capital projects, endowments and Longhorn Excellence. |
