Yankees fans will forever be thankful for what George Steinbrenner did for their team, but Gators fans also have reason to be grateful.
He is most remembered for being the outspoken owner of the Yankees for the last 38 years and his winning mentality, but “The Boss,” as he was nicknamed, also had ties to the University of Florida.
Steinbrenner, who passed away from a heart attack in his Tampa home Tuesday at age 80, was a member of Gator Boosters, Inc.’s Bull Gator program.
The Bull Gator program, according to the Gator Boosters’ website, requires annual contributions of at least $14,500 for membership and has been around since 1979.
Steinbrenner had been a Bull Gator since 1980, despite never attending the University of Florida.
According to Doug Brown, the associate executive director of Gator Boosters, Steinbrenner’s first connection to UF was former Florida football coach Ray Graves, who became the program’s athletic director in 1979.
Graves approached Steinbrenner when the school needed help funding the baseball facility, McKethan Stadium.
“In addition to being a great business man, he was a great philanthropist as well,” Brown said. “He was not only just a strong supporter of athletics (at UF), but the rest of the university.”
To go with his contributions to the school’s athletic program, Steinbrenner also donated to the band building on campus, which is named after him, and the university’s veterinary college, among other things.
Along with being a Bull Gator, Steinbrenner also had seats to Florida football games on the Bull Gator Deck, which cost $15,500 annually, though Brown said he would only make it to one or two games a season.
“He generally couldn’t get to games, in all seriousness he had the Yankees playing in a lot of World Series … he really couldn’t get to Gators games until later in the season,” Brown said.
Florida wasn’t the only school that Steinbrenner supported. He also contributed to programs at Ohio State and North Carolina.
“It’s a great loss for the university, athletics in particular, because he was such a strong supporter in a lot of different ways for our university,” Brown said. “He’ll be greatly missed, by a lot of folks, not just here … but all over the sports world.”
