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Jerry Jones Gives $10.65M to University of Arkansas Athletic Department

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Jerry Jones and his wife, Gene, have donated $10.65 million to the University of Arkansas Athletic Department.

The donation will go toward multiple projects, including:

  • The Student-Athlete Success Center
  • A “Wild Band of Razorbacks” monument to establish a permanent tribute to the university’s 1964 national championship football team
  • The football team locker room at Fred W. Smith Football Center
  • The entrance lobby of the Student-Athlete Success Center

The Jones’ gift is a combination of cash to be paid over a five-year period and land donated to the Razorback Foundation.

Jones recently purchased the land, 254 acres off South Cato Springs Road, for about $7.3 million. The next day, he transferred ownership to the foundation. There are no immediate plans for the land, which the university said appraised at $8.65 million in March.

In recognition of the gift, the university’s board of trustees has made a recommendation to name the student-athlete center the Jerry & Gene Jones Family Student-Athlete Success Center. The board is expected to consider the resolution at its meetings Wednesday and Thursday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

“It is only fitting that the Jones family, which is committed to the ideals of higher education and has been so deeply intertwined with the University of Arkansas for decades, is an integral part of the most impactful intercollegiate athletics’ facility we will have on campus,” Jeff Long, vice chancellor and athletics director, said in a statement.

The 55,000-SF success center will have more than 30 tutor rooms, 5,000-SF of open study and lounge space, 3,800-SF of computer and group lab space, a 125-seat auditorium, a 90-seat multi-purpose room, and a nutrition center.

The facility is being constructed at the corner of Meadow Street and Stadium Drive, and is to be completed by late summer or early fall. The entrance lobby of the center will be named in the honor of Mr. and Mrs. John Chambers, the parents of Gene Jones.

The bronze, Razorbacks monument will consist of six Razorbacks, accented by custom lighting and water features. It will be placed on Razorback Road on the northwest corner of the lawn of the Fred W. Smith Football Center. The monument will be 20-foot high and 30-foot wide.

In addition, the football locker room at the Smith Center will be named the Jerry & Stephen Jones Locker Room.

“We are honored to have the opportunity to give back to an institution, an athletics program and a state that has been such an instrumental part of our lives,” Jones said in a statement. 

Jones, now owner of the Dallas Cowboys, was a starting offensive lineman and co-captain for the 1964 national championship team.

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