NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane Center for Sport has received a $5.5 million gift from the Douglas J. Hertz Family Foundation.
The Hertz Family Foundation fund will support initiatives for current faculty members and leadership, attract prominent faculty members, visiting professors and adjunct instructors to the center while continuing to support and expand its existing nationally recognized programs, along with building on emerging industry sectors.
The gift will also assist with an administrative position that will oversee the planning, coordination and implementation of sports law competitions, the Tulane Sports Executives Club, the Tulane Center for Sport Speaker Series, career services opportunities and other initiatives.
“This generous gift continues the Hertz family tradition of providing transformative support to the academic mission of Tulane,” said Tulane University president Michael Fitts. “This gift will strengthen the Center for Sport’s role as a national leader in the study of athletic competition and its far-reaching impact on so many aspects of the human condition.”
“Our family is thrilled to support the vision of interdisciplinary studies on a subject that has become so important in the daily lives of many Americans,” said Doug Hertz, the immediate past chair of the Board of Tulane.
Hertz and his family are the catalysts behind the gift. Hertz, along with his wife Lila Loewenthal Hertz, daughter Amy Hertz Agami, son Michael J. Hertz and sister Patricia Jill Hertz Reid each graduated from Tulane.
“The Center for Sport is an exciting opportunity to further enhance the reputation of Tulane University, building on our national leadership in sports medicine and sports law,” said Robin Forman, Tulane’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “This extraordinary gift from the Hertz Family Foundation will greatly energize the work of the center and allow us to add substantial new programming that I am certain will be of great interest to our students and many others.”
In addition to his role on the Board of Tulane, Doug Hertz has served his alma mater in several capacities, including the business school council, the Yulman Stadium Steering Committee and as past chair of the Tulane Board Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics. He received the A. B. Freeman School of Business’ Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2003.
