Jack Grinold, Northeastern’s associate director of athletics and longtime sports information director, has donated $1 million to benefit athletics.

His gift provides future endowed support to the operations of the program and is the largest contribution to athletics ever made by a university staff member.

Grinold’s donation symbolizes Northeastern’s renewed commitment to athletic excellence and to raising the resources that assure the program’s long-term success.

“I’ve been here starting my 47th year in June and I feel it’s time to give back,” Grinold said.

He has served as director of sports information for the past 46 years and associate athletics director for 20 years.

“I feel like athletics is the program that most brings together the entire Northeastern community,” he said. “I recognize that now is the time to support this program, and I hope others will do the same.” 

Grinold has been a role model, mentor and friend to thousands of students who have come through the sports information office on co-op, as well as the student-athletes who play on the teams he regularly covers.

In addition to managing all of Northeastern’s radio and television packaging, he spends ample time giving students valuable encouragement and advice. It’s not uncommon to hear students refer to him as “the best teacher I’ve ever had,” while others know him as the “Husky sports ambassador nonpareil.”

“It’s friends like Jack who help our student-athletes reach their full academic and athletic potential,” said Joseph Aoun, Northeastern’s president. “This gift builds pride and team spirit for the entire Northeastern community, and ensures future generations of students have a chance to develop the positive character traits that blossom from athletic participation.

“Jack has touched so many lives, and we are enormously grateful for his enthusiasm and contributions to our university.”

After the conclusion of a comprehensive review of the Athletic Department earlier this year, Northeastern committed to raising funds to provide student athletes and teams with resources so they have a fair chance at success. Funds are sought to support the coaches, student-athletes and facilities that are central to the program’s ability to compete successfully.

“This gift is a powerful statement about how Jack views the future of athletics at Northeastern and the role he feels athletics has played in the lives of the athletes that he has come to know over his many years at Northeastern,” said athletics director Peter Roby.

“To receive a gift of this magnitude from a current employee that’s so close to athletics is a wonderful gesture and a great way to start off what we know will be a very successful effort to bolster our athletic program.”

In 1998, in celebration of Northeastern’s first 100 years, Grinold was chosen as one of the top 100 individuals responsible for the institution’s growth and success. He is on the executive committee of the Northeastern University Varsity Club, and in 1985 became the first non-coach/athlete to be elected to the Northeastern University Hall of Fame.

His commitment to philanthropic support is deep-rooted. For more than a decade, he has spearheaded fundraising efforts, and made gifts of his own, to support an internship program in the Sports Information Office. The program raises $30,000 annually to support two interns for 10 months.

He has worked more than 460 Northeastern football games, and hasn’t missed a game since Sept. 22, 1962. During that time he watched the athletic program expand from eight college-division teams to its current 19 varsity sports. 

Grinold’s honors are vast. He was the first-ever recipient of the New England Sports Information Directors Award for Excellence in 1971, and in 1979 he received the ECAC Service Bureau Award for contributions to the conference. He is a member of the College Sports Information Directors Association Hall of Fame and the New England Basketball Hall of Fame. He has been chairman of the New England Collegiate Writers Association for the past 38 years.

He has been the executive director of the Eastern Massachusetts Chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame for two decades; two years ago the directors voted to name it the Jack Grinold Chapter.

His gift is in the form of a charitable gift annuity. A charitable gift annuity enables donors to make a meaningful contribution to Northeastern while receiving fixed income for life, an immediate charitable tax deduction, and reduced capital gains tax.