FAYETTEVILLE -- One of the University of Arkansas' biggest benefactors has delivered again.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, a member of Arkansas' 1964 national championship football team, and his wife, Gene, have committed to a donation valued at $10.65 million to the university's athletics program. The gift consists of cash payments over a five-year span and 256 acres of land appraised at $8.65 million and deeded to the Razorback Foundation on Dec. 31.
The donation will be put toward the athletic department's student-athlete success center, which is nearing completion; the forthcoming Wild Band of Razorbacks monument that will serve as a tribute to the 1964 team; and the football locker room at the Fred W. Smith Football Center.
"The University of Arkansas is a special place and has meant so much to me and our entire family," Jones said in a university news release. "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."
The university's board of trustees agreed Wednesday to name the athletic department's soon-to-be-opened academic center the Jerry and Gene Jones Family Student-Athlete Success Center. Additionally, the locker room at the Smith Center will be named the Jerry and Stephen Jones Locker Room; the lobby of the academic center will be named in honor of John Chambers and his wife, the parents of Gene Jones; and the Wild Band of Razorbacks monument will be recognized as being made possible by Jerry Jones.
The academic center, expected to cost as much as $23 million, is being built adjacent to the John McDonnell Track Stadium and Pomfret Hall at Meadow Street and Stadium Drive.
The center -- which would add services including leadership education, service-learning education and career planning and placement -- will be the "most important" facility on the campus, Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long told the board of trustees on Wednesday.
"Education is very important to the Jones family," Long told the board. " And we are quite honored to receive this gift."
The Razorbacks monument, a 6-foot-tall statue that measures 30 feet by 14 feet, will depict six wild razorbacks and will be erected along Razorback Road outside the Smith Center. It is being created by sculptor Dick Idol.
Jones was a starting offensive lineman for the 1964 Razorbacks. His son, Stephen, was a linebacker at Arkansas from 1984-87 and is now chief operating officer, executive vice president and director of player personnel for the Cowboys. Stephen Jones also serves as chairman of the Never Yield steering committee, an initiative of the university's athletics department.
"As a former student-athlete and proud graduate of the University of Arkansas, I am excited to be part of a campaign designed to raise support for the Razorback program," Stephen Jones said in the university release. "I am grateful for the tremendous influence the University of Arkansas had on me. And now, serving in a leadership role within this campaign, I have discovered that it is even more imperative that we work together to provide our student-athletes with the support they need to achieve academically and compete athletically in one the nation's most difficult conferences."
Information for this article was contributed by Aziza Musa of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.