Bob Garvy has made a $1 million gift commitment to UCF Athletics to fund the creation of the Garvy Center for Student-Athlete Nutrition, pending Board of Trustees approval.
The current UCF Football Recruiting Lounge, located at the football stadium will be renovated and renamed the Garvy Center for Student-Athlete Nutrition. The space will serve as a nutritional headquarters for all 435 UCF student-athletes.
“My wife and I witnessed firsthand the tremendous benefit, opportunity and sacrifice of being a student-athlete at UCF,” Garvy said. “Our son Kevin played five years for the Knights football team, while getting a great education including an MBA. We wanted to extend our support in the critical area of nutrition to complement our commitment to the Wayne Densch Center for Student-Athlete Leadership. Go Knights!”
In February of 2014, the Garvy Family Foundation committed $1 million toward the Wayne Densch Center for Student-Athlete Leadership, which is located on the east side of the football stadium and serves as the home for UCF student-athletes’ personal, professional and academic development.
Garvy serves as Vice Chair of the UCF Board of Trustees and is a member of the UCF Athletics Association Board of Directors. He became more aware of the nutritional needs of UCF student-athletes after head football coach Scott Frost brought it up to him in a conversation shortly after Frost’s hire. Garvy helped put the football program in touch with the UCF College of Medicine, leading to a group of faculty and students donating their time to help the Knights modify their diets to improve sport performance and recovery. Garvy said the success of that program made his contribution to the nutrition center a natural next step.
“It is so important that these kids get the proper nutrition,” Garvy said. “The nutrition needs vary tremendously among all the different student-athletes. We really need to extend it now and have the ability to feed them properly.”
UCF Vice President and Director of Athletics Dr. Daniel J. White expressed his thanks to Garvy for his support of this important project.
“On behalf of our entire athletic department and our student-athletes, we are so grateful for Bob Garvy’s generous gift to support the creation of the Garvy Center for Student-Athlete Nutrition,” White said. “Bob, Carol and their family have been amazing supporters of the Knights for a very long time and we greatly appreciate everything they’ve done for the Black and Gold over the years.”
The Garvy Center for Student-Athlete Nutrition is expected to be operational by Spring of 2018.
Garvy’s gift is part of UCF’s comprehensive fundraising campaign, IGNITE, which seeks to infuse $500 million in mission-critical philanthropic support at UCF by June 2019. Please visit igniteucf.org for details.