Earlier this year Chris Barker was promoted to Executive Associate Athletic Director and Chief Revenue Officer at NIU and he told Rotarians this week that long title means he is tasked with building donor financial support for athletics at the university.  So far, Barker says he is seeing success.  He said last year’s donors growth for the Huskie Athletic Fund  was 64% over the prior year and year to date it is up 7% over last year.  Barker attributed this success to personal relationships.  He says he and his staff of four concentrate on a 30-mile radius of DeKalb (where the largest number of NIU graduates reside) making a target of 19 contacts a week.

 

Barker says an important talking point to donors is how Huskie athletics develops an athletes skill plus a pathway to graduation.  He said in this age of a wide-open transfer portal and uncapped pay to athletes, the culture of NIU to focus on the developmental growth helps set them apart.  He acknowledged that the Huskies are not offering million-dollar attraction pay for someone to come to NIU.  He added that with about 400 student athletes on campus, only 236 have an athletic scholarship.  But Barker added that all of these athletes, many first-generation college students, learn important life skills both in the classroom and by giving over 4,000 community service hours to local organizations.

 

Barker is optimistic that NIU’s new conference alignment for football (with the Mountain West) and the Horizon League for most of the remainder of the school’s sports will help build on donor interest in supporting the athletic program.  NIU requires tickets for only four sports: football, men’s and women’s basketball, and volleyball.  Barker expects these sales to be on the uptick going forward because of the conference changes and the quality of the team experience from students with a passion for their total college experience.

April 21, 1926 – Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor is born in Mayfair, London, England.  As Queen Elizabeth II she will become Great Britain’s longest serving monarch.  She reigned for 70 years and 214 days before passing away at age 96.

 

April 22, 1451 – Isabella I of Castile, patron of explorer Christopher Columbus and initiator of the Spanish Inquisition with husband Ferdinand II, is born in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Spain.

 

April 23, 1564 – Playwright William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.  He is often named the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist.  His works include 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and additional poems.

 

April 23, 1791 – 15^th U.S. President James Buchanan (serving 1857-1861) is born in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania.  He held sympathetic views about slavery and fell out of political favor for trying to help the South gain Kansas as a slave state.  He opted not to seek reelection opening the way for Abraham Lincoln’s successful run for office.

April 19, 1775 – It was dawn and 70 armed militiamen stood face to face with a British advance guard unit on Lexington Green when an unordered shot from the British became “the shot heard round the world” and the American Revolution began.  Eight Americans died and ten were wounded in the melee that followed.

 

April 20, 1999 – Two students armed with guns and explosives carried out an attack at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and leaving 20 people wounded before killing themselves.

 

April 21, 1904 – Controversial baseball legend Ty Cobb begins his career playing for the Augusta, Georgia team of the South Atlantic League.  He winds up in Detroit and spends 22 seasons with the Tigers setting 90 big league records, several of which he still holds.

 

April 22, 1970 – An estimated 20 million people turn out for locally-organized environmental educational events promoted by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson.  Nelson was trying to call attention to the inaction of Congress on environmental issues and inaugurated the very first “Earth Day”.