Former football coach makes a large donation to CCU to build new athletic facilities
Coastal Carolina University has received a large financial gift from former head football coach Joe Moglia.
The contribution enables the university to begin design work on a $15 million indoor football practice facility, expanded football facilities and a proposed football south end zone project, the school said. His gift will also complete funding for a new $5 million stadium for the men’s and women’s soccer programs.
The university did not disclose the amount of the donation at Moglia’s request.
“I want to be able to keep that number confidential,” Moglia told The Sun News on Tuesday afternoon. “Most of the things I’ve given over the span of my lifetime frankly have been anonymous or confidential. For this one it was special enough for the university that they felt it really warranted announcing.”
CCU President Michael T. Benson said in a release that a soon-to-be-designed academic and athletic facility will be named The Joe Moglia Center. “As we enhance football facilities we wind up doing that in association with academic programs, but I think that’s going to be worked out over time,” Moglia said.
Moglia stepped down from full-time coaching after the 2018 season and Jamey Chadwell was promoted to head coach. Moglia now serves as Coastal’s chairman of athletics, executive director of football, and advisor to the president.
“This is a significant step forward for our athletics program at Coastal Carolina University and indicative of coach Moglia’s commitment to our student-athletes and our institution,” Benson said in the release. “We truly appreciate Joe’s past, present, and future leadership at Coastal Carolina University and his advocacy of our students.”
Design work and construction of the soccer facility will begin immediately, the school said, and it is expected to open in time for the 2023 season.
The new soccer venue will be located on CCU’s East Campus, across U.S. 501 from the main campus, where it will join the existing Delan and Lynn Stevens Tennis Complex and the Beach Volleyball Complex. With future plans for relocating the track and field facility to that area as well, the location will become a full complex for serving the university’s Olympic sports.
“[Former president] Dave DeCenzo with Coastal Carolina gave me an opportunity to coach a Division I football program that nobody else in the country would give because they didn’t believe in me,” Moglia said. “I couldn’t be prouder of what has happened in the program, I couldn’t be prouder of what Jamey, the staff and players are doing right now, and I’m honored to be able to work with Mike Benson going forward. I’m very proud and grateful to be able to help out.”
Moglia, the former chairman and CEO of TD Ameritrade, has received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Sharp Trophy for Leadership, and has been honored by the National Italian American Foundation, the Columbus Citizens Foundation, the Irish Arts Center, the American Institute for Stuttering, and the Stuttering Association for the Young. He has had a book written about his life and has published books on both investing and football. He is in the process of writing a book on leadership.
Moglia was 56-22 all-time at Coastal and led the Chanticleers to the FCS national playoffs his first five seasons as head coach and to Big South Conference championships in four of the five seasons. Coastal rose to the FCS No. 1 ranking in both 2014 and 2015 and Moglia and was a recipient of the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year Award and the Vince Lombardi Award, and was inducted into the Lombardi Hall of Fame.
Moglia explained the timing of his gift.
With the rise of the CCU football program on a national level he believes an indoor practice facility is imperative to the program’s continued growth. Moglia said when inclement weather forces the football team to practice under cover it has to be split between gyms and the baseball batting cage facility.
“It’s very, very difficult for us to be able to compete when we have bad weather, we have lightning and we’re not allowed on the field if we’re not in an indoor facility. We really desperately need an indoor facility,” Moglia said. “. . . For us to compete at a national level it’s something we just genuinely need. And there was a lot of discussion with that of course when we were renewing Jamey’s contract.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 3:45 PM.
