The Kansas football team on Monday announced the creation of the Lance and Kelly Leipold Graduate Assistant Fund, an endowment that will aim to provide opportunities for individuals from marginalized communities to gain experience in coaching as graduate assistants with the football team.
According to the university, the fund is designed to build greater representation within college athletics and will support Kansas’ attempts to establish inclusive communities on campus.
Lance Leipold, who was hired as the Jayhawks’ head coach in April 2021, will begin his second season with a home game against Tennessee Tech on Friday.
“This gift by Lance and Kelly is yet another example of their deep commitment to our University and their passion for positively impacting the many lives they intersect with,” athletic director Travis Goff said in a statement. “We are fortunate to have the Leipolds in Lawrence and are grateful that the University of Kansas has a selfless, dedicated leader at the helm of its football program.”
Prior to being hired as Kansas, Leipold spent six seasons as the head coach at Buffalo and eight seasons as the head coach at Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he won six Division III national championships.
“I probably wouldn’t be standing here before any of you if it wasn’t for the opportunity Barry Alvarez gave me at the University of Wisconsin to be a graduate assistant and to get in on the ground floor and do those things,” Leipold said Monday. “We just thought that was at least one way at this time that we would (give back) and it seemed fitting. It’s something that has been in the works for a while and, you know, the announcement was made today.”
