July 12, 2006
Fresh off two of the most successful athletic seasons in school history, contributions to the Baylor Bear Foundation topped the $3 million mark for the first time ever in 2005-06. It marked the third consecutive year that the Bear Foundation established a record for total contributions to the fund-raising arm of Baylor's 18-sport intercollegiate athletics program.
Baylor fans contributed a record $3.3 million to the Baylor Bear Foundation during the 2005-06 fiscal year, $2.942 million in cash and $363,922 in gifts-in-kind. In 2004-05, the Bear Foundation raised $2.926 million, while it generated $2.708 million in 2002-03.
"I want to express my deep appreciation to the Baylor family for its support of student-athlete scholarships and congratulate the Bear Foundation staff on this record-setting year," said Baylor Director of Athletics Ian McCaw. "Baylor student-athletes and teams have had the two best all-sports years in school history and the future appears even brighter due in large part to the incredible support that we receive from Bear Foundation members."
Contributions to the Baylor Bear Foundation go directly toward the scholarship costs associated with running an 18-sport intercollegiate athletic program in the Big 12 Conference.
"I am pleased, but not really surprised," said Baylor Associate Athletic Director for Development Doug Smith. "People want to invest in things they feel good about and I have confidence in that it stands to reason that our giving would be up over the past few years.
"With that said, I want to personally thank all our donors, volunteers and the Bear Foundation staff in making this the best year in the history of the Baylor Bear Foundation," Smith added.
Baylor recorded its second-highest finish ever in the NACDA Directors' Cup standings with its 32nd-place ranking nationally, which also placed it fifth among Big 12 institutions. Last year's program-best 25th-place ranking coupled with Baylor's 2005-06 showing marked the first time in school history it finished among the nation's top 35 programs in consecutive years. Stanford won the award for the 12th consecutive year.
A school-record 13 of its 18 teams participated in postseason play and eight finished the year ranked among the nation's top 20. In 2005-06, Baylor produced one NCAA national team semifinalist among its school-record 13 postseason entrants, three Big 12 Conference team championships (two regular-season titles and one tournament crown), an NCAA individual national champion and 29 All-Americans. Baylor joined Texas (11), Colorado (two), Oklahoma (two) and Texas A&M (two) as the only Big 12 institutions to win more than one 2005-06 regular-season conference title.
While dominating their opponents in competition, Baylor student-athletes maintained their well-established standard of excellence in the classroom. Sixty-three (63) student-athletes were named to the 2005-06 Academic All-Big 12 teams, including 46 first-team honorees. Four individuals--football's Daniel Sepulveda (first team), baseball's Zach Dillon (first team), softball's Kelly Osburn (third team) and track & field's Brittany Brockman (third team) received CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America honors.
