| Elam family legacy grows as giver to UC, UT Martin | By: By MIKE HUTCHENS, Messenger Sports Editor
| Posted: Thursday, February 19, 2009 4:34 pm
| Kathleen Elam hasn’t dropped the ball.
Instead, she’s taken it and run with it.
Perhaps the best of sports metaphors details of how Mrs. Elam — the widow of local attorney and noted civic leader Col. Tom Elam — has continued her generous contributions to both Union City High School and the University of Tennessee at Martin since her husband’s death almost 11 years ago.
Mrs. Elam’s total monetary gifts to the athletic programs and other charitable causes at both UCHS and UTM during that time is just short of $4 million, according to Union City accountant Al Creswell, a friend of the Elam family and the executor of the finances of their estate.
“She doesn’t necessarily like it publicized, but Ms. Kathleen’s legacy in this community is huge,” he said. “Over the last 10 years or so, the true scope of what she’s done for the children of Union City and the student-athletes of UT Martin is unknown by most people.
“The Elam family’s legacy of support and financial generosity has not only continued through Mrs. Elam but, in some ways, it has surpassed many of the great things it did previously.”
The numbers — or more accurately dollars and cents totals — shed considerable light on Creswell’s claim and Mrs. Elam’s magnanimity.
She has given $330,000 in all to the Union City Schools Foundation. Among those gifts was being a $30,000 contributor to the construction of the UCHS multi-purpose turf building, where the football, baseball and softball programs hold various workouts. There have also been donations of $20,000 for weights and weight room flooring, overall athletic improvement and identical funds that have gone directly to the football program.
Easily the largest of Mrs. Elam’s gifts to the UCSF was a $150,000 contribution to Elam Stadium — shared by both Union City High School and the UC Greyhounds of the summertime Kitty League Baseball League. Overall stadium improvements, a state-of-the-art scoreboard, fencing and other general upgrades have benefited from those monies.
She also gave $40,000 to the Union City Magnet School.
“Mrs. Elam’s generosity has been invaluable and has allowed us to continue to be a premier school system — both athletically and academically,” Union City Director of Schools Gary Houston said of the family’s multiple contributions locally. “Her kindness financially is well-known within the athletic field realm, but her gift to the magnet school to help get it off the ground was a great boost as well.
“We have been very blessed by her contributions.”
Though her late husband, Col. Tom, was widely-known for his role in the University of Tennessee athletics as a member of the UT Athletics Board and Board of Trustees and charity to the university, both he and Ms. Kathleen had and have an equal love for the UT Martin campus and have been more than good to its worthwhile projects.
Their $1 million donation to UTM in 1996 prior to Mr. Elam’s death, coincided with the university’s naming the physical education building that houses the basketball program and campus recreation department in their honor, the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
“I know a lot of people know of Colonel Tom’s history with ‘big’ UT, but his focus really changed later in life to UTM,” Creswell claimed. “He really developed a love for the campus and what was going on there, something Ms. Kathleen always had. She’s continued to be so good to the university in the years since his death.”
Creswell’s record show Mrs. Elam has given in excess of $2.1 million to various programs since 1999.
The football program has received the bulk of that money — over $1.9M — that included a $560,000 challenge gift as a start to what was ultimately constructed as the Bob Carroll Football Building that houses the entire program in the south end of Graham Stadium. The eventual price tag of the facility was $2 million, and Creswell estimated that 85 percent of the privately-raised money to pay for the project came from Obion County.
Most insiders say that the facility saved the program from becoming a non-scholarship sport at the school, a goal of a previous administrative regime.
“I have no doubt, if not for Mrs. Elam’s initial donation and continued commitment to the Bob Carroll Building project, we’d have essentially dropped football or be playing club football or some type of non-scholarship,” Creswell said. “I feel fairly safe in saying that very few people in Martin have any idea of the magnitude of her gifts to UTM and that community.”
Local athletics and their respective fields, courts and buildings have not been the only beneficiaries of Mrs. Elam’s kindness either.
She gave $1 million to the Obion County Public Library, another $250,000 to the ATO fraternity at UTM in its annual Push for St. Jude and a scholarship endowment and $111,000 to the Lebonheur Children’s Hospital. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Tennessee was the recipient, too, of $107,500, while Union City’s Masquerade Theatre got $57,750 from Mrs. Elam.
“For essentially 10 years now, Mrs. Elam has been so benevolent to so many projects where young people are involved in our communities in Union City and Martin,” Creswell noted. “Athletics and their facilities have certainly benefitted, but her kindness and generosity has reached so many other deserving needs as well.
“Her commitment to UT Martin has been phenomonal. She’s really believed in some people and several of the things going on there, and that we need to do everything we can to make it an attractive option for our young people to stay in our communities.”
UTM Chancellor Dr. Tom Rakes was gracious while speaking of Ms. Elam’s financial givings.
“We are very fortunate to have the level of support that the Elam family has provided,” the university head since 2007 told The Messenger. “The types of gifts they have provided are most important, especially given our budget crisis of recent times.
“The family has given to mainly athletic endeavors, but they’ve supported many other viable projects on our campus, like the nursing program. With their generous gifts, we’ve been able to continue to provide many opportunities for students on our campus.”
Sports editor Mike Hutchens can be contacted by e-mail at mhutch@ucmessenger.com. | | | | |
