December 1, 2020
SUNO to receive contribution from Peyton Manning’s participation in televised celebrity golf match
NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans native and former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning was joined by fellow sports icons — PGA golfer Phil Mickelson, Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, and Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry — in Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Change exhibition golf match on Friday, Nov. 27 at the Stone Canyon Golf Club in Oro Valley, Arizona. Airing on the cable network TNT, the event aims to spotlight diversity in sports through donations to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Manning chose Southern at New Orleans as one of the beneficiaries of his gifts. This is the second time Manning has made a gift to a Southern University System institution, with Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge being one of four universities to receive funds in September for endowed scholarships from the Peyback Foundation, headed by Manning and his wife, Ashley Manning. The scholarship at Southern in Baton Rouge is named for alumnus Harold Carmichael, a former Philadelphia Eagles receiver and 2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee.
The endowed scholarship for Southern University at New Orleans is named for the late Artis McKinley Davenport II, a longtime educator and coach at the university. During his 38 years of service at SUNO, Davenport held a number of positions, including men’s and women’s track coach; athletics director; and chairman of the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Department. He was named National Coach of the Year four times by the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics, and an organization of smaller colleges and universities, and three times by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Among athletes, Davenport coached for at least three years; the graduation rate topped 90 percent. He coached the SUNO women’s team that won NAIA indoor and outdoor championships in 1997. Davenport retired from SUNO in 1999 and was inducted into halls of fame for the U.S. Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association, the Allstate Sugar Bowl, Tuskegee University, and SUNO.
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Davenport, an Army veteran, held degrees from Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He was the first Black person to earn a doctorate in physical education at LSU.
Last Friday’s event coverage began at noon on TNT. The Match included a Pre-Match Show Presented by Autotrader featuring interviews with James H. Ammons Jr., SUNO interim chancellor, and Brianne Nelson, Miss SUNO.
The final donation amount that SUNO will receive will be announced in a few days following the match.
About Southern University at New Orleans
Southern University at New Orleans was founded as a branch unit of Southern University and Agricultural & Mechanical College in Baton Rouge in 1956. Southern University at New Orleans has been providing accessible and high-quality educational options for the Greater New Orleans area for more than 60 years.
About the Southern University System
The Southern University System was created in 1974 by constitutional mandate, which fashioned it into the nation’s only historically black 1890 Land-Grant University System. Presently, the System is composed of five institutions: Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College at Baton Rouge (est. 1880), Southern University Law Center (est. 1947), Southern University at New Orleans (est. 1956), Southern University at Shreveport (est. 1964), and the Southern University Cooperative Extension Program (est. 1972), which became the fifth component of the System in 2003 and is now named Southern University Agricultural, Research and Extension Center.
