![\"Donald](\"http:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/2-13-Boydston.jpg\")
<\/p>\nby Pete Rosenbery<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
CARBONDALE, Ill. \u2014 Throughout his storied tenure as an education and athletics administrator at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Donald N. \u201cDoc\u201d Boydston demonstrated a commitment to inclusion and diversity, opportunity and success \u2014 in athletics and in the classroom. A fellowship in Boydston\u2019s honor will benefit future generations of SIUC student-athletes aspiring to follow his ideals. A $500,000 endowment fund from Boydston\u2019s widow, Jo Ann, is creating the Donald N. \u201cDoc\u201d Boydston Legacy Fellowships. Fellowship awards will go annually to four deserving racial minority undergraduate student-athletes. The students must be at least sophomores and be making satisfactory progress toward their degree. The Fellows may represent any varsity sport. Fellowship recipients will have shown a consistent display of personal characteristics of integrity, commitment to equality, academic excellence, and social justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis certainly is a most generous gift that will assist students who have wonderful skills and talents, but limited resources,\u201d Chancellor Samuel Goldman said. \u201cEqually as important, however, is that this gift symbolizes the Boydstons\u2019 generosity of spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jo Ann Boydston is an internationally respected Dewey scholar who led the University\u2019s Center for Dewey Studies to international prominence. The Boydstons provided a $1 million gift in 1994 to establish the Jo Ann and Don Boydston Endowed Chair of American Philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts. Boydston died in March 2005. He was 84. After his death, Jo Ann Boydston searched for a similar gift to honor her husband\u2019s \u201ccareer-long dedication to Intercollegiate Athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am pleased to be able to pay this tribute to Don\u2019s devotion to Intercollegiate Athletics; to the athletes who compete while maintaining respectable academic progress,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially am I glad to be able to help minority students of outstanding ability and limited resources,\u201d she said. \u201cI believe this program will keep \u2018Doc\u2019s\u2019 name alive through the coming years \u2014 and will serve as a constant reminder of the assistance that made it possible for a number of athletes to graduate and play important roles as alumni of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to sincerely thank Jo Ann Boydston for her most generous donation,\u201d current Athletics Director Mario Moccia said. \u201cWith tightening budgets and tuition increases, this gift comes at a most opportune time. Don Boydston was arguably the most influential Director of Athletics in the history of Southern Illinois University and presided over great athletic achievements. More importantly, he was instrumental in attracting and retaining minority student-athletes for the first time in the history of the institution. These fellowships will honor his memory and continue his legacy in the education of minority student-athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seymour Bryson, who retired as SIUC\u2019s associate vice chancellor for diversity in September, came to SIUC in 1955, the same year Boydston arrived on campus. A star on the Salukis basketball team, Bryson was a student worker for Boydston for four years.<\/p>\n
The Fellowships reflect the Boydstons\u2019 long-term commitment to SIUC, and demonstrate \u201cthat they value the University\u2019s commitment to inclusion and diversity,\u201d Bryson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis scholarship will continue his legacy of providing students with opportunity and support \u2014 particularly African American male and female athletes \u2014 to have an opportunity to achieve their degree,\u201d Bryson said.<\/p>\n
Then-SIU President Delyte W. Morris recruited Boydston to Carbondale in 1955 from his job as a professor in health education at the University of Mississippi to establish SIUC\u2019s department of health education. He guided the University\u2019s nationally recognized health education department \u2014 now the Department of Health Education and Recreation \u2014 for 33 years, along with the department\u2019s graduate program. Boydston helped transform Saluki athletics from small-college status into a big-time university program, focusing not just on revenue-generating sports but also striving for success in non-revenue athletic offerings. Boydston was a private person who preferred to work behind the scenes, Bryson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went out of his way to ensure that people like myself, and other minority students, received the kind of encouragement, nutrients and support we needed to survive in that period of time,\u201d Bryson said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t have an ego. He was committed to high performance, opportunity and success. He was truly committed to the type of University that Dr. Morris was creating at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boydston\u2019s 15 years as athletics director from 1957 to 1972 produced one of the nation\u2019s most well-rounded athletics programs. Between 1960 and 1972, SIUC teams won 12 national championships in gymnastics, cross-country, swimming, golf and tennis. Boydston was on the planning committee starting in 1956 for the SIU Arena, which opened in 1964. \u201cDuring that period of time he was a true supporter of student-athletes, not just athletes,\u201d Bryson said. \u201cMost of the individuals who were recruited under him graduated because he hired coaches who had the same kind of commitment that he had. It was unthinkable that someone would come and play here for three or four years and not graduate. That was rare.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was able to look at the total University,\u201d Bryson said. \u201cBut more importantly he created a climate within the athletic department that recognized there was a group of people out there who needed not only an opportunity but support to be successful. So he ensured that that happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boydston was \u201csignificantly ahead of his time with regard to issues around diversity and excellence,\u201d said James M. Rosser, president of California State University-Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously as it related to intercollegiate athletes he was light years ahead of his time; he was the personification of the student piece of the athlete. It was his view that at the end of the day it was far more important in the lives of the people who participated to graduate from the University.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rosser is a three-degree SIUC graduate from East St. Louis, and earned his doctorate in health education. He is proud he was a student-athlete under Boydston\u2019s tutelage. He played basketball under coach Harry Gallatin. SIUC at one point had the largest black resident student body of any historically white institution in the country. Don and Jo Ann Boydston played significant roles in the success of minority student-athletes, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u201dWe were part of their extended family because they embraced who we were and wanted the best for us,\u201d he said. \u201cThey knew that we would be positive role models for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is that hope Rosser carries for future Boydston Fellowship recipients.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would hope that they would exemplify those characteristics that made Don Boydston, who is still for many of us, a living legacy,\u201d he said. \u201cTo the extent that is the cause, think of how many more students from diverse backgrounds will continue to help change the landscape of this nation and world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold R. Bardo, director of the Medical-Dental Education Preparatory Program in the School of Medicine, earned his bachelor\u2019s and doctorate degrees at SIUC, and played basketball and ran track. He earned his doctorate in counselor education. Boydston made an indelible impression on his life. Boydston was a fair and consistent administrator. He did, on occasion, intervene in supporting black athletes and students when he believed they were being treated unfairly, Bardo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a role model for how to treat people who are different,\u201d Bardo said.<\/p>\n
Boydston always did his homework in the hiring process. He hired people and then would allow them to do their jobs, Bardo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, even though he made the decision about whom to hire, he also was not reluctant to release coaches when he thought they were mistreating student-athletes or they weren\u2019t meeting their responsibilities,\u201d Bardo said.<\/p>\n
Bardo hopes future Fellowship recipients embrace and further Boydston\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope the Fellowship recipients understand that in a different day and age when it wasn\u2019t popular to support people considered underdogs in society, that there were people like Don Boydston who did,\u201d Bardo said, \u201cAnd I hope that the recipients use these scholarships to take advantage of the opportunities provided by these scholarships and challenge themselves to keep Boydston\u2019s legacy alive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Pete Rosenbery CARBONDALE, Ill. \u2014 Throughout his storied tenure as an education and athletics administrator at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Donald N. \u201cDoc\u201d Boydston demonstrated a commitment to inclusion and diversity, opportunity and success \u2014 in athletics and in the classroom. A fellowship in Boydston\u2019s honor will benefit future generations of SIUC student-athletes aspiring … Continue reading Endowment establishes Boydston fellowships<\/span>