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by Amber MarraDaily MailCHARLESTON, W.Va. - A $10 million donation helped jumpstart plans last week for a $25 million indoor practice facility and research center at Marshall University. The Cline Family Foundation provided $5 million for the sports medicine translational research center. The state's "Bucks for Brains" West Virginia Research Trust Fund matched that gift.The gift helped to "kick off" donations for the massive expansion of on-campus athletics facilities, Marshall Athletic Director Mike Hamrick said. Christopher Cline, a southern West Virginia native, coal operator and entrepreneur, announced the donation in Beckley last Monday. He was joined by more than a dozen other potential donors.Forbes listed the 53-year-old Cline as being worth $1.7 billion as of March and ranked him 278th among billionaires in the U.S.Described by Marshall President Stephen Kopp as "a true son of Marshall," Cline, the founder of Foresight Energy LLC, said in a news release that he attended the university before becoming a business owner in West Virginia. He said he wanted to give something back that would benefit the people of the state.
In addition to helping recruiting efforts, Pennington said the plans reflect a shift to more organization within Marshall's athletic department."We were a victim of our own success in the 1990s when we were doing great out on the gridiron, but inside the department, we weren't doing well at all," Pennington said Friday. "If we were a business, we would have been out of business a long time ago."As co-chairman of the Vision fundraising initiative, Pennington plans on pooling some of his own money for a donation as well.
Of good faith, Marshall should give Mr. Cline an Honorary Degree at Marshall, since he attended an never finished.