James H. and DeAnna Bodenstedt donate $5 million to the RACE

Long-time UTSA mega booster James Bodenstedt and his wife have donated $5 million to UTSA’s ongoing effort to fund the Roadrunner Athletics Center of Excellence. This is the second 7 digit donation Bodenstedt has made to the program, after he donated $1 million to help the program get off the ground back in 2011.

The donation is timely, as yesterday the walls went up around the RACE. Our photographer Eric will be on campus this afternoon to take some pictures of the current construction, keep an eye out for those to be posted on Patreon and social media. It’s so refreshing to see a major athletics facility start to rise over campus and we can’t wait to see the finished project.

I feel like the press release would have mentioned this if it was true, but I’m pretty sure that this $5 million donation is the largest one-time gift that UTSA athletics has ever received. Dr. Lisa Campos continues to excel as UTSA’s Athletic Director.

Given the timing of the announcement, I’m guessing one of two things happened. Either the Bodenstedts said they would donate once the walls went up, or UTSA sat on the announcement until they were ready to have the media tour the physical construction of RACE. Having some images of tangible construction progress can be a powerful motivator for people to open up their wallets. Hopefully this leads to a domino effect where other donors and alumni contribute what they can to the fundraising efforts.