University of Tennessee Athletics
Pratt Earmarks Gift to Restore Reduced Athletics Staff Wages
March 26, 2021 | General
Longtime University of Tennessee donor Larry Pratt last week generously provided a cash gift of $140,000 to cover the pandemic-related salary reductions for close to 140 Tennessee Athletics staffers.
Pratt's gift makes whole the salaries for at-will employee earning between $50,000 and $150,000 whose monthly earnings were reduced from November through March. For those staffers, it will be as though the reductions never occurred.
He notified university and athletics leadership of his desire to shoulder those reductions last month.
"So many times, we forget that the building blocks of an organization start at the ground roots—not at the top," Pratt said. "Every person is critical. From ushers to assistants—everyone is vital to our success. I just want them to feel that way and let them know they're just as important as everybody else."
The athletics department implemented its tiered salary reduction plan in response to economic ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Staffers earning less than $50,000 annually were exempt from the plan, which remains in place through the end of the fiscal year (June 30) for those earning more than $150,000 as well as contract employees.
New Tennessee Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Danny White assumed oversight of the athletics department in January.
"I was made aware of the reductions very early on," White said. "It was conveyed to me that the whole department really bought in to the plan and had a willing attitude to do their part to help the department get through a challenging time. That really stands out to me and says a lot about the people we have here.
"I'm grateful to each of them for their loyalty to Tennessee, and I am incredibly grateful and appreciative of Larry's compassion. He knows a lot of our people, has tremendous respect for the jobs they do, and he cares a lot about them."
Mary-Carter Eggert, director of operations for the men's basketball program, is among the many athletics staff members whose pay reduction will be retroactively restored next month.
"What an amazing gesture," Eggert said of Pratt's generosity. "It really does reflect the kind of guy he is. If you spend any amount of time around him, two things become very clear—he loves Tennessee, and he genuinely cares about people."
A native of Athens, Tennessee, Pratt graduated from UT's College of Business in 1973 and is the chairman/CEO of First Savings Mortgage Corporation in Washington, D.C., which he founded in 1988.
He has a lengthy and noteworthy history of transformational philanthropic giving to Tennessee Athletics. In 2003, he made a $1 million gift to the STEP UP capital campaign. He followed that in 2006 with a $5 million lead gift that paved the way for construction of Pratt Pavilion, Tennessee's state-of-the-art basketball practice facility.
More recently, Pratt provided a $2 million gift for the Larry Pratt Basketball Locker Room Complex in Thompson-Boling Arena. The beautiful, spacious facility that serves as the practice and gameday headquarters for both the Vols and Lady Vols was dedicated in September 2018.
Pratt's giving history extends beyond athletics, as he has created endowments for general UT students as well as student-athletes.
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Pratt's gift makes whole the salaries for at-will employee earning between $50,000 and $150,000 whose monthly earnings were reduced from November through March. For those staffers, it will be as though the reductions never occurred.
He notified university and athletics leadership of his desire to shoulder those reductions last month.
"So many times, we forget that the building blocks of an organization start at the ground roots—not at the top," Pratt said. "Every person is critical. From ushers to assistants—everyone is vital to our success. I just want them to feel that way and let them know they're just as important as everybody else."
The athletics department implemented its tiered salary reduction plan in response to economic ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Staffers earning less than $50,000 annually were exempt from the plan, which remains in place through the end of the fiscal year (June 30) for those earning more than $150,000 as well as contract employees.
New Tennessee Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Danny White assumed oversight of the athletics department in January.
"I was made aware of the reductions very early on," White said. "It was conveyed to me that the whole department really bought in to the plan and had a willing attitude to do their part to help the department get through a challenging time. That really stands out to me and says a lot about the people we have here.
"I'm grateful to each of them for their loyalty to Tennessee, and I am incredibly grateful and appreciative of Larry's compassion. He knows a lot of our people, has tremendous respect for the jobs they do, and he cares a lot about them."
Mary-Carter Eggert, director of operations for the men's basketball program, is among the many athletics staff members whose pay reduction will be retroactively restored next month.
"What an amazing gesture," Eggert said of Pratt's generosity. "It really does reflect the kind of guy he is. If you spend any amount of time around him, two things become very clear—he loves Tennessee, and he genuinely cares about people."
A native of Athens, Tennessee, Pratt graduated from UT's College of Business in 1973 and is the chairman/CEO of First Savings Mortgage Corporation in Washington, D.C., which he founded in 1988.
He has a lengthy and noteworthy history of transformational philanthropic giving to Tennessee Athletics. In 2003, he made a $1 million gift to the STEP UP capital campaign. He followed that in 2006 with a $5 million lead gift that paved the way for construction of Pratt Pavilion, Tennessee's state-of-the-art basketball practice facility.
More recently, Pratt provided a $2 million gift for the Larry Pratt Basketball Locker Room Complex in Thompson-Boling Arena. The beautiful, spacious facility that serves as the practice and gameday headquarters for both the Vols and Lady Vols was dedicated in September 2018.
Pratt's giving history extends beyond athletics, as he has created endowments for general UT students as well as student-athletes.
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