BOWLING GREEN — There are no winners, just losers.
Gary Haas’ legacy as arguably the best Bowling Green State University baseball player remains. He’s the only player to have his No. 6 jersey retired, a constant reminder of his successes on the diamond in the early 1970s.
In May, 2014, the all-time great gave a $1 million gift to the program he helped put on the map with its first Mid-American Conference championship in 1972. It’s a program that needed the money — but is also one that lost those funds on Sept. 30, 2021.
While a confidentiality clause might have kept a settlement secret, public records requests made by The Blade to the BGSU Foundation unearthed that mismanagement and misuse of his gift were the reasons for the falling out.
The Blade also has learned Haas is now being courted to give his money elsewhere.
Haas pledged the money to BGSU’s baseball program in a multi-purpose effort to, one, make physical improvements to Steller Field in order to attract recruits and fans, and two, to encourage other donors to give to the program.
With Haas’ donation came the establishment of the “Steller Field Improvement Fund,” records show.
“My hope is that other athletics alumni will be inspired to support the University in like fashion,” Haas wrote at the time.
Haas hoped the money could be used to put a facade around the baseball field, move the baseball locker rooms to the stadium, and build a visitor’s locker room.
Records show Haas’ $1 million commitment broke down to a $200,000 cash disbursement over a five-year period, plus an $800,000 life insurance policy that would benefit the BGSU Foundation following the deaths of Haas and his wife, Debra. The Haases were to pay $9,720 per year on the insurance premium.
Nobody has donated more to the BGSU baseball program than Haas. His life insurance policy plus the annual installments of $40,000 accounted for 30.7 percent of gift commitments to the program, records from May 1, 2014 through Jan. 28, 2022, show.
He had also donated a prior $50,000 for dugout renovations and new uniforms for the team.
From 2014 to 2017, Haas gave $160,000 of the $200,000 in cash for the university to spend on improvements to Steller Field.
Documents show the university chose not to make the desired field improvements. Instead, they used those funds for operating costs including an assistant coach’s salary, programming, athletic supplies, equipment, and telephone and communications, according to transaction receipts.
The lack of improvements to the field frustrated Haas, and the university acknowledged it had failed to be good stewards of Haas’ donation.
Athletic director Bob Moosbrugger wrote in an email that the $200,000 cash pledge had been improperly spent to support coaching and the program. On Feb. 1, 2019, BGSU Foundation President and CEO Pamela Conlin corresponded with Haas regarding his displeasure with the lack of use of his gift.
“As we have discussed, our review of the details associated with your 2014 commitment revealed a lack on our part of written documentation, specificity of gift designation and use, and updated communication that did not follow advancement best practices,” Conlin wrote in part. “Our stewardship of your commitment has not been good.”
The situation involving the use of Haas’ donation is an uncommon one, according to Matt Brown, who covers off-the-field, finance, and business issues in college sports for ExtraPoints.com.
“For someone who gave a gigantic check for a program that is still functioning, and just for whatever reason wasn’t used, that just doesn’t happen very often,” Brown said. “If somebody gives you a restricted donation — even a significant one — for a project that you have no intention of doing, or for something that doesn’t seem to have a long-term future, and you don’t think you can talk that person out of rearranging a gift, you may potentially make a calculated decision. It’s worth making this relationship over changing a strategic priority for the university.”
Conlin proposed several actions to attempt to repair the relationship.
They included the re-naming of Steller Field to “Steller Field at Gary Haas Stadium,” the $160,000 paid to be placed in an escrow account held by the BGSU Foundation, and an immediate review by the athletic department of baseball scholarship fund-raising — BGSU had lost 3½ scholarships from the 11.7 they were allocated following their 2009 MAC East Division championship.
During the coronavirus pandemic, in May, 2020, the university eliminated the baseball team. Fund-raising efforts resulted in the team being reinstated weeks later. Once the program was resurrected, Haas was eager to see his pledge used to improve the stadium.
Records say Haas met with Conlin, Moosbrugger, and BGSU president Dr. Rodney Rogers on Dec. 17, 2020, and discussed using Haas’ donation to replace the turf on the field, with up to $350,000 being used from Haas’ donation.
Haas stated at that meeting that if no progress had been “firmly” made by BGSU to commit to the installation of new turf by early May of 2021, he would seek the return of his donations.
That is exactly what happened. On May 27, 2021, Haas requested for his donation money to be returned.
Conlin responded that the initial agreement did not specify the gift was for the field, but rather “in support of the baseball program.”
A few months later, the university and the Haases agreed to a settlement. The agreement, which remained confidential until a public records request from The Blade, was signed and dated on Sept. 30, 2021.
The settlement agreement, which neither party could comment on due to confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses, agreed to pay the Haases $222,075.00 in a breakdown of $160,000 in pledge payments, $45,575 for premiums they paid on the life insurance policy, and $16,500 for interest on the donation and attorneys’ fees. By Jan. 15, 2022, the BGSU Foundation had paid Haas back his money.
The foundation also canceled the life insurance policy. The removal of Gary Haas’ name from Steller Field was included in the settlement agreement, due to the university’s written naming policy that requires certain funding levels to accompany it.
Conlin and Moosbrugger declined to speak to The Blade. The BGSU Foundation referred to the confidentiality clause that precludes discussions about it.
Since getting his money back from BGSU, Haas is considering sending his funds elsewhere. The Blade learned Haas has been in contact with the University of Toledo and outgoing athletic director Mike O’Brien regarding potential support for its baseball program, the one for which Haas’ son, Gary Haas II, played.
“The subject was addressed,” O’Brien confirmed in a phone interview.
The elder Gary Haas said he met with O’Brien and Toledo baseball coach Rob Reinstetle in late January.
“Mike O’Brien, being the athletic director he is, and had been very successful at UT raising money, he asked me the question. ‘Are you interested in sending that money somewhat our way?’” Haas said. “And what I told him was, I’d think about it, and I’d get back to him in the near future. Mr. Reinstetle was nice enough to send some UT baseball apparel to help focus on my giving to UT.”
First Published March 12, 2022, 3:13 p.m.
