Jack Neumann was a tireless, relentless and selfless employee for Dino Athletics in Calgary for 39 years. He was the sports information director from 1978-2007 and then alumni relations coordinator for five years until his retirement in 2012.
Neumann’s impact on Dino Athletics is being felt to this day. Neumann still volunteers his time to the athletics program.
On Wednesday, a generous donation to the Dino Football program was announced: Neumann will pay for all football players’ jerseys in perpetuity.
“I wanted to leave a legacy gift that was something unique and every team needs jerseys so I decided I was going to do this,” he said. “As long as it was scarlet and gold, that’s the Dinos colours, I didn’t want any black in them or third jerseys. I’m not into that kind of stuff.”
Originally, Neumann didn’t want any fanfare over his donation.
“I did some thinking and talking to the senior administration at the university and they said, ‘We want you to go public, Jack, so hopefully somebody else will step forward and do it for the other teams.’ And as someone said, you’re doing the most expensive one!”
Calgary Dinos head coach Wayne Harris has known Jack for almost 40 years and says his legacy gift is a huge boost to the program.
“It’s unbelievable, it’s hard to describe. I was in my second year as a student athlete when Jack arrived in 1978 as the sports information director (S.I.D.). He’s the most selfless person I’ve ever met; he always put the student athlete first.”
Neumann’s dream is to see the Dinos win the Vanier Cup wearing the jerseys he’s paying for.
The road to that goal continues Sunday, Nov. 12 at McMahon Stadium, when the Dinos host Blake Nill and their arch rival UBC Thunderbirds.