Since 1995, the Panthers have held training camp at Wofford College, the alma mater of soon-to-be-former owner Jerry Richardson.
There’s a big statue of Richardson overlooking the practice fields, standing just outside the Richardson Physical Activities Building. Even for the non-athletes at the school, he casts a long shadow, as the Richardson Family Scholarship is the “highest honor awarded to an entering freshman at Wofford.”
So as you might imagine, the small private school in Spartanburg, S.C. is in no hurry to strip his name off of buildings and scholarships just because he was forced to sell his football team in disgrace after reports (corroborated by an NFL investigation) of workplace misconduct which included racial and sexual harassment.
School spokesperson Laura Corbin told Erik Spanberg of the Charlotte Business Journal that no decision has been made about all the stuff with his name on it (which is probably wise considering there’s probably some future endowment on the way).
“Wofford College’s physical campus, as well as the lives and futures of its students, faculty and staff, have been indelibly transformed by the generosity of Mr. Richardson,” Corbin said. “Beyond that, we have no further comment.”
Of course, other lives have been indelibly transformed by Richardson, including but not limited to his victims who were subject to racial epithets as well as the creepy behavior which caused him to sell his team to David Tepper.
Wofford isn’t the only institution with decisions to make. The University of North Carolina, Charlotte plays its home football games in Richardson Stadium.
There’s also the matter of the 13-foot bronze statue in front of Bank of America Stadium, the kind of marker it’s hard to imagine Tepper leaving in place for very long, once the sale of the team closes in the next two weeks.
