UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State alumnus and longtime donor Michael J. Farrell announced that The Farrell Family Charitable Foundation that he established has committed to give Penn State $1 million to support the Football Excellence Fund in Intercollegiate Athletics. The team auditorium in the Lasch Football Building will be named in honor of the 2012 Penn State football team of which Farrell’s son, Mike, was a member.
“We are so appreciative of the commitment that The Farrell Family Charitable Foundation has made to Penn State football,” Director of Athletics Sandy Barbour said. “We value the long-standing relationship with Michael Farrell, and this gift assists us in providing world class conditions for success for our student-athletes on the field, in the classroom and in life.”
The Football Excellence Fund provides discretionary funding to support costs such as facilities improvements, equipment purchases, travel and other needs that arise throughout the season.
“We are very grateful to The Farrell Family Charitable Foundation for this generous gift to our football program and very appreciative of the efforts by Mike on and off the field during his time as a Penn State football student-athlete,” head football coach James Franklin said. “The 2012 team was a special, resilient group who will always be remembered for the commitment they made to Penn State and the football program. The support from this gift will provide us with the resources to give our football student-athletes an unrivaled Penn State experience.”
“This gift honors those who stayed, those who came, and those who came back,” Michael J. Farrell said. “By that, I mean the 2012 players and coaches who stayed in the face of adversity, those players and coaches who came later in spite of that adversity, and finally, those hundreds and hundreds of lettermen who came back in 2012 to support that team and the program.”
Michael J. Farrell, the president and CEO of Farrell & Co., of Pittsburgh, graduated from Penn State in 1971 from the Smeal College of Business. He has been active in the Smeal College, serving three consecutive terms on the college’s Alumni Society Board of Directors (1987-97) as well as on the Smeal Board of Visitors.
Farrell was honored in 1993 as a Penn State Alumni Fellow, the highest accolade bestowed by the Penn State Alumni Association, and was selected as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2001. He has also been chosen to receive the Smeal College Alumni Service Award (1997) and was named Accounting Alumnus of the Year (1998).
After graduating from Penn State, Farrell joined the firm Touche Ross & Co., before becoming the vice president of finance at Motor Coils Manufacturing Co. in 1973. In 1982, he founded Farrell & Co., which is an investment banking firm that invests in private equity transactions and provides operating management. Most recently, Farrell served as president and CEO of Standard Steel LLC, a portfolio company. In 2011, Standard Steel was sold to Nippon Sumitomo, the second largest producer of steel in the world.
A longtime Penn State donor, Farrell has helped to create the Farrell Center for Entrepreneurship, the Michael J. Farrell Chair in Venture Management and two endowed professorships in the Smeal College. He also provided significant support for the construction of the Bryce Jordan Center.
An offensive tackle, Mike Farrell was selected 2012 honorable-mention All-Big Ten by the coaches and media after helping the Nittany Lions to an 8-4 record. He was the 2012 co-recipient of the team’s Richard Maginnis Award, presented to its top senior offensive lineman. Farrell started every game during the 2012 season and was instrumental in helping the Nittany Lions lead the Big Ten in total offense (437 ypg), ranking second in scoring offense (32.6 ppg) and pass offense (283.1 ypg) against conference foes. A three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, Farrell was president of Penn State’s chapter of Uplifting Athletes in 2011 and 2012, helping the football team raise more than $200,000 for the Kidney Cancer Association at the Penn State Lift For Life. He graduated in December 2012.
Michael Farrell also has two other sons, Chris, Class of 2014, and Jake, a sophomore at Penn State. Farrell and his wife, Kristen, reside in Upper St. Clair.
Penn State’s alumni and friends are invaluable partners in fulfilling the University’s land-grant mission of education, research and service. Private gifts from alumni and friends enrich the experiences of students both in and out of the classroom; expand the research and teaching capacity of our faculty; enhance the University’s ability to recruit and retain top students and faculty; and help to ensure that students from every economic background have access to a Penn State education. Penn State’s third and most ambitious University-wide fundraising campaign, For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, concluded June 30 with a total of $2.188 billion. The University’s colleges and campuses are now enlisting the support of alumni and friends to advance a range of unit-specific initiatives.