Portales, NM – June 24, 2024 – Eastern New Mexico University is proud to announce that the university has received the single largest gift in university history from the Loy Family.
ENMU alumnus, former Greyhound Football captain, and ENMU Hall of Honors recipient Steve Loy and his family have agreed to donate $2.5 million to ENMU to support ENMU student-athletes and ENMU athletics. In honor of this gift, ENMU will rename Greyhound Stadium and Greyhound Arena after his family.
The Loy Family gift will endow two athletic scholarships, one for football and one for basketball, and it will also endow an assistant coaches’ fund to help attract and retain assistant coaches. Additionally, the Loy Family gift will help seed a President’s Leadership Academy, which will be developed to teach ENMU student-athletes leadership skills and apply them within the general student population and the community. This academy will aim to help student-athletes excel as professional leaders as they enter their careers.
“We are honored by the generosity of Steve and Linda Loy,” said ENMU Chancellor James Johnston. “Their significant gift allows us to move forward with initiatives that will positively impact the lives of our student-athletes for generations to come. Steve and Linda, successful ENMU alumni, exemplify the ENMU family spirit as they reach back to bring fellow Greyhounds forward.”
Originally from Albuquerque, Loy graduated from ENMU in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts in Business. Loy’s wife, Linda Bell Loy, is a 1973 Eastern New Mexico University graduate.
“On behalf of our entire family—we are blessed and honored to contribute this gift, which we are making to honor my fellow alumni and football teammates who competed during Coach Jack Scott’s and Coach Don Carthel’s tenure,” said Steve Loy. “This gift is for all the student-athletes that have founded the footprint for our athletic achievements and to honor our Board of Regents, President Johnston, and his staff, as well as ENMU’s academic educators, past and present, and of course, this gift is for the ENMU coaches, who have led this journey. The Loy Family is humbled and proud to lead the way for the greater success of ENMU’s future.”
After college, Loy served as a collegiate golf coach from 1974-92 at Scottsdale Community College, the University of Arkansas, and Arizona State University. His teams captured three national titles and 11 conference championships. He recruited and coached over a dozen PGA TOUR professionals: six Ryder Cup team members, six Walker Cup team members, three U.S. Amateur champions, four NCAA Champions, and 40 All-Americans.
Since 1992, he has served as the president of Gaylord Sports Management, Lagardere Unlimited, and SportFive (presently the largest golf sports agency in the world, operating in 41 countries on five continents). Under Loy’s direction, his businesses have developed a noteworthy list of clients, an outstanding team of associates, a corporate golf company, a corporate marketing division, and a corporate consulting division.
As the lead manager for Phil Mickelson, Loy has developed and maintained corporate relationships with companies such as Rolex, Coca-Cola, Titleist-Footjoy, Callaway Golf, PING, NIKE, Hugo Boss, AT&T Wireless, IBM, Amgen/Pfizer, ExxonMobil, KPMG, Barclays Capital and others.
Loy has been recognized by several hall of fames for his athletic and coaching achievements, including being inducted into the Eastern New Mexico University Hall of Honors, Arizona State University Hall of Fame, the NJCAA Golf Coaches Hall of Fame, and the GCAA Hall of Fame.
The ENMU Board of Regents approved the request to name the Loy Family Athletic Complex, including naming rights for Eastern New Mexico University’s current Greyhound Stadium and the Greyhound Arena, at their June 1, 2024, board meeting. The naming will honor this substantial financial commitment by the Loy Family.
“In true ENMU fashion, Steve Loy was an ordinary kid from Albuquerque who went on to do extraordinary things in the world,” said Warren Lloyd, ENMU Vice President for Advancement and Public Relations. “This gift will help bring new visibility to ENMU and help usher in a new phase of alumni engagement and philanthropic support at Eastern. Steve and Linda’s generosity will be forever central to what it means to be One Eastern, One family, One relationship at a time.”
In keeping with the theme of the Loy family gift, a dedication ceremony will be held on Saturday, October 19, during ENMU’s J. P. Stone Community Bank Family Weekend and ENMU’s annual “Wagon Wheel” rivalry game with West Texas A&M. More details about the ceremony will be released as they become available.