By Charles Jaggers
Director of University Communications

MUNCIE, Ind. -- The largest private gift ever made to Ball State University has been presented by the George and Frances Ball Foundation of Muncie.

The $8.5 million gift was announced Wednesday by Frank A. Bracken, president of the foundation board of directors. It includes $6.5 million for the university's Fund for Innovative Academic Programs and at least $2 million in art works for the Ball State Museum of Art. The fund will support the development of leading edge teaching techniques for faculty and collaborative efforts between academic departments.

"There has been a long, historic and close association between the Ball Family and this great university," said Bracken. "It is important to us that the tradition of support continues."

University President John E. Worthen called the George and Frances Ball Foundation contribution a truly exceptional and significant event in the history of the university.

"A milestone gift such as this will have a profound effect on educational innovation and the arts at the university," Worthen said. "It is appropriate that a gift of this magnitude would come from the legacy of the family whose original generosity launched this university 80 years ago."

The previous record gift of $5 million was given by the same family foundation in 1988.

In 1917, the five Ball brothers, Muncie industrialists, bought the land and buildings of a failed private college and turned them over to the State of Indiana the following year. George A. Ball was one of the brothers; Frances was his wife.

The institution was named Ball Teachers College in l922 in recognition of the Ball family's generosity. It became Ball State Teachers College in l929 and Ball State University in l965.

"The sculpture Beneficence . . . the very symbol of the institution . . . embodies the heart and soul of Ball State. It is clear the spirit of beneficence is as strong today as it was in 1918, and the heritage of the Ball family lives on long after them," said Worthen.

(NOTES TO EDITORS: For more information about this story, contact Charles Jaggers at 765-285-1560 or cjaggers@bsu.edu.)