Carolina Panthers owner donates $5M to USC for scholarships, professorships

COLUMBIA — A competitive scholarship program for University of South Carolina sports management students is now permanent with a $5 million donation from NFL owner David Tepper and his wife Nicole.

In recognition of the gift, USC named the David and Nicole Tepper Department of Sport and Entertainment Management on Tuesday after the family of the Carolina Panthers owner.

“What I could say for not only this department and school, but for the university overall — they care,” Nicole Tepper told reporters. “They put time into each student. The student’s success is the university’s success.

“That just draws people like Dave and I in to say, we want to invest, and we want to be a part of it,” she added.

The Teppers, through the family’s charitable foundation, funded the Tepper Scholars Program at USC, starting with $1.5 million six years ago. The additional $5 million will continue that into perpetuity.

David Tepper, a hedge fund billionaire who grew up in Pittsburgh, and Nicole Tepper, who was raised in New Jersey, have a personal connection to the South Carolina school: One of their daughters received a bachelor’s degree from USC, though they did not say when.

The dollar amount awarded to scholars varies from year to year but covers a large portion of students’ tuition, said college spokesman Allen Wallace.

The scholars also work a summer internship with the Teppers’ sports and events management company, which includes the Panthers and the Major League Soccer Charlotte Football Club.

“It was always my dream to work in professional sports but being from a small island I saw it as something perhaps unattainable,” said Ambar Ferra, a class of 2025 sports management graduate and scholarship recipient from Puerto Rico. “Where I am from, there are not opportunities like this.”

Through the program, Ferra took part in two Tepper Sports internships. Today, she works as an event services coordinator for the Houston Dynamo and Dash soccer teams.

“Thank you, Nicole and David, for giving a young girl from Puerto Rico the opportunity to live her dream and shine,” said Ferra, who is among 24 scholarship recipients so far.

Other Tepper scholars have gone on to work for the Panthers, as well as the Cleveland Browns and the Washington Commanders. Most attended the USC announcement.

The Teppers’ latest donation also pays for three professorships at the school, “bringing elite practitioner-educators into USC classrooms,” according to a statement.

“By investing in students through scholarships, mentorship, and access to industry expertise, we can help create lasting impact,” the couple said in a statement. “It’s inspiring to see how the Tepper Scholars have already begun shaping the future of this field, and we are proud to build on this partnership with the University to continue opening doors for talented students for years to come.”

The degree program is among one of the most popular at USC, with about 1,600 students currently enrolled.

The announcement comes six years after the Legislature passed an incentives package intended to bring the Panthers’ headquarters south of the border.

But in 2022, David Tepper pulled the Panthers out of plans to build a $500 million practice facility and headquarters in Rock Hill, abandoning the site where work began two years earlier. The failed complex, once seen as a game-changer for the region, fell apart over a dispute related to bond funding for roads and other infrastructure leading into the 240-acre site along Interstate 77.

Three years later, the site remains undeveloped, with an $80 million state-funded interchange from I-77 to nothing.

The city, which purchased the land, announced this month that it is marketing it as an industrial park, targeting manufacturing and life sciences businesses, according to WCNC-TV, a Charlotte NBC affiliate.