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"From the locker room to board room"

Tressel's leadership legacy

Tressel leadership — *YSU Trustees Michael Peterson, Joe Kerola, Eric Spiegel, Chuck George and John Jakubek present a check to President Jim Tressel for the new Tressel Leadership Fellowship*

The governing boards for both YSU and the YSU Foundation pulled out their wallets earlier this year to support the legacy of President Jim Tressel.

In January, 10 trustees of the YSU Foundation, the university’s fund-raising arm, donated $1.6 million to establish the President James P. Tressel Endowed Chair in Leadership, honoring Tressel’s 35 years of leadership at YSU and across the region. The initiative also led to an additional fund-raising effort to establish the Tressel Institute for Leadership and Teamwork at YSU.

“President Tressel's influence has transformed the institution by raising its stature, reputation and significance to exceptional levels,” said Jocelyne Kollay Linsalata, former Foundation board chair.

In June, a group of current and former members of the YSU Board of Trustees then stepped up to contribute a combined $250,000 to create an endowed graduate fellowship in the new Tressel Institute.

“President Tressel is renowned across the state of Ohio and the nation for his skills in leading successful teams, from the locker room to the board room,” said Chuck George, vice chair of the YSU Board of Trustees. “This fellowship will allow those skills and those successes to be ingrained in generations to come.”

The gifts are part of YSU’s $125 million “We See Tomorrow” capital campaign, the largest fundraising effort in the university’s history.