Friday, November 19, 1999
Softball coach gives $387,000 to NKU
Grein says women need opportunity
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — Women's softball has been a way of life for Roger Grein and a longstanding tradition at Northern Kentucky University. So Mr. Grein's decision to provide $800,000 in gifts for the NKU athletic program was a natural.
Mr. Grein, a Lockland native and a nationally recognized women's softball coach, has established two scholarship funds at NKU, to be matched by state and school funds, that will total $750,000.
He also gave a $50,000 gift, in the name of his father, Frank Ignatius Grein, for completion of NKU's new women's softball field, which will be ready for play next spring.
“It was a natural marriage with NKU,” Mr. Grein, an accountant, said Thursday prior to the annual NKU Foundation dinner where he was recognized for his generosity. “NKU was the first women's college softball program in this area, and I've been involved in softball for 35 years.”
Mr. Grein, 57, is best known as the founder and manager of the Jake Sweeney-sponsored teams for girls 18 and under that won a world championship in 1978 and are regularly ranked in the top 10 women's teams nationally. He has coached the teams since 1964.
“You don't do something for 35 years without it becoming a ministry,” Mr. Grein said. “You don't do it for yourself. You just hope you are touching people's lives. I've been trying to help girls get scholarships all along, because for so long there were no opportunities for the girl players.”
More than 100 Sweeney players have gone on to play collegiate softball, including 19 at NKU. NKU athletic director Jane Meier, a former NKU softball coach, is a close friend. “I talked to Jane at lunch one day, and asked her what the program needed to be competitive in the way of scholarships,” he said. “When I heard there were matching funds available, I lit up like a firecracker.”
However, he initially didn't want his name made public for the gifts. He said he had given gifts in the past but always anonymously.
“I struggled with this, and prayed about it,” Mr. Grein said. “But eventually I was convinced that by making these gifts known publicly, I could lead the way for others to give.”
Ms. Meier said Mr. Grein's gift will allow NKU's women's softball teams to compete at the national level, just as his Sweeney teams have over the years.
GREIN'S GIFTS
The gifts from Roger Grein to NKU include:
• $250,000, matched by the state, to start the Roger F. Grein Endowed Athletic Scholarship Fund to provide scholarships for the women's softball program, beginning in 2000.
• $87,000, also matched by the state, to support student scholarships for physically challenged students and named The Thelma Louise Grein Endowed Scholarship for the Physically Challenged in honor of Mr. Grein's mother. NKU is adding $76,000 to make the total endowment $250,000.
“I was born with a handicap, and my mother pushed and protected me as a child,” Mr. Grein said. “This was a way to honor my parents and do something to help others.”
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