Budweiser-Busch Distributing Co. Inc. of Mobile has pledged $50,000 to the University of South Alabama’s new football program, the first corporate gift dedicated to the new athletic effort. The gift offers unrestricted funds for the new USA football team.

Company leaders recently presented the first payment on the five-year pledge to USA President Gordon Moulton, Athletic Director Joe Gottfried, Head Football Coach Joey Jones and USA Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Dr. Joseph F. Busta, Jr.

The unrestricted funds will be used by Gottfried and Jones to help launch the football program, which will begin playing games in fall 2009. The first full season of USA Football will be fall 2010.

Budweiser-Busch Distributing’s Chief Executive and President Jim Fuchs, Vice President and General Manager Mark Hughes, and Vice President Alexis Atkins said they were excited about the football program and what it would bring to USA and to the Mobile community.

Atkins, who also serves on the USA National Alumni Association Board of Directors, said, “We are excited for the school. The football program will do great things for the school and for the city.”

Hughes said, “We are sure this football program will trigger increased interest from the business community.”

Athletic Director Gottfried said, “We’re really excited with this gift. It’s the first major gift for our football program.”

USA’s Busta added, “What a great signal it sends to the rest of our community.” The Budweiser-Busch gift is part of Campaign USA, the University’s first comprehensive fund-raising campaign that seeks to raise $75 million for USA programs, faculty, students and construction over three years. Campaign USA was launched in March 2006 and, to date, has raised $64.3 million. The Campaign USA Leadership team is comprised of local civic, business and national leaders, many of whom are alumni.

Campaign USA will enrich all aspects of USA, from its academic colleges and schools to its hospitals, athletic programs, libraries and campuses. The money raised will be used to fund such items as undergraduate and graduate scholarships, professorships, classroom and laboratory equipment, and health care innovations. Funds will also be used for capital enhancements to USA’s track and soccer programs and a campus bell tower.

For information on Campaign USA, visit www.campaignusaleadership.com or call (251) 460-7032.

The University of South Alabama

Since its founding in 1963, the University of South Alabama has been one of Alabama’s fastest growing universities, currently enrolling more than 14,000 students in a wide range of academic programs in Allied Health Professions, Arts and Sciences, Mitchell College of Business, Computer and Information Sciences, Continuing Education and Special Programs, Education, Engineering, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. The University has awarded 60,000 degrees.

In addition to teaching and research, USA is one of the largest health care providers in the Mobile region, with its faculty physicians and two hospitals – Children’s & Women’s and USA Medical Center – involved in more than a quarter million patient encounters annually.