Fred Wilpon is owner of the New York Mets and a 1958 University of Michigan alumnus.

The U of M's baseball and softball facilities, now collectively called the Wilpon Baseball Complex, were named for his family after a $12 million donation through the Wilpon Family Foundation.

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Wilpon is quite involved with Michigan baseball now in ways different from those of 50 years ago. He graduated from the Big 10 school in 1958, having lettered as a pitcher in his freshman year and then suffering an injury that ended his competitive baseball career. His more recent involvement is philanthropic. The Wolverines program had a remodeled home -- The Wilpon Baseball Complex in Ray Fisher Stadium. The $9 million refurbishing was underwritten by Wilpon and his wife Judy.

Fred (AB ’58) and Judy Wilpon (AB ’58) of New York have given $12 million on behalf of the Fred Wilpon Family Foundation, to be divided among three areas of the University. The Wilpons’ $5 million leadership gift to the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Division of Kinesiology will create the Sport Injury Prevention Center, where an interdisciplinary roster of experts will research the causes of sports injuries and promote their prevention. A second leadership gift of $4 million to the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics will support renovation of the baseball and softball stadiums, to be renamed the Wilpon Baseball and Softball Complex in honor of Fred’s parents, Frances and Nathan Wilpon. Finally, the Wilpons have given $3 million to the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) to fund the Irene and Morris B. Kessler Presidential Scholars Fund, a need-based scholarship established in memory of Judy’s parents, and in celebration of the Wilpons’ 50th U-M reunion, which they will celebrate this year. Their gift to the Fund will be matched by the President’s Donor Challenge.

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