UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An anonymous donor has pledged a gift of $2.5 million to create the Wally Triplett Brand Academy Endowment. A joint project of Intercollegiate Athletics and Invent Penn State, the planned Brand Academy will help student-athletes and others with brand-driven businesses to manage and monetize their personal brand and support their entrepreneurial interests.
The donor’s gift will activate $2.5 million in University matching funds through the recently concluded Economic Development Incentive Matching Program, creating a $5 million permanent fund supporting the academy. The endowment honors pioneering football player Wallace Triplett, one of the first African Americans to play for the Nittany Lions and the first Black draftee to play for an NFL team.
“We are thrilled to provide our student-athletes with additional resources to assist them in navigating the name, image and likeness space through the Brand Academy,” said Penn State Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Patrick Kraft. “We are so appreciative to the donor who made this academy possible. This will open so many doors to our student-athletes as they enter into the world of entrepreneurship. To have Wally Triplett’s name associated with this effort is fitting as Wally is synonymous with the true meaning of 'We Are … Penn State.'”
The academy was conceived when previous restrictions on collegiate student-athletes profiting from their name, image and likeness were rescinded. In this new era, collegiate student-athletes can monetize their name, image and likeness, or NIL, much like professional athletes do, through sponsorships, endorsements, public appearances and similar opportunities.
Though student-athletes stand to profit from these arrangements, they run the risk of accepting bad licensing deals, possibly getting trapped in legal agreements that could severely limit their ability to use their NIL for many years, or even their entire lifetimes. The Brand Academy seeks to educate students on how to navigate this new terrain, empowering them to make good decisions that will realize the potential of their personal brand.
An entrepreneurship initiative
The Brand Academy, which will be housed in the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub, will be an extension of the entrepreneurial ecosystem that the University has fostered in the State College area. It will leverage the resources already available at the Innovation Hub, such as Happy Valley LaunchBox powered by PNC Bank, and the Penn State Small Business Development Center.
These resources will equip the academy staff to develop programming that will likely include custom-developed content available to participants digitally on demand, one-on-one mentoring, guest speakers and other group events.
The Brand Academy will also collaborate closely on business services and content development with multiple Penn State academic colleges, including the Entrepreneur Assistance Clinic and the Intellectual Property Clinic in Penn State Law, the Sports Marketing Program and Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Smeal College of Business, and the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.
“At its core, this is an entrepreneurship initiative, and its resources will be available to all members of the Penn State community who can benefit from it,” said James Delattre, associate vice president for research and director of the Office of Entrepreneurship and Commercialization. “A strong brand is essential for most businesses, and even more so for individuals where personal branding, reputation and business opportunities are interconnected. Artists, athletes, musicians, journalists, or social media influencers — they can all benefit from an entrepreneurial mindset, business literacy, and effective marketing and digital communications. Not only will the Brand Academy enable participants to leverage their brand effectively now, but it will also serve them well in their careers long after they have left college.”
Delattre explained that new trends in the digital space, such as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, also have the potential to generate both wealth and risk, so the academy will incorporate content to help participants successfully navigate that realm as well.
The Wally Triplett Brand Academy Endowment, combined with the University match, will generate income that will primarily be used to support two core positions: a director, who will provide leadership and strategic direction to the academy, and a coordinator, who will develop and deliver programming in support of the director’s strategic vision. Funds available beyond these expenditures will be flexible funding that the director can use as needed each year — for example, supporting guest speakers and events, curricular development and the production of video content, online resources and the like.
“By providing the funding to create key leadership positions, this gift is empowering us to launch the Brand Academy very soon,” said Delattre. “And because it creates permanent endowed funding, it will contribute to program sustainability and enable growth and adaptation in future years. So, it’s a really powerful investment that impacts the future of our student-athletes and also provides the opportunity to support other local entrepreneurs looking to build their own personal brand.”
Honoring Wally Triplett’s legacy
The new endowment is named for trailblazing Penn State football legend Wallace Triplett. A tailback and linebacker for the Nittany Lions, Triplett was the first Black player to start for Penn State, on Nov. 17, 1945. In 1946, the Nittany Lions made history when they refused to play in a game against then-segregated University of Miami: When told they must leave their Black players at home, the team voted unanimously to cancel the game, and they made the same decision again the following season. The entire 1947–48 team went on to play Southern Methodist University in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1948, in a game that would become symbolic of desegregation in athletics as Triplett and teammate Dennie Hoggard became the first African Americans ever to play in the Cotton Bowl.
After his Penn State career, Triplett became the first Black player to be drafted by and play in the NFL when he was selected by the Detroit Lions in the 19th round of the 1949 NFL Draft. He played four seasons in the NFL with the Detroit Lions and Chicago Cardinals, taking a two-year break to serve in the Korean War. As a professional player, Triplett set the league’s single-game record with 294 yards on four kickoff returns, including a 97-yard touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams Oct. 29, 1950. The effort was an NFL record for 44 seasons until it was broken in 1994 and still ranks as the third-best single-game performance in NFL history. His 73.5-yard kickoff return average still stands as the NFL single-game record.
Triplett passed away in 2018. His granddaughter, Ayanna McConnell, believes the Brand Academy Endowment serves as a fitting tribute. “Penn State meant a lot to my granddad because it opened up doors to his success in important ways,” said McConnell, who is vice president for university relations at the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan. “He truly had an entrepreneurial spirit, so this endowment is a great alignment of his interests, and I think he would be proud to have his name connected with Penn State’s efforts to help student-athletes to be successful in this way.”
To learn more about how to support the Brand Academy, contact Heather Winfield at hbw11@psu.edu.
With the record-breaking success of “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” which raised $2.2 billion from 2016 to 2022, philanthropy is helping to sustain the University’s mission of education, research and service to communities across the commonwealth and around the globe. Scholarships enable Penn State to open doors and welcome students from every background, support for transformative experiences allows students and faculty to fulfill their vast potential for leadership, and gifts toward discovery and excellence help serve and impact the world. To learn more about the impact of giving and the continuing need for support, visit raise.psu.edu.