FAMU officials have sounded the alarm to try to keep Willie Simmons in Tallahassee and its supporters are answering the call.
Tiffani-Dawn Sykes, Florida A&M’s Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, asked the FAMU National Alumni Association to commit $25k to assist in the compensation of its football coaches on Friday. That came on the heels of the news that Simmons had an offer to become running backs coach at Duke University under Manny Diaz.
The National Alumni Association held an emergency meeting on Friday, informing its constituents of Sykes’ request. Saturday the NAA gave the following update on how much was raised to help keep things together.
“During yesterday’s emergency board meeting, the NAA shared that we needed to raise $25,000 to assist in football coaches’ compensation,” the account tweeted.
“Because of YOU, the FAMU NAA has raised an estimated $66,047.73 in 16.5 hours!”
UPDATE: AS of 12:11 PM on Dec. 31, the FAMU NAA account stated that better than $106k had been raised by the effort.
Simmons has been mulling the offer over the past few days, alerting the players and coaches of it. He has a 66-24 record as a head football coach, first at Prairie View A&M for three seasons while spending the last five seasons at Florida A&M.