Courtesy/U Maine
UMaine alumni Phillip and Susan Morse
Updated: October 17, 2022
UMaine alums donate $10M for sports arena naming rights
Courtesy / University of Maine
UMaine's future Morse Arena will be named for Phillip and Susan Morse, alums who have committed $10 million for naming rights.
Courtesy / University of Maine
A rendering of the interior of the future Morse Arena at the University of Maine in Orono.
University of Maine alumni Phillip and Susan Morse have committed $10 million for naming rights to a planned multipurpose arena at the school's main campus in Orono.
The contribution is part of a private fundraising campaign underway to meet the $90 million challenge grant for UMaine athletics as part of $240 million funded by the Harold Alfond Foundation to bring transformative change to the state's largest educational and research institution.
Phillip Morse, vice chairman of the Boston Red Sox since 2004 and a partner since 2002, and his future wife met at UMaine, where he majored in sociology and she majored in education. Phillip also lettered in baseball and was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. They reside in Lake George, N.Y., and Jupiter, Fla.
With the Morse donation, $13.2 million of the $20 million goal has been raised by the University of Maine Foundation, the school said in a Friday press release posted on its website.
"We are pleased to support UMaine athletics through the Alfond Fund and this landmark UMS Trasnforms project made possible by the Alfond Foundation," said Phillip Morse. "Harold Alfond was an inspiration to me, and it's an honor to contribute to initiatives that advance his vision for advancing Maine and the state's Division I athletics program. He is an example of how one good, generous person can make a big difference for generations."
The University of Maine System board of trustees authorized the naming of Morse Arena, one of the new signature projects of the master facilities plan.
The 3,000-seat facility will be the home court of men's and women's basketball, and provide a venue for large-scale campus and community events. The arena will include a significant interior space that will be named for the Morses' longtime friend Thomas "Skip" Chappelle. Chappelle was a UMaine men's basketball student athlete from 1959 to 1962, and a coach from 1971 to 1988.
'Lasting difference'
This is the second major naming gift by the Morses, members of the UMaine class of 1964, to the UMaine athletics portion of the $240 million UMS Transforms initiative, and the family's fourth major gift to support athletics in the past 25 years.
"The generous support of Phillip and Susan Morse has made a lasting difference on the UMaine student experience and what Maine's only Division I athletics program offers communities and fans," said UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy. "We appreciate their leadership and vision that will impact generations at their alma mater."
Last December, Phillip and Susan Morse provided a $1 million gift to support UMaine's Athletics Facilities Master Plan. The gift also is part of the private fundraising for the Alfond challenge grant match.
Morse Field at Alfond Sports Stadium, a facility funded in part by donations from the Harold Alfond Foundation and the Morses, opened in 1998.
The Morse family pledged $1 million in 2007 to upgrade UMaine's Morse Field playing surface at Harold Alfond Sports Stadium. In 2013, the Morse family presented UMaine Athletics with an $800,000 gift to be used to install the high-definition video scoreboard on Morse Field.
"Phil and Sue have been loyal supporters of the University of Maine for a long time and their gifts have had a lasting impact," said Jeffery Mills, president and CEO of the University of Maine Foundation. "Donors at this level are making a significant investment in UMaine's future and their leading commitment will inspire others. We are grateful for their vision and desire to make a difference."
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