Donor Stories

It seemed an odd sight on that particularly warm South Florida day.

Sue Cobb – a former U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, Florida Secretary of State, CEO of the Florida Lottery, partner at Greenberg Traurig and alumna of the University of Miami School of Law – was out for a run on UM's on-campus track when she noticed former Miami athletic director Paul Dee nearby.

Despite the sweltering temperatures and blistering sun, Dee sported a coat and tie, attire that prompted Cobb to jog over and ask what he was doing outside dressed like that.

"He said, 'Well, I've got a really, big problem,'" Chuck Cobb, Sue's husband recalled with a laugh. "He said, 'We're going to have women's soccer, but our track is too narrow. It's oblong … and we're going to need to make this a little fatter so we can fit the soccer field in the middle of it, and, by the way, you and Chuck wouldn't be interested in being major donors, would you?' And so, we said yes, yes, we'd like to be the major donors."

Nearly three decades later, Cobb Stadium remains the home of the Miami women's soccer team and men's and women's track and field teams, and the Cobbs remain as committed to the University and the Hurricanes as ever.

Last fall, the Cobbs donated a $1 million gift to create the Cobb Stadium Facilities Fund which will be administered by the Miami athletic department to improve the infrastructure at Cobb Stadium.

The facility features a state-of-the-art, full-size soccer playing field centered inside an eight-lane, top-of-the-line rubber track and along with hosting Hurricanes soccer matches and track and field meets, it has been home to the football team's spring game the last two years.

"We are grateful to Chuck and Sue Cobb for their continued investment in Miami Athletics," Vice President/Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich said when the Cobbs' gift was announced. "Their generosity in establishing Cobb Stadium was one of the most transformative gifts in our rich athletics history, and the Cobb Stadium Facilities Fund will continue their mission of ensuring our soccer and track and field student-athletes have the best possible resources to compete."

The Cobb Stadium Facilities Fund is just one of the many gifts the family has made to help shape the University over the course of the last half-century.

From inspiring future diplomats by establishing the Ambassadors Sue and Charles Cobb Endowed Distinguished Professor of Practice of Diplomacy at the College of Arts and Sciences to funding multiple scholarships and helping beautify the Coral Gables campus with the Cobb Fountain at Lake Osceola, the Cobbs have created a lasting legacy at Miami that has impacted the lives of countless professors, students and student-athletes.

And the Cobbs wouldn't have it any other way.

"My wife and I have sort of a 'find a need and fill it' philosophy and the track and the stadium was really along that line," said Chuck Cobb, the former CEO of Arvida and Disney Development, a former U.S. Ambassador to Iceland and undersecretary and assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce. "Paul Dee said, 'We've got a problem, somebody help us fill it' and then there's been some scholarships that we've endowed that were kind of specific to particular needs. And one of the things that several professors said to me is that here we are, an international university, but we have almost zero courses in diplomacy. … So, find a need and fill it. We said, 'We'd like to bring in some top diplomats and motivate our kids to consider a career in foreign service.' … We're trying to change the culture there."

The Cobbs' relationship with Miami dates back to the 1970s when the two Stanford graduates moved to South Florida and Chuck Cobb was asked to join the University's Board of Trustees.

He has been on the Board ever since, working with multiple committees and serving three years as Board's Chairman.

And while there have been plenty of memorable moments in their decades-long relationship with the University, for Chuck Cobb, one of the biggest sources of pride is chairing the search committees that helped the University bring two of its past presidents to Coral Gables: Edward "Tad" Foote II and Donna Shalala.

"That was probably the highlight of my UM experience," Chuck Cobb said. "Being Chairman was fun, but chairing the search committee that sets the tone for the University was really the most serious, most meaningful [work]. You're meeting all of these presidential candidates and they all would be great presidents and trying to decide which one was the best was really fun. It was hard work. Boy, I worked at that."

There have been plenty of highlights on the athletic side, too, which is to be expected, given that Chuck Cobb played football, rugby and was on the track and field team at Stanford before earning a spot on the 1960 U.S. Olympic Track and Field team as a hurdler.

Sue Cobb, meanwhile, played tennis at Stanford and later became a high-altitude climber who attempted to become the first woman from the United States to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Their passion for sports and athletics means the Cobbs have been regular fixtures at Hurricanes football, basketball and baseball games over the years and of course, they've cheered Miami's women's soccer teams and track and field teams at Cobb Stadium, too.

The Cobbs also have a special affinity for the Cobb Mob, Miami students who have enthusiastically shown their support for Hurricanes soccer throughout the years. Not long ago, the group created t-shirts that were handed out ahead of women's soccer games, much to the delight of the Cobb family.

"The Cobb Mob t-shirts, they were all over campus," Chuck Cobb said. "I mean, everybody was wearing Cobb Mob [shirts] and so we, of course, had them for all our kids and grandkids, and stuff."

Now, with their most recent gift, the Cobbs hope more Miami student-athletes will create lifelong memories of their own and gain invaluable experience in the process.

"[Being a student-athlete] was the absolute number one factor in my life, from teaching discipline to striving, trying to be the very best. Athletics just does that," Chuck Cobb said. "Many athletes are successful in other life pursuits because of that discipline, because of that hard work, because of that focus. It changed my life and I'm delighted to see that it's changed a lot of lives of a lot of young UM students. … I want them to have the same opportunities I had, get the same discipline I had, have the same life-changing experiences I had."