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Mike Anthony of the Hartford Courant is reporting that Bob Diaco and his wife Julia will be donating $250,000 for construction of upgraded facilities for men’s and women’s soccer, baseball, and softball.
UConn’s new soccer stadium will begin construction in December while baseball and softball were long overdue for upgrades. Props to Diaco for an extraordinary gesture on the heels of his contract extension for these much-needed facilities.
Bob has been traveling the Northeast hyping up UConn Football and the process that he started over two years ago to rebuild the program after the previous regime tore it down. He has visited bars across Connecticut and in New York City, and will be making a trip to Boston on June 23.
He has also been hitting the airwaves nationally, appearing on sports radio shows in Knoxville, Tennessee and Iowa City, Iowa on Wednesday morning.
Diaco spent some time extolling the Huskies’ national brand, not shying away from the fact that it was built on basketball success.
“The strength of the UConn brand is coast-to-coast,” Diaco told WNML Knoxville. “And it’s because of that success,” he added. "It’s a successful athletic program overall.”
He stated that the American Athletic Conference is getting stronger with each passing year, and highlighted some big opportunities to earn national respect, such as when Houston plays Oklahoma or with UConn’s the three ACC opponents in 2016.
He also mentioned that he bought Butch Jones’ (current Tennessee head coach) house when he took his first defensive coordinator job at Western Michigan.
“It was a nice house,” he said.
The most interesting piece to come out of it from a roster standpoint was a few words on Billy Williams, the transfer from Northern Iowa who happened to be a Knoxville native. Diaco said he is uncertain of his future with the program due to a “life phase transition.”
The interview with WNML was followed by KCJJ, a station in Iowa City, Iowa, home of the University of Iowa where Diaco spent his collegiate career. The interview centered on a trip down memory lane about his time there and his experience with coaching legend Hayden Fry.