Cal announced on Tuesday that men’s water polo and men’s swimming and diving have become the fourth and fifth Golden Bears sports to become fully endowed.
The two male aquatic sports became endowed thanks to a $26 million gift from longtime Cal supporters Ned and Carol Spieker, and it is the largest gift in Cal Athletics history.
Men’s water polo and men’s swimming join rugby, women’s golf and men’s golf as Cal’s fully endowed varsity sports. It is part of Cal Athletics’ goal of building endowment programs for all sports. Cal currently sponsors 30 varsity sports, and endowments play a significant role in retaining those sports in this new era of college athletics.
With the recent approval of the NCAA House settlement, colleges are now allowed to pay athletes directly through revenue sharing. Colleges are allowed to spend up to $20.5 million in payments to its athletes, with most that money going to athletes in football and basketball. Athletes can also be paid by way of approved NIL (name, image and likeness) deals.
These financial obligations needed to keep the revenue-generating sports (football and basketball) at the elite level put the survival of other sports, including Cal’s productive Olympic sports, in jeopardy without endowments.
Cal’s men’s water polo squad won three consecutive national titles from 2021 through 2023, and the men’s swimming and diving team has finished in the top two nationally for 15 consecutive seasons, and won back-to-back NCAA championships in 2022 and 2023.
Ned Spieker played water polo at Cal in the 1960s, and because of his family’s large donation, the Bears’ water polo coach will now carry the title of Ned Spieker Men’s Water Polo Head Coach for the next 20 years.
“Ned and Carol Spieker have been extraordinary partners to UC Berkeley for decades, and this transformational gift exemplifies their unwavering commitment to our student-athletes and our institution,” said Chancellor Rich Lyons in a statement provided by Cal. “This endowment provides the kind of long-term stability that is essential in collegiate athletics for sustaining excellence. Having endowed coaching positions and operational support for our men’s aquatics programs will be invaluable.”
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