North Carolina's Roy Williams donates $600K to fund spring sport senior scholarships

North Carolina coach Roy Williams donated more than $600,000 to fund scholarships for all spring sports seniors whose seasons were impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and want to return for another year.

Williams and his wife, Wanda, made the donation in May and initially asked to keep their gift anonymous. They allowed North Carolina to go public with the donation on Thursday, with student-athletes returning to campus for workouts.

"Only a handful of people at the University knew what Roy and Wanda had done to support our students," North Carolina athletics director Bubba Cunningham said in a statement. "He called me in March the day the NCAA canceled all spring championships. He didn't want those students to miss that experience and wanted to fund those scholarships for next year. I still get chills when I think about his phone call and the impact it would have for dozens of our students."

After spring sports were canceled, the NCAA Division I Council approved an extra year of eligibility for all spring sport athletes whose seasons were cut short or canceled because of coronavirus.

The NCAA left it up to individual schools to decide whether to grant spring sport seniors less or equal financial aid for 2021, compared to what they received this past year.