Spring Break
Favre retires, maintains ties to UW-Whitewater
Cherome Owens
Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: News
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Since the 2000-01 season, the Warhawks have received about $60,000 from the Brett Favre Fourward Foundation, which aids disadvantaged children with disabilities in Wisconsin and Mississippi.
Tracy Chynoweth, the wheelchair basketball team's head coach, said the organization was nice enough to grant them funds after he applied on Favre's official Web site.
"I think [Favre's] foundation was excited to support us," Chynoweth said. "I think that us being disabled helped us, but also because we're competing at a high level not only in the state but throughout the country competing for world championships. Being elite athletes, which is obviously what Brett Favre is, definitely helped us."
Chynoweth said the year Favre got involved with his team was around the time when the Warhawks began to catapult to a higher level. Since his donations, the Warhawks have won four championships. The team has also compiled a 163-32 record over the last six years.
"I honestly believe that a lot of our success is due in large part to the funding that Favre provided," Chynoweth said. "We were able to utilize some of that money to invest in some equipment in the program, acquire some new wheelchairs, use some of that money for some scholarship dollars and recruit some new athletes. Just a year after he donated to us, we won the championship."
There has only been two years that the team didn't receive the funds it wanted, but is partly due to the growth of Favre's foundation over the years.
Chynoweth said he doesn't remember meeting Favre because he is admirable of what he's doing for the program.
"The very first year he supported our foundation, we were invited to go to Green Bay and receive a check, which I couldn't do because I was on vacation with my wife at the time," Chynoweth said. "I did go up to a press conference three years ago and saw him. One of our guys in a wheelchair went up to get the check. I can't remember if I shook his hand or met him. I guess I wasn't too worried about that. I was more impressed with what he was able to do with our program.
"I don't know if he'll ever know the effect he's had on our kids, and the success of our program, and helping build our program to the global scale it is. I hope some day he'll understand the positive impact he's had on our kids."
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