Charles Welch remembers a phone call he took from an agitated donor to Arkansas State athletics in December 2011.
The donor, whom Welch didn't name, was concerned the school's football coach at the time, Hugh Freeze, was going to leave after winning a Sun Belt Conference championship in his first season.
"If y'all don't find a way to keep Coach Freeze, I'm going to pull my private funding," Welch, the Arkansas State University System president, recalls the donor telling him.
ASU couldn't keep Freeze. He left for Mississippi on Dec. 5 after leading the Red Wolves to their first outright Sun Belt title.