Petersen establishes endowment fund for Pronghorn men’s soccer

By Lethbridge Herald on December 24, 2024.

Knud Petersen established the Knud Petersen Family Men’s Soccer Award to assist student-athletes on U of L’s men’s soccer team. Herald photo by Justin Seward

Justin Seward – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – sports@lethbridgeherald.com

Local sports enthusiast, Knud Petersen’s, generosity has shown through once again for the University of Lethbridge Athletics department.

Petersen founded the Knud Petersen Family Men’s Soccer Award for the U of L’s men’s soccer program through an endowment donation.

U of L will match the funds to help Pronghorns achieve their goals for academics and athletics.

Future Pronghorns will benefit in their path to achieving their academic and athletic goals.

While Petersen didn’t want to mention the total amount for the endowment, he thinks about $5,000 could be yielded in interest for the scholarship on an annual basis.

“I was told they had the least amount of scholarship money available of any of the teams at the university,” said Petersen.

“And (with) soccer being my sort of favourite sport, I figured that would be a good place to put it and with Neil Langevin taking over the athletic directorship at the university, I’ve seen some good progress on the men’s soccer team.”

Petersen acknowledged the importance of supporting the student-athletes.

“I really feel strongly that a lot of student-athletes … become pillars in the community,” said Petersen.

“A lot of those people get involved with sports at the high school level or the school level. I think it’s really important that kids stay physically active.”

Petersen spoke about the impact that this will make in U of L student-athletes lives.

“I think it just makes it a little bit easier for them to manage the money in time because obviously student-athletes, they have a really difficult time having a spare time job,” said Petersen.

Petersen’s  previous endowment donations for U of L’s women’s soccer and rugby programs has reached $65,000 to date.