The Colgate Football team donated hotel rooms and meals to relief funds in the Carolinas after their game scheduled for Saturday, September 15 in Greenville, South Carolina against Furman University was canceled due to Hurricane Florence.

Hurricane Florence passed through the Carolinas over this past weekend, leaving behind more than 35 inches of rain in some areas of North Carolina and causing damages estimated between $17 billion and $22 billion throughout the area.

Colgate Football planned on traveling to Greenville for their game against Furman. The team had already booked several hotel rooms in the area and reserved meals in preparation for the weekend. Head Coach Dan Hunt decided to share these with those dis- placed by the storm.

The Colgate Football Twitter account shared several tweets over the course of the weekend, highlighting the teams’ actions.

“We immediately gave up our hotel rooms so that rooms are now available for those coming inland,” Colgate Football tweeted. “We still bought the meals we were going to have and requested that the hotel serve those meals to the people who have been relocated, on us.”

Colgate has received national recognition for the team’s generosity from major sports networks, such as ESPN College Football and NBC Sports, tweeting their support. ESPN College Football commended Colgate Football for “paying it forward.”

President Brian Casey also praised the team.

“All credit to Nicki Moore, our Athletic Director, and Dan Hunt for pulling that off. I think that’s fantastic. Fantastic,” Casey said.

Hunt had no hesitation about sharing the team’s resources with those in need of aid.

“At the end of the day, you have to look at the big picture and that’s the safety of everyone involved. And by that, I mean the teams and families but also the allotment of resources used for the game that could be better used somewhere else,” Hunt said.

As of September 18, CBS News confirmed that 33 people have died as a result of the storm’s impact and the floods that resulted.

The Red Cross stated that more than 1,100 roads have already closed in the area and the threat from flooding is ongoing.

343,000 people still do not have power in North Carolina, but the Colgate community has come together to mitigate some of the damages, in the small way that they could.

Although Colgate did not get to play this past weekend, Hunt understands the importance of his team’s decision.

“It’s obviously a disappointment that we are not playing but at the end of the day, there are decisions bigger than football that need to be made for the safety of a lot of people,” Hunt said.

Contact Gaby Bianchi at [email protected].