UND Hockey News 12/17/98 -- Ralph Engelstad Donates $100 Million to UND

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Dec. 17, 1998, Alum Ralph Engelstad Donates $100 Million to UND

University of North Dakota alum Ralph Engelstad, owner of the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and one of UND's outstanding benefactors, announced at a news conference in Grand Forks Thursday [Dec. 17] that he and his wife, Betty, are donating $100 million dollars to the University of North Dakota.

The donation is one of the largest private gifts ever to a university or college in the United States and ranks as one of the top ten gifts to a U.S. institution of higher education in the past ten years, according to data from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Engelstad, who made the announcement in the hockey arena which now bears his name, said $40-$50 million of the gift would be used to build a state-the-art, 12,000-seat hockey arena which would be ready for use by 2001. A goalie with the UND hockey team in the 1950s, Engelstad was offered a contract by the Chicago Blackhawks, but turned it down to pursue a business career. He graduated from UND in 1954 with a degree in commerce.

"Life is filled with ups and downs. In business and personally, I've experienced both," Engelstad told the standing-room-only crowd. "But I've been very fortunate to be on the upper side more times than I was on the bottom. It is my desire to share my good fortune with the UND hockey team." He added that he lives by two mottos: "No dreams come true until you get up and go to work" and "The harder I work, the luckier I get."

In addition to building a hockey arena, Engelstad pledged the rest of the $100 million -- $50-$60 million -- to UND. He said details about how the money would be used would be worked out with UND officials.

The gift was lauded as "significant" and "historic," among other honorifics, by a number of speakers at the news conference. Among those who spoke to the standing-room only crowd in the upper floor of Engelstad Arena were Gov. Ed Schafer, UND President Kendall Baker, UND President Emeritus Thomas J. Clifford, Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens, East Grand Forks Mayor Lynn Stauss, President Pro Tem of the North Dakota Senate Sen. Wayne Stenehjem, UND Alumni Association President F. John Marshall, and Earl Strinden, executive vice president of the UND Alumni Foundation and UND Alumni Association, who presided over the news conference. North Dakota University System Chancellor Larry Isaak and Board President Jack Hoeven both sent congratulatory statements which were read at the news conference.

Engelstad and his wife, Betty (Stocker) Engelstad, have strong ties to the Grand Forks region. He is a Thief River Falls, Minn., native and she is from East Grand Forks, Minn.

The Engelstads now reside in Las Vegas.