Donor Spotlight

Jim Pasant knows he will make his father proud with his recent gift to MSU Athletics. Jim's father, Athanase J. “Tony” Pasant, who passed in 1990, experienced Michigan State at a distinctive moment in time and formed friendships with some of the most prominent names in MSU football coaching history. Jim recently made the leadership gift toward the upcoming art piece that will recognize the historical significance of Coach Duffy Daugherty and the part he played in integrating college football with his 1960s football teams. “My dad had relationships with Duffy Daugherty, “Biggie” Munn and Billy Yeoman,” said Jim, “all those great coaches of that time. He used to take me and my brother over to the practice field and we would watch the team run drills. He would get us tickets to the sidelines — we just grew up around all that. I can still remember going over to Duffy's house at Christmas time.”

A.J. “Tony” Pasant was a World War II veteran and moved his family from a 14-foot house trailer on Michigan Avenue to one of the Quonset Huts that were built on campus to help house the large number of incoming students returning after the war ended. He graduated from MSU in 1949 with a degree in Business Administration and went on to become founder and first president of Jackson National Life Insurance Company®. Jim's mother, Shirley K. Pasant, was a hairdresser at the time and also received an honorary MSU degree. “She is well known for establishing the Pasant Theatre in MSU's Wharton Center,” Jim remarked, “but among many things, she was also the president of The Athanase and Shirley Pasant Foundation and together, with my father, they supported numerous nonprofit organizations throughout Michigan.”

Jim also attended Michigan State during a notable time in American history. “I started at MSU in '64, and the Vietnam War was going on and dominated the overall atmosphere on campus. It was just a different time and place,” Jim recalled. “No one wanted to hire you for a job because they figured you were going to get drafted. One of my favorite memories was being a part of Delta Sigma Phi and we would all go to the football games. I was there for the ‘10-10 tie' game in the north end zone. I remember it was a cold day, and the whole stadium was full and everybody wanted to see this win and it didn't happen. We were all waiting and waiting, then all of a sudden they finally came out and said the game is over. It's a tie. And nobody moved, it was just crazy.” (The 1966 “Game of the Century” was between No. 1 Notre Dame, hosted by No. 2 Michigan State. A total of 33 players from Notre Dame and Michigan State would go on to play professionally in what was perhaps the greatest collection of talent ever in a college football game.) “But it was what it was,” Jim said, “however, Notre Dame to this day is not one of my favorite teams.

“The classes of '64, '65 and '66 were incredible players and Coach Daugherty recruited a bunch of those players from the South.” (Duffy Daugherty coached 33 first team All-Americans, but more importantly, he traveled the South during a time when many major college football programs remained segregated and recruited players who were denied an opportunity to play in their home states. Ultimately, he recruited 59 Black players to play football at MSU and four were selected among the first eight players taken in the 1967 NFL draft.)