Former Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr recently was honored with a surprise gift from long-time athletics donor Al Glick — a gift that will result in the naming of the pediatric cancer unit at the new C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital opening this November.

Jackson business owner Al Glick — president of Jackson-based Alro Steel Corp. and who the Wolverine indoor practice facility the Al Glick Field House is named after — donated the funds for the gift. The gift was announced May 14 during the Griese, Hutchinson, Woodson Dinner Gala that is a part of a dinner-golf weekend the former U-M players created in 2009.

Brian Griese, Steve Hutchinson and Charles Woodson led U-M to a national championship in 1997 under Coach Carr. The annual event has raised over $7.1 million for Mott since its inception and $4.8 million this year.

Glick gave the $3 million gift to Mott as part of a larger gift to the university. The Mott portion will be used to name the cancer unit in honor of Carr, who coached the Michigan football team for 13 years before his retirement after 2007. The Coach Carr Pediatric Cancer Unit will be on the 7th floor of the hospital.

“I am honored to give this gift in honor of Coach Carr,” Glick says. “He teaches anyone he is in contact with so much about winning, in a way that’s separate from winning on the field.” 

Carr says the recognition caught him off guard.

“I cannot adequately express how I felt,” Carr says. “It’s overwhelming. The generosity of those who worked to make it happen and those who contributed fills me with appreciation, gratitude and thankfulness.”

The $754 million hospital project, the largest in the state, has received no state or federal funding and is being funded from hospital reserves as well $75 million from philanthropy.