Lt Col Dan Rooney, founder and CEO of Folds of Honor, was honored in mid-January with the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award.
The award annually recognizes seven distinguished athletes on the 25th anniversary of their college athletics careers. Past recipients include Rebecca Lobo, Mia Hamm, Troy Aikman, Dara Torres, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Archie Griffin, Pat Summitt, Bill Walton, Joe Theismann, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Alan Page, Roger Staubach, Wilma Rudolph and Jack Nicklaus.
Nicklaus partnered with Rooney the past couple of years to develop American Dunes, the latest high-end golf course added to our state’s portfolio of outstanding properties for golfers.
Rooney started Folds of Honor, a non-profit foundation, above his garage in Oklahoma in 2007. Its singular mission which has never wavered, is to provide educational scholarships to the spouses and children of wounded or killed military service members. All proceed from golf at American Dunes will go to the Folds of Honor.
“I’m thankful for the incredible impact the University of Kansas and the KU golf team has had on my life,” Rooney said in a statement. “I am very blessed to be able to pay forward the gift of an education.
A former collegiate golfer at Kansas, Rooney won the 1995 Kansas Invitational and finished in the top 10 twice at the Border Olympics. He placed sixth at the 1996 NCAA central regional. He also helped his team to a second-place finish in the Big Eight Championships in 1995 and 5th place at the 1996 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championships. He later played professionally on the mini-tours.
He is a career fighter pilot and was honored with the Spirit of Attack award as a top graduate of F-16 training and is a two-time recipient of the Top Gun award. As an F-16 fighter pilot (1800 hours), he completed three combat tours of duty in Iraq and is a decorated aviator.
