![\"Doug](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Doug-Downey-presented-with-Austin-Peay-State-University-Philanthropist-of-the-Year-Award-480x320.jpg\" "\\"Doug")
<\/a>Doug and Linda Downey stand with the Austin Peay State University Gov mascot.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the University\u2019s board voted to create three new awards \u2014 the APSU Philanthropist of the Year Award, the Govs Who Lead Through Military Service Award and the Govs Who Lead Through Service Award. The awards are being presented to recipients at different events throughout the fall.<\/p>\n
The Downeys were honored because they recently gave a major gift to the University\u2019s baseball program, and they supported the athletics department\u2019s newly created Victory Fund. In April, the couple contributed the lead gift to that department during the University\u2019s annual #GovsGive Campaign.<\/p>\n
In 2014, the couple committed themselves to supporting Downey\u2019s old team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked if (Linda) would support us, together, focusing our philanthropy so we could make a more significant contribution to Austin Peay State University baseball,\u201d Downey said in 2016. \u201cAnd Linda could pick a single charity to support also (Open Door Pregnancy Center in Springfield).\u201d<\/p>\n
In the late 1970s, Downey was an MVP for the Govs, and he and Linda were also newlyweds, living in married housing on the APSU campus. In the decades after graduating, he focused on his career, becoming vice president of Treasury Services for HCA\u2014the nation\u2019s leading provider of health care services.<\/p>\n
Now, the couple is helping provide more opportunities for Austin Peay\u2019s student-athletes through their continued generosity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Austin Peay State University (APSU) Clarksville, TN – On October 5th, 2018 Doug Downey (\u201979), a former Austin Peay State University (APSU) baseball player and team captain, returned to campus to throw out the first pitch during the program\u2019s annual reunion and fall scrimmage. For the last few years, the former student-athlete has worked to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,29269,32273,262,825,32276,32272,32274,32701],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-6S4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26417,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26416\/revisions\/26417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Austin](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Austin-Peay-State-University-APSU.jpg\" "\\"Austin")
Clarksville, TN<\/strong> – On October 5th, 2018 Doug Downey (\u201979), a former Austin Peay State University (APSU) baseball player and team captain, returned to campus to throw out the first pitch during the program\u2019s annual reunion and fall scrimmage.<\/p>\n![\"Doug](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Doug-Downey-presented-with-Austin-Peay-State-University-Philanthropist-of-the-Year-Award.jpg\" "\\"Doug")
<\/a>