Cal Men's Water Polo and Men's Swimming and Diving become endowed
Ned and Carol Spieker’s $26 million gift make it five Cal Athletics programs that are now endowed
On the heels of the announcement last month that Cal Rugby has become endowed, Cal Athletics takes another step toward the dream of endowing all non-revenue Olympic sports.
As anticipated, the latest programs to be fully endowed are the two most successful NCAA sports on campus: Cal Men’s Water Polo with 17 national titles and Cal Men’s Swimming and Diving with eight team national championships. Both programs have a long history of producing not just Cal Olympians but also successful Olympic medalists.
Cal Men’s Water Polo and Cal Men’s Swimming and Diving join Cal Rugby, Cal Men’s Golf, and Cal Women’s Golf as fully endowed programs. There is still a long way to go for the 23 other non-revenue sports (AKA programs that are not Cal Football or Cal Men’s Basketball) to join these five.
The long history of past and current success for these two Cal men’s aquatic programs can be tied to the generous gifts of donors like the Spiekers. Cal Aquatics had been able to get the Legends Aquatic Center built and opened in 2016, a new facility that gave more practice area for swimming and water polo but more importantly allowed Cal Diving to train fully on campus (they had to go down to Stanford to practice platform diving before the opening of that facility).
In the 1980s, the Spiekers funded the renovation of Cal Aquatics’ home pool, which then gained its current name of Spieker Aquatics Complex. Ned Spieker ‘66 is a Cal alum who was on the Cal Men’s Water Polo team coached by the legendary Pete Cutino for whom the “Heisman for Water Polo” is named. Ned met his wife Carol in Berkeley as undergraduates, and all four of their children are Cal alumni; two of their grandchildren are current Cal students. The Spieker’s grandparents are also Cal alumni.
The Spieker name is synonymous with facilities at some of Cal’s rivals. Ned’s younger brother Tod went to UCLA (class of ‘67) and swam there. Tod is the Spieker who got UCLA Aquatics to play at the Spieker Aquatics Center in Westwood. More recently in 2023, some of us Cal fans got to celebrate the most recent and last football win over UCLA as conference rivals on the Spieker Field at the Rose Bowl. That is another donation from Tod Spieker. Tod also helped USC build their Uytengsu Aquatics Center on campus. There is a plaque thanking him there. Tod could not save the UCLA men’s swimming (and diving) program, however, as the Bruins lost that program in 1994.
Ned and Tod’s father Warren somehow chose to attend Stanford. The Spieker family also has at least one named professorship and other facilities, etc. bearing their name in Palo Alto.
Thanks to the Spieker family, the California Golden Bears should continue to dominate the water sports both at the NCAA level and at the Olympics. Cal Men’s Water Polo had its three consecutive NCAA title run snapped with an uncharacteristically bad season in 2024, but should be back to being a national title contender soon. Cal Men’s Swimming and Diving has finished top 2 nationally for 15 consecutive years and counting. In time, the two Cal Women’s Aquatic programs should also join their Men’s counterparts as endowed programs, but their places within Cal Athletics are also protected by Title IX.
The flurry of movement of both coaches and student-athletes in the Olympic sports is perhaps a good indicator of the financial health of a lot of Cal programs. We shall see which other (if any) Cal programs can also reach the endowment level of support this summer. The gap between the well-endowed programs and those without it is sadly increasing across the collegiate sports landscape. Today’s gift ensures that Cal Aquatics will stay for the foreseeable future as the crown jewel of the Cal Athletics NCAA Olympic sports.
ROLL ON YOU BEARS!
Below is the full press release:
Ned and Carol Spieker’s $26 million commitment is the largest gift in Cal Athletics history.
A transformational $26 million gift from longtime UC Berkeley champions Ned and Carol Spieker has created an endowment to provide dedicated funding and lasting support for the men’s swimming & diving and water polo programs for years to come.
In recognition of the Spiekers’ generosity, the men’s swim head coach position will be named the Ned Spieker Men’s Swim Head Coach in perpetuity, while the men’s water polo head coach will carry the title of Ned Spieker Men’s Water Polo Head Coach for twenty years.
“Ned and Carol Spieker have been extraordinary partners to UC Berkeley for decades, and this transformational gift exemplifies their unwavering commitment to our student-athletes and our institution,” said Chancellor Rich Lyons. “This endowment provides the kind of long-term stability that is essential in collegiate athletics for sustaining excellence. Having endowed coaching positions and operational support for our men’s aquatics programs will be invaluable.”
For Ned Spieker ’66, a Cal graduate who played water polo under legendary coach Pete Cutino, this latest gift represents the culmination of more than four decades of support for Cal aquatics. His philanthropic involvement began in the 1980s when he contributed to renovating the original pool, now named Spieker Aquatics Complex, followed by his leadership role in the “More Water” campaign that helped create the current Legends Aquatic Center.
“I saw the endowment which I had contributed to before was not enough to sustain the program,” Spieker explained. “I felt that if the program wasn’t going to be sustained, it could be in jeopardy from a qualitative aspect. We were in good shape facility-wise, but we needed to meet the endowment challenge to keep the coaching and athlete benefits intact.”
The Spieker family’s connection to Berkeley runs remarkably deep, spanning six generations. Ned’s grandfather and mother attended Cal, he and his wife Carol met at Berkeley as undergraduates, and all four of their children graduated from Cal. Two grandsons currently attend the university, with one as a sophomore and another entering as a freshman.
“It was a family allegiance and a love for Cal,” Spieker reflected on his multi-generational commitment.
The aquatics endowment represents the latest chapter in the Spiekers’ extraordinary philanthropic partnership with UC Berkeley. In 2022, Ned and Carol made the largest gift in Haas School of Business history with a $30 million commitment that transformed the undergraduate business program from a two-year to a four-year experience, now known as the Spieker Undergraduate Business Program. Ned, who founded and led Spieker Properties into one of the largest commercial property companies in the United States, has also played a crucial role in Haas campus planning, serving as a catalyst for the construction of Chou Hall and helping maximize the school’s campus footprint. Carol, a trustee emeritus of the UC Berkeley Foundation, has been equally committed to the university’s mission throughout their decades of involvement.
Their latest investment comes at a time when Cal’s men’s aquatics programs have achieved extraordinary success. The swimming & diving and water polo programs have both captured multiple NCAA championships, with men’s water polo winning three consecutive national titles from 2021- 2023. The swimming & diving team has also maintained a dominant presence, having finished in the top-two nationally for a remarkable 15 consecutive seasons, including back-to-back NCAA championships in 2022 and 2023. Both Cal men’s swimming & diving and water polo have notably continued their Olympic tradition of excellence, bringing home multiple gold, silver, and bronze medals from both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
The impact on the current coaching staff will be immediate and profound. “This gift is just incredible,” said men’s water polo head coach Kirk Everist. “As an alum and coach, it’s hard to put into words what it means to see this kind of commitment to Cal Men’s Water Polo. It honors our past, supports our present, and guarantees a strong future for the program we all love. It’s a huge win for our athletes and for every Bear who’s ever represented Cal.”
Director of Athletics Jim Knowlton emphasized the broader significance of the gift within Cal’s strategic vision for Olympic sports. “This transformative $26 million gift stands as a powerful testament to the enduring legacy and excellence of Cal aquatics,” Knowlton said. “With the creation of this endowment, we now have five endowed programs, ensuring long-term stability and consistent funding.”
The men’s aquatics endowment represents a significant step toward Cal Athletics’ ambitious goal of building endowed support for all programs in partnership with the Cal family. Currently, five Cal varsity sports - men’s golf, women’s golf, rugby, men’s water polo and men’s swimming and diving - receive crucial funding through endowment support, with athletics leadership targeting fifteen endowed programs by June 2027. These endowments provide the reliable annual support that allows student-athletes to pursue championships while earning world-class Berkeley degrees.
Chancellor Lyons noted that Spieker’s leadership extends far beyond athletics, acknowledging his “instrumental role in building our world-class aquatics facilities” and his “vision that extends far beyond any single gift.”
For Spieker, the motivation remains focused on continuing excellence rather than transformation for Cal aquatics. “This won’t change the trajectory of the program,” he emphasized. “It will continue the excellence.”
Similarly to me, but different, Warren E. “Ned” Spieker, Jr., is a partner of Spieker Realty Investments, a private real estate investment and development firm in Menlo Park, California. He served as chief executive officer of Spieker Properties, Inc. and was Chairman of the Board of the company until its merger into Equity Office in 2001. Mr. Spieker also served as a managing partner and board member of Trammell Crow Company, a company that delivers building management, brokerage and development and project management for users of and investors in commercial real estate. He serves on the board of Continuing Life Communities, a developer and operator of projects that provide independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing facilities all on one campus; past member of Health Care Property Investors, Inc., a real estate investment trust and investor in healthcare-related real estate located throughout the United States. Mr. Spieker is also a past Chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT).
A native of California, Mr. Spieker holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley. He served as a trustee of the University of California Berkeley Foundation and presently serves on the Advisory Board of the Haas School of Business. In addition, Ned serves as director, trustee and member of various civic and community organizations.
Endowing a bunch of men’s sports without also doing the women’s equivalent may be bad for the athletic dept overall, since Title 9 requires equal women’s scholarships and football uses 85.