The second floor of the newly renovated Ohio Union features rooms named in recognition of three donors, headlined by a ballroom that honors Archie Griffin.

Two donors who were initially anonymous, Bruce and Cynthia Cassidy, made a $2 million donation in honor of the former Ohio State football great and current president and CEO of the OSU Alumni Association. The Alumni Association and the Ohio Union each received $1 million from the gift.

The Cassidys “just want to show their love for the university and show appreciation for the things I accomplished as a student, administrator and now president of the Alumni Association,” Griffin said in an interview with The Lantern in January.

Griffin, who won the Heisman trophy in 1974 and 1975, is the only player to have captured the award twice. He came to OSU in 1984, working for one year in Human Resources and then for 19 years in athletics.

He has headed the Alumni Association since 2004. When the Alumni Association was formally integrated into the university in February, he added the title of Senior Vice President for Alumni Relations.

The second floor also features two rooms named in honor of the Ohio Staters, Inc. Alumni Society, which donated $600,000 to the Ohio Union to commemorate the group’s upcoming 75th anniversary.

The two rooms, the Founders Room and the Traditions Room, will house Ohio Staters luncheons and meetings, and will also be available for student organizations and other groups to reserve, said Ohio Staters president Jaimie Horning, a junior in speech and hearing.

Ohio Staters started raising money for the gift several years ago in anticipation of the anniversary, Horning said. Some of the money for the gift came from alumni donations. The group also raised $2,550 from auctioning a pair of tickets, which were donated by an Ohio Stater, to four home football games in 2009.

Ohio Staters is also funded by sales of seat cushions at football games, and the group’s service projects receive occasional financial support from student organizations and OSU departments, but neither of these sources was used to fund the Ohio Union gift, Horning said.

Also on the second floor is a room named in honor of the Student-Alumni Council. Alumni and friends of the council, along with the council itself, donated $70,000 to the Ohio Union.

The room will host the group’s weekly meetings beginning in April, and will also be available to student organizations and other groups, said Student-Alumni Council president Stephanie Stelmaschuk, a student in OSU’s College of Nursing.

The council, which is affiliated with Ohio State and with the Alumni Association, contributed $25,000 of the Ohio Union gift over five years, Stelmaschuk said.