What Aaron Donald wanted everyone to know Wednesday night had nothing to do with his muscular arms and quick feet, his two NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards or his Super Bowl appearance earlier this year.

No, the night was all about how sincerely humbled he was to have his name placed on two entrances — front door and back door — to Pitt’s practice facility on the South Side.

“I’m not just talking to make myself sound good,” said Donald, whose million-dollar gift to the program is the largest donation by a football letterman. “This is crazy.”

The ground floor of Pitt’s Duratz Athletic Complex practice facility, where the weight, locker and training rooms are located, has been renamed the Aaron Donald Football Performance Center. Donald, 28, is the youngest seven-figure donor in the history of the school.

“I tried to hold back my tears, chest started getting a little warm, eyes start watering,” he said after his children, Jaeda and Aaron Jr., helped him pull the lever that unveiled his name on the wall.

“I never would have thought this would be possible for me to give back and do something like this. I can’t put into words, really. It’s a blessing. It’s a real honor.”

When he’s not fulfilling his obligations with the Los Angeles Rams, Donald visits the Pitt facility not just to shake hands but to work out with the team. He was around the past two summers when he skipped training camp before signing a six-year, $135 million contract before last season.

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi doesn’t begrudge Donald his money, but part of him wishes another holdout was planned.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do this offseason because I don’t think he’s holding out,” Narduzzi said. “You holding out?”

Donald smiled. He’ll be in Rams camp this year, but Narduzzi said in the past, “I feel like he’s in camp with us. He’s out at practice wishing he had a helmet on.”

But his name will be there, close enough for players to touch it as they enter the building and to be reminded of what hard work can do for a player.

Donald, a Penn Hills graduate, was lightly recruited but played four years at Pitt (2010-13) before the Rams made him a first-round draft pick.

“Each day that our players walk down this hallway, our coaches walk through this facility, they’ll be reminded of the dedication that he’s had to this game of football and really what he’s put into it,” Narduzzi said.

Standing under his name, Donald said, “That’s leaving the legacy behind.”

“When I’m no longer around, you’re leaving a legacy behind that’s going to be here forever. One day, 20 years down the road, they are going to see that name and say, ‘Who’s that?’ and see the history of it and that’s the thing that makes you proud.

“For it to be here at my hometown, at the university I grew up cheering for and wanting to play for and coming full circle how I did it, you can’t write that story any better than that, honestly.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)