Kansas University is poised to receive a $3.5 million gift, to be split evenly between the School of Law and KU Athletics, KU Endowment announced Wednesday.

The gift commitment comes from KU alumni Nancy Winter and her late husband, Wint Winter Sr., who played center on the KU football team.

Nancy and Wint Winter Sr.

“We give to the areas we know, that we have been a part of,” Nancy Winter said in a news release from KU Endowment. “It’s a love of the university. It’s so fun to be able to do it; it’s a perfectly wonderful joy.”

The planned gift will provide an unrestricted $1.75 million to the law school and add $1.75 million to the existing Winter Family Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for student athletes who meet specific criteria, according to KU Endowment. Preference is given to student athletes from Franklin or Douglas counties, those who have demonstrated superior academic performance and students who play center on the football team.

Wint Winter, who died in 2013, received undergraduate and law degrees from KU, practiced law in Ottawa and later became chairman of Peoples Inc. bank. He also was a rancher, part-time judge and state senator, according to KU Endowment.

The Winters were longtime Ottawa residents, and Nancy Winter now lives in Olathe. All five of the couple’s children attended KU.