Izzo Legacy Foundation 4th Quarter Challenge led by MSU coach's family raises money for worthy charities

FOX 2 - Basketball coach Tom Izzo's decades of success at Michigan State University will leave a lasting legacy. But his family wants the Izzo name to mean more than basketball

"I couldn't be more proud of them just in awe to have them as my parents," said Rocky Izzo McDonald. "They are amazing people to look up to, not just because of successes they've had not only in the basketball world, more importantly, the success they have had that their parents gave them that they are passing onto my brother and I. Hopefully we'll pass it on to future generations as well."

With that motivation Rocky Izzo McDonald, the daughter of Michigan State's winningest basketball coach Tom Izzo, and his wife Lupe, is helping to lead the recently created Izzo Legacy Family Foundation.

"Once we left, we wanted to be able to have something to come back to and to support. And the Izzo Legacy supports charitable foundations that are established, and they are doing good work already," said Lupe.

FOX 2: "The pandemic has made it very difficult for a lot of charities raising funds, but you seem to have been able to work around that and you came up with the 4th Quarter Challenge?"

"I did, we were thinking because we postponed the race and then canceled the race indefinitely," Rocky said. "We were thinking we do nothing, and have no money to give them which would be hard for them because they weren't able to have their fundraisers - or we could do something about it. And that's when I thought of the name for it.

"It just kind of snowballed, right now over $10,500 for these charities."

FOX 2: "How does it work because the challenge is going on until the end of the year so if people want to donate and help these various charities how do they go about doing that?"

"They can go to our website IzzoLegacy.com and they can sign up for our challenge - it's all virtual," she said. "You can put in the things you do. So this week we are doing volunteerism or volunteering. So if you volunteer, you can log your hours and if you donate $25 or more, you get an Izzo Legacy facemask, which has been really fun seeing people getting those and wearing them.

Rocky says the core of the foundation is the way she was raised - as her family always worked to support charities, be involved in the community.

The Izzo family is looking forward to growing the foundation for generations to come.

"We are hoping to move into the Detroit area sometime," Lupe said. "We would have thought by the end of the year, but then COVID-19 came. Hopefully, it will be a statewide charity that people that really need support will come to us and we will do our best to support them."

If you would like to learn more about the Izzo Legacy Foundation and the 4th Quarter Challenge: Here is the link:izzolegacy.com