Student-managed Phil Dorr investment fund contributes $180,000 to Baylor athletic scholarships

Baylor Business School students enrolled in the Practicum in Portfolio Management course saw the fruits of their efforts to manage “real money” with the recent presentation of $180,000 to the Athletic Department for student-athlete scholarships.

The “real money” comes from the Philip M. Dorr Alumni & Friends Endowed Investment Fund, which was started 15 years ago with an endowment gift of $250,000 from Phil Dorr ’80, MBA ’83, and matching contributions from the Baylor endowment of about $146,000.  Thanks to about $2.6 million in additional contributions from 22 other alumni, led by a $2 million gift from Don and Ruth Buchholz (Ruth is a 1949 Baylor grad,  Don’s a 1994 BAA Alumni By Choice and both are BAA Life Members); matching contribution of $2 million from the Baylor endowment; and the efforts of a procession of Practicum students using the resources in the business school’s Hodges Financial Markets Center, the fund’s value has grown to about $6.5 million over the past 15 years.

“The Practicum in Portfolio Management course has been a tremendous learning opportunity for our students to apply what they learn in class to a real dollar portfolio, said Hankamer School of Business Dean Terry Maness ’71, MSECO ’72.  “The students learn not only how to increase wealth but they also learn that the increased value of the portfolio allows them to do good by giving scholarships to more students who will come after them.  Phil was the catalyst who helped start the fund.  I appreciate his efforts along with Don and Ruth Buchholz, our supportive alumni, and the University who all teamed up to provide a living laboratory for our students.”

Since January 1, 2001, the fund’s ending wealth is $2.26 per dollar of original investment, while the S&P 500 index’s ending wealth is $2.11 per dollar invested, meaning the fund’s ending wealth is 6.9 percent greater than the ending wealth of the S&P 500 index per dollar invested.  And because the fund has a lower risk than the S&P 500, it has beaten the S&P 500 by nearly one percentage point per year on a risk-adjusted basis – strong performance when compared against all the other mutual funds out there that have struggled to match their benchmark portfolio’s return over the past 15-year period.

The Dorr Fund has contributed more than $1.8 million to athletic scholarships for Baylor student-athletes who are business majors in good academic standing and to MBA students with an interest in investment management.

The great thing about this program is that it’s does more than just provide scholarships to athletes,” said Dorr, whose nephew Austin is currently in the class.  “Annual proceeds from this fund also go toward the cost to run the Hodges Financial Market Center and provide an $8,000 internship for a Baylor business student to work each year in the Chief Investment Officer’s area.

The Practicum course is taught by adjunct professors Brian Bruce and Brandon Troegle of Plano-based Hillcrest Asset Management, who guide the students through the use of Value Line, First Call, Bloomberg and other financial websites to research earnings surprises, forward-growth drivers, and other pertinent information.