As a Wofford grad I have somewhat different understanding. Richardson money was and always has been second place. The big money at Wofford has always been Roger Milliken. That does not mean Richardson wasn’t important. It’s just that other factors were more important.
Wofford did an internal review in the mid 70’s led by President Joab Lessene.
The two game changing recommendations were
• Wofford needed to go coed. Which it did in 1977, my freshman year. It radically changed the college. It knocked out the bottom third of the male students and replaced it with women, who damn near all were in the top 10% of their HS Class. SAT scores went up over 200 points in 5 years.
• That if Wofford wanted advance academically it had to also advance athletically. So Wofford started the decade long process of going from NAIA to NCAA D1. Lessene marshaled money for athletic leadership talent and facilities(this is where Richardson came to bear, but Jimmy Gibbs also gave huge bucks also. FB stadium is named after him)
Lessene coached HS football and actually became the TE coach at Wofford after he retired from the presidency. They made four truly inspired hires. Mike Ayres as head football coach, Richard Johnson as head basketball coach, Mike Young as assistant basketball coach AND lastly but maybe most importantly Danny Morrison as AD. Morrison eventually became SOCON commissioner, TCU AD, and president of the Carolina Panthers. These 5 were not only very talented, they had a vision for the future, they were committed to Wofford, and Wofford was committed to them.
PC did not have the epiphany about athletics until 25 years after Wofford. Wofford at that point was in a strong SOCON: Marshall, App St, Ga. Southern. Wofford had a seat at the table. PC, it seems to me, came to the game late and never found a good landing place in a strong conference