AAF becomes LA84 Foundation

The philanthropic sports organization known for the last 23 years as the Amateur Athletic Foundation has changed its name to LA84 Foundation. Logos were changed Tuesday on the buildings on Adams Boulevard and a formal reception marking the change will be held tonight.

The new LA84 Foundation will still be led by President Anita DeFrantz, who has held that position from the organization’s 1984 start.

DeFrantz, a member of the ’84 L.A. Olympic Organizing Committee and now a member of the International Olympic Committee, was put in charge of a portion -- $93 million -- of the financial legacy of the $232.5 million earned by the ’84 Olympics, under the leadership of Peter Ueberroth, now chief executive of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Her mandate was to invest it well enough to create a perpetual fund for building youth sport and youth sport facilities in Southern California. With the original $93 million, the AAF, now the LA84 Foundation, has made $164 million in grants and currently carries an endowment of $170 million.

DeFrantz said that the LA84 designation “gets us more in line with where we came from and who we are.”

The LA84 board of directors will meet this afternoon to give final approval to the name change and to approve 32 new grants to area programs that will total $1.055 million.

-- Bill Dwyre