Former Auburn great and NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley is donating $1 million to Miles College.

He informed interim president Bobbie Knight of the donation in a telephone call on Wednesday morning.

“I’ve gotten to know Bobbie over the last year and it was something I really wanted to do,” Barkley said. “To have a female president is a big deal. I want to help Bobbie be as successful as she can be.”

Knight, who was named interim president last July, says the donation is the largest individual gift in Miles’ 122-year history. “It’s great that he thinks enough of us to donate a million dollars,” she said.

She says the gift launches a comprehensive campaign to raise $100 million for the institution.

“What Barkley has done helps lay the foundation for the campaign,” she says. “I don’t think he realizes what he has done.”

Last September, Barkley made a surprise visit to Miles, joining a pep rally in support of the football team.

The gift is Barkley’s fourth major donation to a historically black college. In 2016, he pledged $1 million each to Alabama A&M in Huntsville and Clark Atlanta University. In 2017, he pledged $1 million to Morehouse College in Atlanta.

He said he hopes the donation to Miles goes to academic scholarships, but it is not a restricted pledge.

“They can do what they want to do with it,” he says.

Knight said last fall the Board of Trustees extended her original nine-month agreement through August 2021. “Right now, I’m not thinking beyond that,” she said.