In one instance, DeJoy’s son, Andrew, secured a slot on Duke University’s tennis team in 2014 while his parents wrote a series of large checks to the school’s athletic department.

The team was ranked 14th in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. and drew a host of top national and international prospects. But Andrew DeJoy was not one of them when he joined as a walk-on freshman months after the season started.

“It was a dream of mine since I was very little, but I wasn’t expecting to play,” Andrew DeJoy said in an interview published by the school’s athletic department in 2015. “I just emailed the coach and said I was willing to work hard over the summer if there was spot. Luckily … in the fall, things just worked out.”

In the years before Andrew DeJoy enrolled, the family’s foundation donated several thousand dollars a year to Duke. But in 2014 they escalated their giving with a $737,000 contribution, according to tax records. The money helped finance the Blue Devil Tower, a massive glass-encased addition to the school’s football stadium, which includes the DeJoy Family Club, a “first-class” banquet hall overlooking the field with space for 600 people.

During Andrew DeJoy’s second year on the team, his family gave another $462,000 to Duke. The donations continued during the rest of his tenure at the school, totaling at least $2.2 million.

Duke athletic department spokesman Art Chase declined to comment. A representative of the family’s foundation did not respond to a request for comment.