Harvard College’s struggling image has escaped another potentially crippling blow—this time, by one of its distinguished alumni.

Kerry L. Konrad ’79, in a shocking reversal of intentions, told The Crimson on Friday that he will not rename Boston’s FleetCenter the “Derek Jeter Center.”

Konrad, a Manhattan attorney who won an eBay auction for one-day naming rights to Boston’s FleetCenter, ignited a media frenzy when he declared his intention to rename the arena after the New York Yankees captain.

“It was a joke,” Konrad said. “It’s meant to be funny.”

His winning bid of $2,325 on Wednesday gave him the authority to name the arena on March 1, as corporate owner Delaware North Cos. continued to auction temporary naming rights and donate the proceeds to charity. Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., opted not to renew the naming contract with the arena after it acquired FleetBoston Financial last year.

Konrad said he reached a mutual agreement with arena representatives to “make something fun” out of the situation by bringing Red Sox fans from his Harvard days—the targets of his “ultimate private joke”—into the fray.

“They said, ‘why don’t you challenge buddies to donate more money, to buy out your bid?’,” Konrad said.

Thanks partly to Jerry Rappaport, Jr. ’79, Konrad’s college roommate, that strategy became a reality.

The proceeds—now $8,600 total, meant to symbolize the 86-year-long Red Sox title curse—will go to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund.

On Tuesday—instead of assuming Jeter’s name—the arena will be renamed the Jimmy Fund Center.

For Konrad, a former resident of Eliot House—the same outfit that annually organizes “An Evening with Champions,” a figure skating exhibition that has donated more than $2 million to the fund over the past 35 years—the gesture was a nice resolution to a surprisingly torrid storm of attention.

Since the eBay auction and subsequent backtracking by FleetCenter representatives—one of whom called the “Jeter” name “obscene”—the lawyer has received calls from the New York Times, ESPN, and NBC, among others.

Konrad will appear on Monday on NBC’s late-night “Last Call with Carson Daly”—a move that Konrad said amused his young daughter.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “I have now experienced the full force of the 21st century information hurricane.

But he added, “I’m looking forward to the end of the attention.”