HOUSTON — Athletes at Texas Southern University are getting a nice financial boost thanks to significant donations from well-known places.
First, the baseball and softball teams got the backing of the Astros Foundation, which announced that it would be paying for new baseball and softball stadiums for TSU.
The Tigers baseball team played in the Cactus Jack HBCU Classic over the weekend at Minute Maid Park, but there is no stadium on campus. That will soon change.
The new baseball and softball stadiums will be on campus. Currently, the TSU baseball team plays at MacGregor Park and the softball team plays away from campus at Memorial Park. Now, their fields will be much closer to class.
"This partnership is going to allow that to happen for them as students but also for the community so the children in this community can walk and play baseball or walk and play softball," TSU President Lesia Crumpton-Young said.
Construction is expected to begin on the new stadiums later this year.
TSU also got a $1 million check from Ping, a golf company, and Hideoki, a luxury clothing company, to help with scholarships, internships, custom travel gear and more for the TSU golf team.
School officials are calling the donations game-changers.