The Oklahoma Eagle Newswire
The University of Tulsa men’s and women’s basketball teams and its fans have combined to spread some holiday cheer this month with toy donations to both the St. Francis Children’s Hospital and TFI Family Connections — Oklahoma Foster Care Services.
The giving started at the TU men’s game on Dec. 8 against Kansas State, when fans were asked to bring a stuffed toy for a halftime Teddy Bear Toss. During halftime of Tulsa’s win over the nationally ranked Wildcats, fans tossed more than 200 stuffed animals onto the court at the Donald W. Reynolds Center and those toys were delivered to the St. Francis Children’s Hospital the following week.
TU fans stepped up again during the men’s game against New Orleans (Dec. 13) and the women’s contest against Little Rock (Dec. 17), donating nearly 300 unwrapped toys to benefit TFI Family Connections, which is a private, not-for-profit organization that provides experience, compassion and quality services for Oklahoma foster care children and families.
“I love the passion and enthusiasm that our fans bring to the Reynolds Center for our games, but I’m extremely proud of the way they rallied around these two great organizations to help make the holidays a little brighter for children here in Tulsa,” TU men’s head coach Frank Haithsaid. “We’ve visited St. Francis with our student-athletes and have had the pleasure of interacting with those children and families at the hospital. It means so much to all of us at TU to be able to support these organizations, which provide incredible services to so many.”
This caps off a full fall semester of giving from the basketball programs to our community. Coach Haith and the men’s team hosted the Boys & Girls Club for a Back to School Bash that included donations of adidas backpacks filled with school supplies in August and the team also participated in the Tulsa Plays and Lift Up America events on the TU campus.
