Bernstine’s call comes from Texas Southern University

Marshalltown, Iowa - Miko Bernstine describes himself as always being a pretty spiritual guy. Texas Southern University provided the answer to his prayers with an opportunity to play NCAA Division I baseball. The do-everything Marshalltown Community College outfielder Bernstine signed with the Southwestern Athletic Conference school on Friday.

The Des Moines native Bernstine was set to play baseball at Ashford before the opportunity to move from the MCC Tigers to the TSU Tigers arose. "No D-I offers were coming my way. I was getting a lot of offers from NAIA, D-II, stuff like that," Bernstine said before playing in a game Friday in the Carolina-Virginia Collegiate League.



"I just kept praying on it that I would get an offer from a Division I school," he added. Bernstine lead Marshalltown in most offensive categories as he hit .390 with 49 runs scored, 62 hits, five home runs, 42 RBIs and 17 stolen bases.

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Former TSU, Prairie View stars pursuing NFL careers

Houston, TX - Former Texas Southern linebacker Dejuan Fulghum will formally begin his pursuit of an NFL career when he opens training camp with the Detroit Lions today. 

Fulghum, the 2010 Southwestern Athletic Conference Player of the Year, signed as an undrafted with the Lions earlier this week. Fulghum, a Killeen native, was a four-year starter during his four years at TSU, helping to lead the Tigers to a 9-3 record and the SWAC championship in his final season.

In 2010, the 6-1, 220-pound Fulghum led TSU in total tackles (101), tackles for loss (18 ½), sacks (11) and forced fumbles (three).

Two former Prairie View A&M defensive stars also will be in NFL training camps. Defensive back Chris Adingupu signed as an undrafted free agent with the Minnesota Vikings, and defensive lineman Quinton Spears inked with the Miami Dolphins.

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TSU Tigers await NCAA's ruling while preparing to defend crown

Houston, TX - After months of waiting, Texas Southern interim football coach Kevin Ramsey knows closure is near.

Regardless of the outcome of an NCAA investigation, Ramsey is ready for a fresh start as the Tigers prepare to open defense of their Southwestern Athletic Conference title Sept. 10 against Prairie View A&M. TSU is coming off the first SWAC title in school history.

"We're looking forward ... we're not looking ahead," Ramsey said Tuesday during the SWAC football media tour. "We know we cannot change the path that was set before. But one thing we do know is we can run it with perseverance and endurance."

The NCAA is expected to release its findings of an investigation into the TSU football and men's basketball programs. TSU athletic director Charles McClelland, who was unavailable for comment Tuesday, has said he anticipates "major NCAA violations toward our football program with regard to recruiting, unethical conduct and academic inconsistencies."

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TSU Tigers looking to defend their SWAC Championship

Houston, TX - SWAC Football Media Day concluded Tuesday at the Birmingham Sheraton with coaches and media awarding Jackson State quarterback Casey Therriault and Prairie View defensive back Moses Ellis preseason player of the year honors. Grambling and Jackson State were also voted to be the favorites in their respective divisions.

SWAC Predicted Order of Finish (1st-place votes)

Western Division
Grambling State (12) 103 points
Texas Southern (8) 79 points
Prairie View A&M (2) 74 points
Arkansas-Pine Bluff (1) 56 points
Southern 33 points

Eastern Division
Jackson State (13) 88 points
Alcorn State (6) 84 points
Alabama State (3) 82 points
Alabama A&M (1) 62 points
Mississippi Valley State 27 points


NEXT GAME: 9/10/11 PRAIRIE VIEW AT DELMAR STADIUM, HOUSTON, TX  7 PM
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Pay for play: Texas Southern

Houston, TX - For Texas Southern, the argument about whether to pay players is more or less a moot point. The athletic department doesn’t make a profit, nor does it expect to. That’s not a goal.

A historically black college located in Houston, Texas Southern originally got its university status in 1947. (At that time, the University of Texas in Austin still did not admit African-American students.) Texas Southern’s overriding mission has been trying to help a segment of the population that has been traditionally denied equal access to higher education.

“We try to serve those who are historically underserved,” athletics director Charles McClelland said. “When you look at what we’ve done with a smaller amount of resources, colleges like us do the country a big service. In many cases, we are taking students who are less prepared for college, getting them adjusted and then graduated to make a significant difference in their communities.

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Patience pays off as Grady's Peters signs with Texas Southern

New York, NY - Jabari Peters is an atypical New York City basketball standout.

He didn’t play AAU basketball until hooking up with New Heights just recently. He found a low-major Division I college that wanted him and didn’t opt for prep school to see if he could do better. He went to Grady, which hasn’t fielded a winning program in more than five years, yet never considered leaving.

“It shows it doesn’t matter where you go, it’s what you do where you are,” the Coney Island native said Monday night, hours after arriving at Texas Southern for summer classes to play for coach Tony Harvey.


Videographer: olabam; Jabari Peters averaged 27.1 points per game and put up 50 points on Brooklyn AA champion Lincoln as shown in this clip.

The reigning regular-season SWAC champions offered Peters a month ago and he signed two weeks later after passing the NCAA Clearinghouse, the result of his strong finish in the classroom.

“I spoke to the coaches and I felt it was a real good fit for me,” the 6-foot-3 shooting guard said. “When they told me I had the opportunity to come here and play right away, that was big. A lot of freshmen don’t get that opportunity. They won the conference last year; that was a big factor in me making my decision.”

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Five-a-Side: Texas Southern's Kevin Ramsey

TSU Head Football Coach Kevin Ramsey

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Conference champions aren't supposed to have the type of offseason that Texas Southern has had since it won the Southwestern Athletic Conference football title in December - its first in 42 years.

This spring, head coach Johnnie Cole was shown the door because of the program's poor academic performances and then NCAA sanctions were levied against the Tigers, including the loss of 14.78 of their 63 scholarships and four hours of practice time each week.

The university promoted defensive coordinator Kevin Ramsey to interim head coach and he has tried to settle the program, maintaining the "storm" will pass as the Tigers strengthen their academic requirements stardards.

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Texas Southern University Ocean of Soul Marching Band

NCAA comes down hard on TSU football

Houston, Texas - Texas Southern will lose 14.78 of the 63 football scholarships allowed for the 2011-12 school year because of its historically low performance under the NCAA’s Academic Progress Report formula, and an athletic department administrator said TSU could post a perfect APR score for the next two years and still run the risk of more sanctions because of past failures to retain and graduate football players.

TSU, which won the Southwestern Athletic Conference’s 2010 football title but dismissed coach Johnnie Cole this spring as it awaits the results of an NCAA probe that could include evidence of academic irregularities, suffered the most severe hit, in terms of lost scholarships, of any program sanctioned by the NCAA for APR shortcomings. Its football practice schedule will be cut from 20 hours per week to 16.

Across all sports, 103 programs received postseason bans, practice reductions or scholarship cuts. That group included NCAA Division I men’s basketball champion Connecticut, which will lose two scholarships...



Videographer: TexSouthern; TSU Commencement 2011 - Speaker John Silvanus Wilson, Jr., Part 1&2.

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Surging Texas Southern tops Southern Jaguars

As Texas Southern coach Michael Robertson emerged from a postgame huddle Sunday at Lee-Hines Field, he carried three things — his trademark slow-motion stroll, two weekend victories under his belt and the kind of grin money can’t buy. This, Robertson concluded, had been a nice trip to Baton Rouge.

It wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t have to be. It simply served as affirmation that the Tigers can compete with, and defeat, any opponent they face in the upcoming Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament.

Sunday afternoon, TSU scored four runs in the sixth inning and got a standout performance from starting pitcher Abel Flores en route to a 5-3 victory — one that gave the Tigers two wins over Southern on the final weekend of conference play.

Box Score

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Southern, TSU split doubleheader

Baton Rouge, LA - During his customary postgame huddle with his Southern baseball team, longtime coach Roger Cador was animated Saturday afternoon — more animated than usual, which, for him, is quite a lot.

His voice boomed and echoed off the walls at Lee-Hines Field, where the Jaguars had just split a doubleheader with Texas Southern in their final regular-season Southwestern Athletic Conference series. Cador clenched and pumped his fists as he spoke. He was, if nothing else, passionate about the message he delivered, whatever it was.

But as he walked off the field, Cador said, Saturday wasn’t so bad.

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TSU Hires Former Oakland Raiders Assistant Coach

HOUSTON - Texas Southern University, reigning champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conferrence, hired former Oakland Raiders receivers coach Charles Coe as its new offensive coordinator. Coe was the Raiders receivers coach in 2007 and worked in personnel in 2008.

Prior to that Coe was head coach at Alabama State for four years where he was 29-18 and won two SWAC East Division titles and the 2004 league championship.

"I hired Charles because of his experience and because he is a very good teacher," said Kevin Ramsey, TSU interim head coach, in an interview with FOX 26 Sports. "Charles will help us upgrade our overall football IQ and he is respected throughout the coaching profession."

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Tahoma High's Sammii Jimenez signs on the dotted line with Texas Souther University

Covington, Washington - Tahoma High's Sammii Jimenez signed on the dotted line Monday afternoon.  Jimenez, a senior pitcher for the Bears fastpitch team, committed to play on scholarship at Texas Southern University located in Houston, Texas.

She celebrated with teammates, friends and family at Tahoma as she signed the paperwork. Jimenez plans to major in education. She hopes to teach kindergarten. "They have the major that I'm looking for," she said. "It also had a family feel and I love the atmosphere."

Texas Southern is a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, the SWAC. "I went down there in January... and I loved it," she said. "The weather was perfect. I loved it."

SIGNING PHOTOS

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Jackson State AD search on hold, but 1 candidate emerges

A.D. Charles McClelland 

Even though Jackson State's search for an athletic director hasn't officially begun, one former finalist for the position has voiced his interest in the job again.

Charles McClelland, a Jackson native entering his fourth year as athletic director at Texas Southern, said the "opportunity to get interest from JSU and come home is exciting.

"Being from Jackson, I understand the rich history and tradition at JSU and what it means to the city of Jackson," said McClelland, a finalist for the job in 2006.

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Texas Southern University hires Adams as volleyball coach

Coach Jocelyn Adams

Texas Southern on Wednesday announced Eisenhower High volleyball coach Jocelyn Adams as its new head coach.

Adams was the 2009 District 19-5A Co-Coach of the Year and the 2008 District 19-5A Coach of the Year while at Eisenhower. She also was the head coach at Prairie View A&M from 1990-1999, being named Southwestern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1990 and leading the Panthers to the SWAC tournament title in 1992.

Adams, a Prairie View alumnus, replaces Dwalah Fisher, who went 145-357 in 17 seasons before retiring. The Tigers went 5-20 overall and 3-5 in SWAC play in 2010, going 0-2 at the conference.


Videographer: TGS265; Lead Band: Texas Southern University "Ocean of Soul" Marching Band in the Battle of Flowers Fiesta Parade @ San Antonio, Texas, 4/15/2011.

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Tony Harvey Stays At TSU

HOUSTON - Texas Southern University basketball coach Tony Harvey told FOX 26 Sports Wednesday he has decided not to pursue the vacant head coaching job at Eastern Michigan. Eagles officials contacted TSU athletics director Charles McClelland Monday to let him know of their interest in Harvey.

Harvey was named Southwestern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year after leading TSU to the SWAC regular season championship this past season and a spot in the NIT.

"After carefully evaluating the situation, which I believe is a wonderful opportunity, I have decided to continue with my plans at TSU," Harvey said "

TSU hoops coach a hot commodity after recent success ‎

Texas Southern men's basketball coach Tony Harvey said Wednesday that Eastern Michigan has contacted him about its vacant head coaching position.

Harvey, who grew up in Benton Harbor, Mich., and served as an assistant at Eastern Michigan from 1996-99, led TSU to a 19-13 record in 2010-11 and the program's first Southwestern Athletic Conference regular-season championship since 1998. The Tigers, who went 16-2 in conference regular-season play, failed to reach the NCAA Tournament after being upset in the semifinals of the SWAC tournament but received an automatic bid to the National Invitation Tournament, where they lost to Colorado in the first round.

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Texas Southern coach Tony Harvey a candidate for EMU job

Houston, TX - Texas Southern coach Tony Harvey, who has roots in Michigan, is a candidate to become the next men's basketball coach at Eastern Michigan. EMU athletic director Derrick Gragg contacted Texas Southern athletic director Charles McClelland as a courtesy Tuesday and expressed his interest in Harvey.

"Eastern Michigan's athletic director left me a message as a courtesy, saying he was interested in Tony Harvey," McClelland said Tuesday evening. "He never mentioned an interview, but I didn't call him back either."

Harvey, a 1983 graduate of Benton Harbor High School, was an assistant coach under Milton Barnes at EMU when the Eagles finished 23-10 in 1997 and then won the MAC tournament in 1998. He was also an assistant coach at Missouri when the Tigers reached the Elite Eight in 2002.

Harvey recently finished his third season as head coach at...

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Videographer: UrbanSportsITG
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TSU softball team continues to shine

Houston, TX - The Texas Southern softball team is surging at the right time.

The Tigers swept rival Prairie View A&M in a three-game series over the weekend at Memorial Park to improve to 20-22 overall and 11-3 in Southwestern Athletic Conference play. TSU, which has won nine of its last 10 conference contests, has a 3½-game lead over Grambling State in the SWAC Western Division.

The Tigers dismantled Prairie View in convincing fashion. Sophomore Rebecca Villarreal tossed a one-hit shutout in Friday's run-ruled 9-0 victory, and TSU polished off the sweep with Saturday's 11-3 (5 inn.) and 7-2 wins.



The TSU All-Sports Athletics Banquet will include the Football Championship Ring Ceremony

The Texas Southern Football Championship Ring Ceremony will now take place on Thursday, April 14th along with the Texas Southern 2010-11 All-Sports Athletic Banquet.

“In light of our recent changes, we had many complications in continuing with the original plans for the football ring ceremony,” said TSU athletics director Dr. Charles McClelland. “Therefore, we will have the ceremony along with our overall athletics banquet where all the student-athletes, supporters and administrators can enjoy the event.”

The All-Sports Banquet will be held at the Intercontinental Houston Hotel (2222 West Loop South) at 7:00 pm in the Discovery Center Rooms A&B.

Members of the 2010 championship football team will be presented with their rings and recognized for their accomplishments. The 2010 TSU Tigers Football team defeated Alabama State to capture TSU’s first lone football championship title.

Outstanding student-athletes from all Texas Southern sports will also be recognized for their accomplishments both on and off the playing field.

If you purchased a table or tickets to the football ring ceremony, those tickets will be honored for the combined event on April 14th. If you cannot attend, the athletics department will offer refunds. Please contact Tonia Kirven for more information at 713-313-7048 or kirventm@tsu.edu.

By Rodney Bush, TSU Sports Information Director

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TSU players adapt to changes at top

The Texas Southern football team was temporarily shaken up Friday when Johnnie Cole was relieved of his coaching duties in anticipation of an NCAA report that is expected to reveal major violations committed by the program.

But when the players resumed their spring practice with a scrimmage Saturday afternoon at TSU's Durley Stadium, things had mostly returned to normal. Of course, there was a different man in charge, as former defensive coordinator Kevin Ramsey has been promoted to interim coach. There was also one less assistant coach after Ramsey fired associate head coach/quarterbacks coach Daryl Williams shortly after taking over the reins.

Saturday's practice was...

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Commentary: Dismissing Cole was only option for TSU program seeking legitimacy

Texas Southern University hired Johnnie Cole as its football coach because it wanted to win games. It hired Charles McClelland to be its athletic director for the same reason.

TSU also hired McClelland because it wanted to do things the right way. It fired Cole for the same reason. A college football program should be able to do both: win and do things the right way. Even TSU.

"The university's commitment to compliance is undaunted," McClelland said in a Friday statement that announced the school has parted ways with Cole because of major rules violations that, according to an athletic department official, will be revealed when a report from an NCAA investigation is released.



TSU interim football coach fires an assistant

Texas Southern interim football coach Kevin Ramsey said Saturday that associate head coach/quarterbacks coach Daryl Williams has been relieved of his duties.

Ramsey, the defensive coordinator who was named interim coach Friday after former coach Johnnie Cole was dismissed, informed Williams of the move shortly after being promoted by athletic director Charles McClelland.

Williams was hired by Cole in 2008 after serving as Alabama State’s director of football operations from 2005-07.

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Texas Southern University parts ways with football coach Cole

TSU Interim Head Coach Kevin Ramsey
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Texas Southern University football coach Johnnie Cole was fired Friday afternoon in advance of an NCAA report that is expected to detail major violations committed by the program.

Defensive coordinator Kevin Ramsey was elevated to interim head coach, and a permanent replacement will be named after the 2011 season, athletic director Charles McClelland said in a release obtained by the Chronicle.

TSU coach Johnnie Cole out as report of major violations expected

HOUSTON — Texas Southern University, expecting a report detailing major NCAA violations, says head coach Johnnie Cole will not be leading the Tigers next season. 

Athletics Director Charles McClelland said Friday he appreciated the coach's service, however, "we have agreed that Coach Cole's separation from the program is best for all parties."  The move is effective immediately.  McClelland said the school anticipates "major NCAA violations toward our football program ...

TSU: Johnnie Cole no longer head football coach

HOUSTON – TSU on Friday said Johnnie Cole is no longer their head football coach, ahead of what they expect will be “major NCAA violations” toward their football program.

TSU Director of Athletics Dr. Charles McClelland said Defensive Coordinator Kevin Ramsey will serve as interim head coach while they search for Cole’s permanent replacement.

"We want to thank Coach Cole for his years of service at Texas Southern, however at this time, we have agreed that Coach Cole’s separation from the program is best for all parties," McClelland said. "We will utilize the next nine months to thoroughly search for a head football coach; one that will ensure that the needs of our students are met, and engage the alumni, employees and the entire TSU community."

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