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Mid-major programs respond to Kelvin Sampson’s call to action

Programs from across the country have answered the call.

By Greg Mitchell
NCAA Basketball: East Carolina at Houston Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

As you’ve likely heard by now, Kelvin Sampson put out the call to his coaching brethren.

The Houston coach took to Twitter to ask coaches at all levels to donate shirts and shoes to the relief effort in his city. The response has been massive, with tons of basketball programs — men’s and women’s, high school and college — and even different sports (hello, flag football) pledging to help.

The Houston Chronicle reported that at least 350 schools, organizations and individuals had committed to send gear as of Tuesday afternoon. Sampson talked to the newspaper about the future delivery effort, and what the shoes and shirts will mean.

"We have to do a good job coordinating with our mail service," Sampson said. "Our mail service is down. When it does open up they are going to have [a lot of] boxes. We're not going to let those boxes sit there. We're going to use our players to get on those trucks. If we have to deliver them ourselves we're going to deliver them. We're going to get the stuff to people that need it as soon as possible."

"There are people that have nothing," Sampson said. "People are being evacuated with the only thing they have left in this world is the clothes on their backs. We're going to be able to give them a pair of shoes and some shirts. I can visualize these kid's faces when they see a brand new pair of shoes and t- shirts with these universities."

Here’s a sampling of mid-major programs that have responded to Sampson’s call:

This Twitter embed fest is certainly not exhaustive, but if you’ve got connections to a mid-major program, make sure to see if they’ll join the growing list. Here are other ways to help out as well.

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