Photo Courtesy UTRGV Athletics
Karina Rodriguez | THE RIDER
UTRGV Athletics is selling commemorative shirts to honor the late men’s basketball Head Coach Lew Hill, with proceeds benefiting a memorial fund, officials say.
Hill, who served as head coach since 2016, died Feb. 7 at age 55.
“All the money that comes [from the T-shirt sales], that would have otherwise gone to, like, the UTRGV Athletics general fund, goes to the Lew Hill Memorial Fund,” said Jonah Goldberg, UTRGV senior associate athletic director of communications.
The funds allocation will be determined by Hill’s widow Renee in collaboration with UTRGV Athletics, he said.
The idea to sell the shirts came from positive feedback after Athletics gave out 500 shirts during the Lew Hill men’s basketball tribute game March 5.
“We wanted to do something big [like a] celebration,” Goldberg said. “And I thought, people really like T-shirts, right? Then people wear them and because they wear them you always have Lew Hill’s name out there around the community. As long as we remember, he’s always around. … We did 500 for the first 500 fans, and the popularity of the T-shirts really surpassed our expectations.”
UTRGV Women’s Basketball Coach Lane Lord said that these shirts are important to help preserve Hill’s legacy.
“The bottom line is what he did for the young people and what he did for the university,” Lord said. “We need to cherish that, and we need to buy these shirts, [and] we need to continue to buy them every year.”
UTRGV Men’s Basketball forward Marek Nelson said it feels good to represent Hill by wearing the shirts.
“I love the shirts, and I think it is a great gesture to get them to the public,” Nelson said. “At first, they were warm-up shirts and, you know, it’s nice to be able to represent that and have them on during warm ups and whatnot. But, I think it’s great that the public can get their hands on them. I think it’s awesome. I think it’s a great way to continue Coach’s legacy and, you know, just to never forget [him].”
People can buy the shirts on the website utrgvgearm.merchorders.com under the “Lew Hill Legacy” section.
Lord said that he hopes everyone buys the shirts to honor Hill.
“I just really want everybody, you know, to buy five or six of these shirts,” Lord said. “Whatever we got to do to get this foundation built up as much as we can, we [need] to do it. And I encourage everybody to do that. Coach Hill [was] a wonderful man, great friend, and a great basketball coach, which is secondary to everything else in life. So, anything we can do to honor him, [we should do].”
