Supply: TSU / TSU
It was imagined to be a monumental occasion.
The primary-ever ice hockey staff at a Traditionally Black Faculty and College was anticipated to start play within the 2025-26 season, however difficulties with apply services, a scarcity of fundraising, and total monetary points are inflicting one other setback.
In keeping with The Tennessean, the Tennessee State males’s hockey staff won’t be enjoying this yr and is hoping that they will play their inaugural season in 2026-27.
Whereas the information has not been made official, a supply with data of the matter advised the newspaper that, regardless of a significant announcement forward of the 2023 NHL Draft stating that the first-ever HBCU hockey program would start the next yr, there have been nothing however issues.
From The Tennessean:
The college has undergone huge management and monetary upheavals during the last 18 months whereas going through funds deficits and declining enrollment. Interim President Dwyane Tucker, who took workplace in December, repeatedly stated the college would run out of cash this spring if nothing modified. He introduced an bold five-year monetary plan to key state leaders in February and helped strike a take care of them to infuse $96 million into the college’s funds in June. The cash, which was a part of a fund beforehand reserved for constructing and infrastructure initiatives, will assist stabilize the college’s funds and handle its speedy operational wants. Nevertheless, it’s not clear if any of that cash would go towards the college’s athletic applications.
The supply additionally famous that the staff didn’t meet fundraising targets for the 2025-26 hockey season.
The information website notes that there has by no means been a roster or a schedule of upcoming video games posted on Tennessee State’s males’s hockey web site.
In an effort to make sure the delay lasts solely a yr, the NHL and the Nationwide Hockey League Gamers Affiliation (NHLPA) Business Development Fund are offering a $250,000 grant to kick-start the funding.
As anticipated, social media is upset over what may have been a groundbreaking second. See reactions to the delay beneath.
On Ice: The First HBCU Hockey Crew Delayed Over Cash Issues
was initially revealed on
cassiuslife.com