RELEASE 7.19.2011 Team Leach announces the award of a $10,000 scholarship to Keith Mauldin at Mike Leach's first "Swing Your Sword" book signing in Lubbock at Barnes & Noble. Congratulations Keith! Coach Leach kicked off his book signing by presenting a check for $5,000 to Keith, who was accompanied by his mother, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. He will receive another check to cover the fall semester in December. The scholarship selection was done by way of an application process that included examination of grades, activities, and field of study and also required an essay outlining why this scholarship was important to him and how he was inspired by Coach Leach. There were several members of Team Leach in attendance including Kerry Morrison, Charlie and Lisa Hodges, Becky Koehler, Ben Williams, Kristen Arnold, and Becky Timmons as well as Coach Leach’s attorney, Ted Liggett. Leach signed an estimated 1800 copies of his book, Swing Your Sword for a crowd of about 1,000 who came to meet him. It was the biggest turnout for a book signing in the history of the Lubbock Barnes & Noble store. Fans came from as far away as the Austin area to meet him. Mauldin was honored with a reception afterward at the Depot District Oyster Bar in Lubbock that was attended by his family, about 30 members of Team Leach, and fans of Coach Leach. Leach was very gracious and personalized several items for fans and posed for pictures with anyone who asked. The scholarship will be awarded annually. We will begin accepting applications in April for the following year. The scholarship application and requirements are available here and Keith's essay submission can be read here.

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RELEASE 11.26.2010

The Team Leach - Mike Leach Scholarship Foundation has reached $40,000.00.

“This is an outstanding achievement because we don’t have many people in our group who can write checks for $1,000, $2,000 or $5,000 on a whim,” Team Leach Facebook Administrator Mark Uptergrove said. “This has been an effort by people giving what few dollars they have or giving their time to the cause.”

Team Leach volunteers worked for most of the summer to produce the “Fat Little Girlfriends Cookbook.” Introduced in early November, the book quickly sold out its first printing. Team Leach is now waiting for its third printing of the book.

“Mike Leach is signing a number of books, so we will have a limited number of signed books to sell later this month,” Uptergrove said.

A raffle also helped bring in money to the scholarship.

Unlike many fundraising programs at Texas Tech that target donors who can give thousands of dollars per donation, the Team Leach - Mike Leach Scholarship Foundation has been the beneficiary of one anonymous donor who has contributed over $10,000 to the scholarship.

Uptergrove said the vast majority of donations to the scholarship have been under $50.

The Team Leach - Mike Leach Scholarship will go to a student at Texas Tech who is studying to become a coach.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of stories coming from people who don’t like Team Leach or its creation of this scholarship. We wish our opponents did not have to resort to lies and name calling to put us down, but that’s life,” Uptergrove said.

“The truth is that this scholarship is designed to honor Coach Leach’s tenure at Texas Tech. Not only as a football coach, but the leader of the program that had the highest graduation rate of any public university football program in the country. Isn’t educating kids supposed to be the main job of a university?” Uptergrove said.

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The Team Leach - Mike Leach Scholarship Foundation is an effort by a group of Texas Tech football fans to honor former Texas Tech Head Football Coach Mike Leach.

Leach left Texas Tech University December 30, 2009 after 10 years as head coach. During his tenure, he not only brought success on the football field for Texas Tech, he also established the highest football graduation rate for public universities in the country.

This group of fans, students and alumni are not rich by any means. They do not have the ability to write $50,000 checks on a whim. They do not have the wherewithal to watch football games in skyboxes and go to games to be seen or socialize while looking down at the crowd below.

The people setting up this scholarship get up every day and go to work and try to make ends meet in a down economy. They are the people sitting below who buy the tickets, and have been doing so for decades. But still, they give what they can to make The Team Leach - Mike Leach Scholarship a success.

We ask you to help us in this effort. Your contribution, no matter the size, will be greatly appreciated.

You can give online securely by clicking on this link. All Major credit cards, checking accounts, and Paypal are accepted.

Or you can send your contribution to:

Team Leach - Mike Leach Scholarship Foundation
#111
3440 Bell Ste. 320
Amarillo, TX 79109

As a pledge from Team Leach, your identity will not be shared. You will not get the constant drip, drip, drip of phone calls, marketing mailers or slick emails asking for more contributions. Please give when you can, as much as you can. That’s all we ask.

Thank you for visiting our site. We hope you will decide to honor Coach Leach and his work at Texas Tech by helping us establish a fund that will help students for decades to come.

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