The Cincinnati Reds' Community Fund will help Wilberforce University in Greene County launch a baseball program next year. The historically Black college will bring back its Bulldogs team for the first time since the 1940s.
University President Elfred Anthony Pinkard says it's an important move in a country that's become polarized.
"This is representative of what occurred in 1856, right here in the city of Cincinnati," he said, referring to when the idea for the university was born. "We are continuing an important and a proud tradition of Americans standing up for e pluribus unum."
The Reds Community Fund will support the launch of the baseball program, and there could be better opportunities for Reds Academy students to get into college. There also could also be internships for Wilberforce students with the Reds.
"At Wilberforce we have a saying that we are the first and the future," Athletic Director Derek Williams says. "Well, with this partnership, we are the first in baseball, we are the first in private colleges in the HBCU realm coming together to build a partnership to provide to our youth, to give them the opportunity to continue to play the game of baseball while getting their education and I can't think of anything better than that in itself."
The Bulldogs will be part of the NAIA.