DAVID GREENE, HOST:
NBA superstar and golf lover Steph Curry gave students and faculty at Howard University a special gift on their first week of classes. On Monday, Curry announced he'd be sponsoring the historically black college's first Division I men's and women's golf teams. He spoke about the sponsorship in a video that the university posted on Twitter.
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STEPHEN CURRY: To provide scholarships for men and women to play the game, to go to Howard, to invest in their education. It's just exciting to be a part of that mission, that journey, that process.
NOEL KING, HOST:
Curry says he was inspired by this random encounter that he had back in January. He was visiting Howard's campus, and he met a student, a fellow golfer named Otis Ferguson IV. And Curry says Ferguson was just so enthusiastic.
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CURRY: I know Otis talked about wanting to start a golf club here. And he was sending out flyers, trying to make a lot of people come to a room on Howard's campus and just get people interested in the game. But he wanted to take it to another level.
GREENE: Kery Davis, director of athletics at Howard, sees this program as an opportunity to expose Howard's largely African American student body to a sport that is still overwhelmingly white, and also, to give them something they can share with their families.
KERY DAVIS: Grandfathers will play with their grandchildren. We want that for our young students. We want them to have that part of their culture exposed to a game that you can play over the course of a lifetime.
KING: Davis says his email inbox is already being flooded by students who want to join the team, and so he is aiming high.
DAVIS: My hope is and my goal is let's win a national championship. You're going to do it, let's be the best at it.
KING: The new Howard University golf team will tee off next school year.
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