TSU Alumni Take Their Case for Tony Wyllie to FOX 26 Ahead of Wednesday’s Vote

Two days before Texas Southern’s Board of Regents meets to vote on a new athletics director and a new men’s basketball coach, four Tiger alumni sat down with FOX 26 Houston sports reporter Nate Griffin to make a public case for a name that has not appeared on any board agenda: Tony Wyllie, the TSU graduate and longtime NFL communications executive who is now regional president of Special Olympics North America and CEO of the NIL consulting firm The Collective Engine.

The segment aired Monday, Aug. 17, with the board’s special session set for Wednesday, Aug. 19. It is the latest turn in a search that has run since the spring, when the university parted ways with athletics director Kevin Granger following allegations detailed in a civil lawsuit that Data Driven HBCU has now reviewed in the original court filings.

Four Alumni, One Segment, One Message

The panel included Tim Johnson (TSU class of 1979 and 1983, a member of the university’s Sports Hall of Fame committee), Donovan Campbell (a 2024 Hall of Fame inductee for baseball), Bruce Boudreaux (a Texas Southern alum originally from Abbeville, Louisiana) and Brian Douglas (a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.). Griffin opened by noting that the university is “set to hire Jackson State AD Ashley Robinson and Seton Hall assistant Corey Lowery,” with a vote expected Wednesday, and asked the panel for their thoughts on the process.

The case for Wyllie, as the group made it, rested less on a comparison of resumes and more on relationships. Campbell described Wyllie arriving in Houston for what the group characterized as an interview and being greeted at the airport with, “Welcome home.” Johnson argued the value was in shared experience: “He’s a TSU Tiger, and I don’t know how to make people understand that. There’s a value in that experience, plus what he brings.” Boudreaux and Douglas both framed the appeal around Wyllie’s Houston roots and fraternity and family networks in the city, arguing those ties could translate into fundraising and recruiting that an outside hire would need a year or more to build. Campbell put it directly: bringing in Robinson “could be a year-long process for him to get his feet on the ground,” time he argued the department does not have with the season three months out.

The panel also weighed in on the basketball vacancy, backing interim coach Shyrone Chatman over reported finalist Corey Lowery. Johnson’s argument centered on continuity: Chatman has been on staff since 2017 under former coach Johnny Jones, ran the program’s NCAA-permitted summer practice window, and has already recruited the roster that will take the floor this season. “You bring in a new coach after school starts. What happens with the staff?” Johnson asked. “The off-season stuff never stops.”

Asked how they planned to get the message to university leadership with two days remaining, Johnson said he had used the email contact form for the Board of Regents listed on TSU’s website, which he said routes to all board members and is monitored by a board administrator. The group also pointed to organizing on social media. Griffin himself noted that FOX 26 had sent its own email requesting an interview with President James W. Crawford III and had not received a response as of the segment’s taping.

Who Is Tony Wyllie

Wyllie’s name has surfaced in the search before. Dr. Lacey Reynolds, a former Texas Southern women’s basketball coach with four decades at the university, wrote to school leadership recommending Wyllie for the athletics director position, describing him as a TSU graduate who has “been successful with six NFL football teams.” Wyllie has not publicly said he wants the job.

His record is real. Born in Brooklyn and raised in the Houston area, Wyllie graduated from Texas Southern with a degree in journalism and later earned an MBA from Rice University. He spent nearly three decades in NFL communications, starting as a public relations intern with the Houston Oilers and Dallas Cowboys before holding senior communications roles with the St. Louis Rams, Tennessee Titans, Houston Texans and Washington’s NFL franchise, the last as senior vice president of communications from 2010 to 2019. He is a five-time Pete Rozelle Award winner, the NFL’s award for public relations excellence, the only executive honored while working for three different teams, and has worked in communications for eight Super Bowls. TSU has recognized him with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2004 and Outstanding Alumni Award in 2017, and he delivered the university’s 2013 commencement address. He now runs The Collective Engine, a sports marketing and NIL consulting firm, and has served as regional president of Special Olympics North America since 2019.

Where the Search Actually Stands

Publicly, the process has not moved toward Wyllie. As Data Driven HBCU reported Aug. 14, board agenda documents show the Personnel and Litigation Committee taking up matching five-year, $350,000-a-year contracts, one for athletics director and one for head men’s basketball coach, both signed by Crawford six days before the board convenes. Both the Personnel and Athletics committees have since voted unanimously to recommend Robinson for the athletics director position. The coaching seat is messier: those same committees are split on Lowery, and sourcing cited by the Defender Network’s Terrance Harris indicates the board may reject him entirely over possible NCAA infractions for contacting Texas Southern players before any approved hire, as well as unresolved questions about his coaching resume. Chatman, the interim coach the FOX 26 panel endorsed, remains a finalist and has separately drawn a letter of support from Reynolds and a joint letter from the current roster.

The timeline itself has moved. The board’s vote was originally expected around Aug. 28, roughly two weeks after Crawford said he had identified his candidates. It has since been pulled forward to Wednesday, Aug. 19, two days before fall classes begin and about three months before the basketball season opener.

A Meeting Alumni Say They Cannot Get Into

Part of what pushed the panel onto television was a scheduling problem. Texas Southern’s published board procedures require members of the public who want to speak during the open forum portion of a meeting to register online at least three business days in advance. Wednesday’s special session, moved up from a later date and not listed on the university’s regularly published meeting calendar, does not leave that much runway. Johnson said as much on air: there is no way for alumni to sign up for public comment at a meeting called on this timeline. Data Driven HBCU independently confirmed the three-business-day registration rule and that no August session appears on the university’s current published board calendar, though the university’s site notes that meeting dates are subject to change. That gap is why the panel treated email and a television interview as their remaining options.

The Vacancy’s Origin: The Kevin Granger Case

The search exists because Texas Southern fired Kevin Granger, its athletics director and vice president of intercollegiate athletics since 2019 and a fixture of TSU basketball dating to his playing career from 1992 to 1996, when he scored 1,971 career points and had his No. 10 jersey retired in 2002. Data Driven HBCU obtained and reviewed the certified court filings from Harris County District Court, which lay out both sides of the underlying case in more detail than has previously been reported.

What the Petition Alleges

Sierra Henry, who worked as TSU’s sports information coordinator after returning to Houston from a sports director role at an Abilene television station, filed suit against Granger on June 2, 2025, in the 157th District Court of Harris County (Cause No. 2025-38593), represented by the Buzbee Law Firm. The petition describes a working relationship that soured after an April 2025 exchange at a baseball game, when Henry says Granger repeated an offhand comment she made in a way she found sexually suggestive. Days later, according to the petition, Granger asked Henry to his office, and when she arrived, he asked if she was wearing a recording device and patted her down, then questioned her about her romantic history before the encounter escalated into unwanted sexual comments, propositions and physical contact, including an offer of cash tied to her clothing. The petition states that Henry filed a police report with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in addition to the civil suit, which seeks more than $1 million in damages for assault and harassment under the Texas Penal Code, plus punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and interest.

Granger’s Answer and Defense

Granger, through attorneys at Quinones & Associates, filed a general denial on July 7, 2025, disputing every allegation in the petition and asserting five affirmative defenses: that any physical contact was consensual, that he lacked intent to harass under the relevant Texas Penal Code section, that the petition fails to state a legally valid claim, and that any damages award would be subject to statutory caps on punitive damages and attorney’s fees. The filing goes further, characterizing Henry, whom the document describes as a co-worker, as acting on “an agenda to unjustly enrich herself based on a personal friendship.” As Granger’s attorneys have separately noted in public statements, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office has not filed criminal charges against him. The case remains a civil matter and is active.

HBCU Legends on SI’s Kyle T. Mosley posted a visual timeline of the athletic department’s turmoil, from Granger’s administrative leave through the Aug. 19 vote, the same day the FOX 26 panel aired:

Here’s a snapshot at the Texas Southern Athletic Department following Dr. Granger being placed on administrative leave. @HBCULegends pic.twitter.com/ltUMtOEM4z

— Kyle T. Mosley (@KyleTMosley) August 17, 2026

Source: Harris County District Clerk certified court filings (Cause No. 2025-38593), obtained by Data Driven HBCU; “The Texas Southern Athletic Department Saga” timeline graphic by Kyle T. Mosley, HBCU Legends on SI; and prior public reporting on Granger’s termination.

A Hall of Fame Legacy, Still Unresolved

Texas Southern has drawn a clear line between Granger the administrator and Granger the player. His employment ended in March, and the civil case against him continues, but the university has left his Hall of Fame induction and playing records intact even after removing his retired jersey banner from the arena. That split, honoring the on-court legacy while ending the administrative one amid active litigation, is itself part of why the athletics director search has drawn the level of public attention it has. It is also the backdrop against which alumni are now pushing, publicly and urgently, for who replaces him.

What Wednesday Decides

The Board of Regents convenes in special session Wednesday with final authority to approve or reject both hires. Based on committee recommendations and Defender Network sources, Ashley Robinson appears poised to become athletics director, regardless of the alumni campaign for Wyllie, who has not publicly entered the race. The basketball seat is the one still genuinely in question, with Lowery’s candidacy in doubt and Chatman drawing organized support from players, a longtime former coach, and now a group of vocal alumni. Data Driven HBCU will update this story as the board acts.

 Details on the Sierra Henry v. Kevin Granger case are drawn from certified court filings obtained directly from the Harris County District Clerk. Allegations in that case are civil, not criminal, and Granger has denied them through counsel.