WSU Warriors donate baseball gear to true warriors in Iraq Soldier Chris Crocker of Fox Company, second battalion, 506 infantry in his Wayne State University (WSU) baseball jersey and family members proudly display donated baseball gear from the WSU Warriors. Pictured with Chris from left to right are Randy Meinke, his brother; Donna Meinke, his mother; Rob Fournier, Wayne State University athletics director; Ryan Meinke, his brother and Chris’ wife Erin Crocker.

Chris Crocker, a Michigan soldier stationed in Iraq, dreams of playing softball with his troop. His mother, Donna Meinke, called WMGC (Magic 105.1) and made a plea for donations of baseball equipment during the Jim Harper and the Magic Morning Show – and the Wayne State Warriors responded with a promise to make his dream come true.

Rob Fournier, athletics director at Wayne State University (WSU), has responded with an offer to provide bats, balls, gloves, jerseys, t-shirts, hats, bases and more, so the troop can enjoy our great American pastime. “One of the pillars of our athletic department is service to others,” said Fournier. “We want our athletes to learn the value of giving and how those acts multiply. I can’t think of a group that gives more to others than our armed forces. For us to acknowledge that effort and sacrifice is important.”

The Wayne State Warriors, whose women’s softball team advanced to the 2006 NCAA Great Lakes Regional earlier this month, was ranked 25th in the nation in NACDA Directors’ Cup standings for 2004-05.

"This is awesome," said Crocker. "It\'s nice to have something to remind us of home. My unit, Fox Company, second battalion, 506 infantry of 100 soldiers, every once in a while gets some free time to take our minds off the war. All this awesome stuff from Wayne State University will now give our unit a chance to play the great game of baseball. And it\'s cool that we will be able to leave it for future Fox Company soldiers too."

“We sometimes become detached from the reality of the world and what our soldiers do for all of us,” said Fournier. “So often these are young people, just like our student-athletes, who are far away from home and who have given a lot for all of us. If baseball can bring back some enjoyable memories from home, we are proud to be a small part of that. I can’t wait to have all of our young men and women back to enjoy in person a WSU athletic event.”

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 11 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students. As one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world.