Loyal readers, thank you for your patience as we provide you with our April monthly eNews Update in early May. Hopefully as you will see below, the delay was worth the wait, as there was so much World University Games and related April news to report, that we had to go into overtime to write all about it and send it to you!
Head of Delegations Meetings, Rhine-Ruhr 2025
Early in the month of April, Sunday, April 6th to Friday, April 11th, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for the Rhine-Ruhr (Germany) 2025 Summer World University Games, together with the International University Sports Federation (FISU), the international governing body for the World University Games, convened the Delegation Heads (Heads of Delegations or HODs) from all the participating countries in Dusseldorf for four days of meetings, presentations, and site tours in preparation for this summer’s Games. The HOD program serves as a critical orientation session, enabling delegates to learn about everything from dining and housing to security and transportation for the 2025 Rhine-Ruhr World University Games, which take place from Wednesday, July 16 through Sunday, July 27, 2025.
The Rhine-Ruhr LOC went through a number of excellent, detailed presentations; walked attendees through select Games venues, athlete housing and dining locations, as well as FISU Games Neighborhoods (participant gathering spots); and showed off some of the host cities including Duisburg, Essen, Bochum, Mulheim, and Hagen. The Games Sport Managers were available for sport-specific conversations, and the Rhine-Ruhr social media team were hard at work capturing, publicizing, and posting many aspects of the event. And it was not all work as the LOC hosted a grand 100-Days-To-Go Celebration at an amazing dirigible hangar with the North Rhine Westphalia Prime Minister and Secretary of State present, the attractive Rhine-Ruhr torch, and even the popular falcon mascot, Wanda. The evening featured a new first for the FISU Games, a drawing and assignment of teams into pool play for team sports such as Basketball and Volleyball, all done live on a large videoboard in front of the gathered crowd. A final dinner at the Radisson Blue Hotel in Dusseldorf, the official FISU Family Hotel for the Games, capped off the weeklong gathering
The Rhine-Ruhr LOC went through a number of excellent, detailed presentations; walked attendees through select Games venues, athlete housing and dining locations, as well as FISU Games Neighborhoods (participant gathering spots); and showed off some of the host cities including Duisburg, Essen, Bochum, Mulheim, and Hagen. The Games Sport Managers were available for sport-specific conversations, and the Rhine-Ruhr social media team were hard at work capturing, publicizing, and posting many aspects of the event. And it was not all work as the LOC hosted a grand 100-Days-To-Go Celebration at an amazing dirigible hangar with the North Rhine Westphalia Prime Minister and Secretary of State present, the attractive Rhine-Ruhr torch, and even the popular falcon mascot, Wanda. The evening featured a new first for the FISU Games, a drawing and assignment of teams into pool play for team sports such as Basketball and Volleyball, all done live on a large videoboard in front of the gathered crowd. A final dinner at the Radisson Blue Hotel in Dusseldorf, the official FISU Family Hotel for the Games, capped off the weeklong gathering.
The United States had a strong delegation in attendance, taking lots of photos and notes, headed by Dan Guerrero, President of UniUSA, the U.S. member federation of FISU. In addition to Hill Carrow, Chairman & CEO of the 2029 World University Games in North Carolina, Neal Holden, Nels Hawkinson, Kreston Welch, and David Knopp of BTI, the Seattle-based U.S. agency that helps organize and coordinate the USA Team on behalf of UniUSA, were all in attendance. The energy and excitement for the upcoming Games were everywhere in the Rhine-Ruhr region during HOD Week, and we look forward to an amazing 2025 FISU Games in July.
Two New Official Supporters Join the WUG29 Sponsor Team
We are excited to announce the addition of two new sponsors to our Official Supporter Team for the 2029 World University Games: the Temple Sloan Family Foundation and Hummingbird Creative Group. The Temple Sloan Family Foundation is based in Raleigh, NC, and focuses on supporting educational and community causes. Hummingbird Creative Group, based in Cary, while not new to the 2029 World University Games Family, having served as our Design Agency throughout the bid process, including our award-winning website, bid book, and most notably the Games logo, now wants to up their game by providing even more great design work for the Games themselves, including the Look of the Games, sport pictograms, mascot work, brand specifications and protections, and much more. “We are thrilled to have both the Temple Sloan Family Foundation and Hummingbird Creative join our Official Supporters group for the Games,” said Hill Carrow, WUG2029 Chairman & CEO. “Thanks to their financial and creative assistance, we are making great progress on the planning and development of the Games and the event branding!”
Sports ETA in Tulsa, Oklahoma
From Germany the first full week of April, it was on to Tulsa, OK, the following week, April 14-17, for the Annual Symposium of the Sports Events & Tourism Association, the national trade organization for sports tourism in the United States. Michael Conte, Sports Manager (pictured), and Hill Carrow, Chair & CEO, represented the 2029 World University Games and International University Sports at the event.
During the conference, WUG2029 maintained a booth where we had a record number of sign-ups for meetings, where destinations across the country, ranging from Dayton and Pueblo to Las Vegas and Houston, and including Orlando, Milwaukee, Little Rock, Sacramento, St. Petersburg, San Diego, Boston, and the states of Nebraska and Maryland, among others, came to hear about the numerous event-hosting opportunities in the world of international university sports. At our booth, those destinations could learn more about the World University Games, but also about the approximately 30 World University Championships which FISU stages every other year in the even year. Such championships range from Beach Volleyball and 3v3 Basketball to Golf and Triathlon
WUG2029 Education Program Officially Underway
The World University Games are much more than sporting events, there are actually three primary pillars of the Games: Competition, Culture, and Education. As we reported in our January 2025 eNews Update, the LOC for the 2029 World University Games in North Carolina USA has decided to start the Education Program component of the 2029 Games way early – beginning this year, over 4 years to go to the Games.
This year’s launch of the Education Program involves the creation of the Triangle Sports Business Fellows Program, which provides Summer Fellowships in the sports industry to college students from underrepresented populations. Thanks to the help of the Sports Biz Careers Team in Charlotte, who created the Charlotte Sports Business Fellowship program in 2022, we have 5 local organizations including the Durham Sports Commission, North Carolina Football Club (NCFC), Van Wagner, Wasserman, and the 2029 World University Games providing support for the program, which will get underway in June with its first class of Fellows.
Interviews with the finalists for the initial Fellows positions took place on Thursday, April 24, at the headquarters offices of the 2029 FISU Games in Cary. Special thanks to our interviewers: Harrison Hartong and Riley Hart of Wasserman, Marcus Manning of the Durham Sports Commission, Amani Fulton of NCFC, and Justin Jones and Hill Carrow of the 2029 World University Games. The twelve finalists were exceptional and the decision-making to determine fellowship recipients will be very difficult (more to come on the Summer of 2025 Fellows in a subsequent newsletter). We are very excited and pleased to be getting this early major program off the ground and look forward in the future to not only growing the program in the Triangle but also expanding into the Triad (and beyond). The Sports Business Fellows program is intended to be one of the major legacies of the 2029 World University Games and we can’t wait to see how big we can grow the program by the time of the 2029 WUG.
Research Triangle Park Reception and Dinner
We want to give an appropriate shout-out to our Fabulous Four Spring 2025 Interns: Jaden Cross of NC State University, Serenity Harper of North Carolina Central University, Eliza Rich of NC State University, and Eva Vestal also of NC State. Jaden is in the Buzzard Fellows Program at NCSU, Serenity is focused on marketing and communications, Eliza is a Varsity Soccer athlete for the Lady Pack, and Eva turned out to be our event bid and design guru this spring. School year internships are part-time depending on how students can fit it into their university academic and extra-curricular schedules. Jaden will be continuing with us as a full-time intern this summer and Eva will begin her work career by doing part-time work with the NC USA World University Games. Our Spring 2025 Interns collectively had a significant impact on our organization and the planning and development of WUG2029, and we cannot thank them enough for their hard work and great efforts on behalf of the big event.
Sports Brief
Learfield Director’s Cup Standings: As of April 10, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Athletics had the number one program in the country in the Learfield Director’s Cup standing with 843.27 points. In second was Stanford (760.5 points). The Learfield Director’s Cup is an annual award presented by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) to the most successful overall athletic program in collegiate sports.
Major League Table Tennis (MLTT): MLTT was founded in 2023 with 8 teams in cities across the United States, including one, the Carolina Gold Rush, based right here in Morrisville, NC, at Triangle Badminton & Table Tennis, a WUG2029 Training Venue. MLTT just concluded its second season over the weekend of April 12-13 with league championship matches held at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, crowning none other than the Carolina Gold Rush as the new National Champion after their defeat of Bay Area 17-4 in the semifinals and Texas 14-7 in the Finals.
Sports Events & Tourism Association Annual Symposium: The annual convention and trade show of the national sports tourism industry, held in Tulsa, OK, April 14-17, set a new all-time attendance record at 1060, including over 300 first-time attendees. WUG2029’s own Chairman & CEO, Hill Carrow, founded Sports ETA—previously known as the National Association of Sports Commissions (NASC)—circa 1989 and incorporated the association here in North Carolina, which remains Sports ETA’s legal home to this day
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Men’s & Women’s Tennis Championships: The championships were held at Cary Tennis Park, a WUG2029 Competition Venue, Tuesday April 15 through Sunday, April 20. UNC Chapel Hill’s Women’s Tennis Team won its second-consecutive ACC crown.
MEAC Men’s & Women’s Tennis Championships: The weekend of Friday, April 24 through Sunday, April 26, also featured championship collegiate tennis at Cary Tennis Park, as the park hosted the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships. South Carolina State won both the Men’s and Women’s finals with victories in each championship match over North Carolina Central University, a host university for the 2029 FISU Games.
Club World Cup in America kicks off next month on Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Miami and concludes Sunday, July 13 with the Championship Match at MetLife Stadium in New York. The tournament will be played across 12 venues in 11 cities, including Charlotte. Last Friday, July 25th, FIFA, the soccer international governing body, announced that Greensboro will be the site of the Base Camp for SE Palmeiras, one of the most popular teams in South America. Greensboro was the only city in North Carolina to be awarded a base camp, which will be hosted on the campus of UNC Greensboro, one of the host universities for the 2029 World University Games.
George Bell (dec.): For those of you who go back to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, a gentle giant at 7 feet 8 inches tall appeared from a UFO at the conclusion of the Closing Ceremony. That giant was George Bell, who was a student at that time at Biola University of La Mirada, CA, a suburb of LA. He later played pro basketball, alongside the famous Harlem Globe Trotters. In 2007, the Guiness Book of World Records certified George as the tallest person living in America. In his later years, George resided in Durham, NC, one of our WUG2029 Host Cities, where he passed away on March 19 at age 67. (Thank you, Rich Perelman of The Sports Examiner, for bringing this interesting piece of local Olympic sports history to our attention.)
Support the Games
Be a vital part of championing the world’s premier event for student-athletes! Bringing the 2029 World University Games to our state promises unparalleled economic advantages for our communities. Seize the chance to spotlight North Carolina on the global stage! Click below to explore the myriad of ways you can contribute and support the Games.
Don’t Forget to Shop Local and Support the WUG
Our online store features 2029 FISU World University Games t’s, polos, hoodies, tanks, caps, and more. Items come in a wide variety of colors, and the store has proven to be quite a popular online shopping destination. Don’t miss your opportunity to show your support of the 2029 FISU World University Games by snagging some excellent quality, name-brand clothing and caps!
Sponsor Thank You’s
We cannot thank our sponsors enough for their strong belief in, and generous support of, the 2029 World University Games. We encourage you to patronize their businesses and give them your own personal thanks when you do.
