#MashForMicah Update: $40,000 Given to the Micah Ahern TCU Baseball Scholarship

Last spring, the Frog Fam came together in a truly life-changing way to celebrate one of our own, gone far too soon. Beginning with a simple tweet that pledged to make a donation to the Micah Ahern TCU Baseball Scholarship for each home run hit ion 2017:

From there... the Frog Fam took over. By the end of the season, one in which TCU blasted 58 home runs on their way to the College World Series for a fourth straight year, there was over $50,000 in pledges from well over 200 people.

Now, a few months later, we were able to confirm the total that reached the Scholarship pool, thanks to our friend Joe Gagnon, the originator of the #MashForMicah campaign.

I met yesterday with a couple of people associated with TCU Development. They indicated that donations in the #MashForMicah effort were in a 40k range (about 80% of what we estimate was pledged). The scholarship fund established by others in Micah's name in 2016 is fully endowed. The first scholarship recipient will be named soon, as will all athletic scholarships, and there will be a more formal presentation/recognition at the awards banquet in the Spring.

I don't know the Aherns and I never met Micah, but the fact that he and my son are the same age has always struck me on a very deep and fundamental level. That was what prompted that initial tweet. Thanks again for taking that tweet viral, coming up with the hashtag, and then helping keep track of pledges, team stats, and ultimately donations. Having lost my dad to cancer, and then months later seeing the TCU baseball community lose Micah, you initiated a sense of purpose and direction to the year that, for me, was very much needed and which I will always remember fondly.

This doesn’t include multiple donations made to Cook Children’s and other charitable causes, which helps us arrive even closer to the final tally. All of this ensures that Micah’s name, legacy, and spirit will live on forever at TCU, in the players who are awarded his scholarship, through the fans whose hearts he touched, and through the community as a whole, who all fell in love with our Super Hero. While we will forever mourn our loss, Micah’s legacy is something beautiful and eternal - and he will be woven into the fabric of TCU for years to come.