Unlike most years, 2025 was potentially transformative on the college and professional sports scenes. We saw the Rockets perhaps take a step up in the NBA title conversation with a blockbuster trade. We are hopeful that the DeMeco Ryans and C.J. Stroud-led Texans can take another step, and we saw Kelvin Sampson and the University of Houston Cougars solidify their place as a national basketball power. Prairie View made a couple of huge coaching hires with football coach Tremaine Jackson and women’s basketball coach Tai Dillard. Texas Southern football coach Cris Dishman accomplished something that hadn’t been done at the Third Ward university since 2000, while Tigers’ basketball coach Johnny Jones continues to reload his program.
Here is a look at some of the biggest college and professional sports stories of 2025:
1. The Rockets make blockbuster trade for future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant top the year.
Last season, the Rockets went from being on the outside looking in when it came to the Western Conference Playoffs to being one of the elite teams as the No. 2 seed. But a quick first-round exit at the hands of the Golden State Warriors convinced general manager Rafael Stone and head coach Ime Udoka to speed up the maturation by pulling off the blockbuster trade of the offseason. The Rockets sent young star Jalen Green and controversial veteran Dillon Brooks, along with some draft picks to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for mega-star and future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant. This was easily the biggest acquisition for the Rockets since convincing James Harden to come aboard from Oklahoma City in 2012. Durant told the Defender that his motivation in joining the Rockets with hopes of adding another NBA title to his resume was the chance to put some respect on his last name.
2. Prairie View may have made the college coaching hire of the year when athletic director Anton Goff landed a brash-talking young Division II coach Tremaine Jackson.
Most had never heard of Tremaine Jackson, but he was introduced with a flurry as the Panthers’ new head football coach. He came in fresh off an undefeated season and Division II Championship run at powerhouse Valdosta State. He came in talking big and making promises about where PV would be immediately under his control. He said the Panthers would win the SWAC West, win the SWAC Championship, and then move on to Atlanta to play in the Celebration Bowl for the Black national championship. It seemed like talk and bluster until the Panthers made good on some of the rhetoric in Season 1.
3. Kelvin Sampson makes UH a family affair
Not only has Kelvin Sampson rebuilt the University of Houston into a national power, but he has done it as a family affair, with his son and daughter going to work with him every day.
It has been an unbelievable second chapter of a coaching career for University of Houston men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson. But it has been made even better and more memorable because a 70-year-old coach gets to come to work every day with his kids – Lauren and Kellen alongside him. Lauren serves as her father’s chief of staff, and Kellen is the Cougars’ top assistant coach. The family spoke with the Defender about their connection and what it’s like to work together every day.
4. Controversy in college athletics seemed to dominate the headlines
While there was much to celebrate this year in college athletics, like another run in the NCAA Tournament for the UH highly-ranked Cougars, Prairie View football winning the SWAC West and advancing to the conference championship game, and the TSU football team managing an NCAA-recognized winning season for the first time in 25 years, this year had its share of controversy. It started with accusations and claims that Texas Southern athletic director and former star basketball player Kevin Granger sexually assaulted a female staffer in the athletic department. Granger, who oversaw tremendous growth in the athletic department, has stepped back from his duties, but the school has remained tight-lipped about his future. But veteran athletic administrator Dr. Paula Jackson has stepped in seamlessly as the interim athletic director for now. But the controversy didn’t end there. Later in the year, a routine SEC matchup between Texas A&M and South Carolina turned volatile when a Texas DPS officer made the decision to physically contact a couple of Gamecocks’ players before berating them in the tunnel at Kyle Field during the football game. And just like that, one of the top football programs in the nation was being talked about for all of the wrong reasons.
5. Houston says goodbye to legendary boxer and philanthropist George Foreman
George Foreman was many things to many people: a philanthropist, a man of Faith, and an incredible family man. But in Houston, he was known simply as Champ. The man who won Olympic Gold and then shook up the world by becoming the Heavyweight Boxing Champion before losing the belt in a classic showdown with Muhammad Ali, died on March 21 at the age of 76. The city that he loved and that loved him back eulogized Foreman in a memorial service at the Wortham Theater Center on April 14. The two-time Heavyweight Champion was remembered for all he did for his community, family, and the world during his lifetime.
Other contenders
Rockets make big leap back into the postseason and Western Conference elite
PWI to HBCU transfers: Once they go Black they ain’t trying to go back
Texas college athletes cashing in big time on NIL deals
https://defendernetwork.com/sports/college-sports/ncaa-rules-athletes-name-image-likeness/-
Astros rookie Cam Smith looks like superstar in making
A father’s pride: Jalen Hurts’ dad excited for son Super Bowl rematch
Texas Southern posts first winning season in 25 years
