TCU Baseball: Blessed Feats

"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!"

--Romans 10:15 (KJV)

Of the many achievements TCU fans have to be proud of regarding their athletes--their manifold successes on the field, the court and in the classroom--none should strike their hearts and minds so deeply as the various philanthropic efforts in which those athletes are engaged. And one of the most prominent of such efforts is that of Luke Savage and his non-profit, Blessed Feet.

This Saturday, April 16th, the Horned Frog community has an opportunity to contribute to his generous cause at the Shoe Dropoff at 2 pm, prior to TCU's game against Texas Tech.

Savage, one of the best pitchers for TCU, traveled to the Dominican Republic as a sophomore in high school. While there, he had the opportunity to play baseball with the locals, who ranged in age from 15-25. The experience made an impression that never abandoned him, and by his senior year he thought it a worthwhile endeavor to solicit generous donors for athletic footwear, so less privileged athletes in the Dominican Republic would have a healthy alternative to the makeshift sandals and poorly fitted shoes with which they suffered.

Of this experience, Mr. Savage said: "A bunch of kids are literally playing barefoot, blisters, bleeding. Some of the kids have shoes and you tie them tighter so they form to their foot, but they literally don't fit their foot. They're wearing a size 10 and they're actually a size six or whatever they might be."

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐥𝐞: Get to know sophomore @TCU_Baseball standout @lukesavage01 and the amazing work he is doing with his non-profit Blessed Feet! #GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/3J91gvrarX
— TCU Athletics (@TCU_Athletics) October 26, 2021

This summer, Savage will return to the Dominican Republic as a sort of Santa Claus of sport, with thousands of shoes generously donated to the welfare of the athletes of the region. Savage estimates that as of now, his organization has accrued over 2,500 pairs of shoes in good to mint condition.

Mr. Savage encourages all Horned Frogs, and the kind-hearted in general, to attend the Shoe Dropoff this Saturday at 2 pm at TCU's Lupton Stadium. "There will be shoe donation boxes or tables set up around the stadium. And then if you can’t make it on Saturday we have a website, www.blessedfeet.org, and that tells us where you can ship your shoes or drop them off at our locations."

Mr. Savage is proud of his program and its successes. And he hopes to expand it further: "The final goal, unrealistic at this point, is to be a Tim Tebow/Clayton Kershaw kind of foundation where I hand it off to someone with more knowledge on the subject who can grow it and get the people to bring in a bunch of shoes where we can go from one country to four to all around the world." One might consider that relative to his foundation not yet being three years old and his having collected virtually thousands of cleats, his supposedly unrealistic goal may not seem so farfetched as he suggests.

NBC 5 in Dallas/Fort Worth recently chronicled Savage and his Blessed Feet organization:

But such long-term goals require short-term successes to pull off, and that is where Saturday comes in. "We hope to get a thousand or so this Saturday, and then we’re going to sort them and bring them off this summer. And we want to get as many people and just spread the word about the need for these shoes in places like the Dominican Republic."

There is, of course, nothing that pleases a Horned Frog so much as the assistance of an individual's teammates. Mr. Savage visibly brightens when the question is posed. "They've been amazing. It's been pretty crazy. A bunch of guys, as soon as I released it, brought like ten or fifteen shoes each. Some have donated up to 20 pairs."

Luke Savage is accomplishing what all TCU students and alum should aspire to: making the world a better place. And they all will have that opportunity this Saturday, at 2 pm, at TCU's Lupton Stadium.

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