LUBBOCK, Texas -- Last July, pitcher NiJaree Canady shook college sports when she announced her transfer to Texas Tech and landed the richest softball NIL deal ever.
The reigning USA Softball National Player of the Year bolted from the hallowed halls of Stanford, where she had become a superstar after piloting the Cardinal to two straight Women's College World Series appearances, finishing in the final four teams both times. Her new home would be on the arid plains of West Texas at a school that had never won a conference title and had won just 49% of its games -- and 31% of its league games since the advent of the Big 12.
The transfer was met with awe: The Matador Club, Texas Tech's NIL collective, made a historic play for Canady, offering a one-year, $1,050,024 contract (a million for Canady, $50k for living expenses, $24 for her jersey number).
Just more than a month after Red Raiders coach Gerry Glasco -- who was hired from Louisiana on June 20, three days after Canady had entered the portal and started lining up visits -- arrived in Lubbock, he landed the most valuable player in the country. He did it by pulling out all the stops, including recruiting calls from quarterback Patrick Mahomes to Canady, a Kansan who is a devoted Kansas City Chiefs fan.
Glasco, who didn't have much in the way of NIL in Lafayette, had suddenly walked into what he believed was the best softball situation in America. Two of the Matador Club's biggest boosters -- Tracy Sellers, a former Tech softball player, and her husband, John, an oil and gas executive and former Red Raiders football player under Mike Leach -- had been supporting softball for years. They donated $11 million to the athletic department in 2022, with $1 million designated for softball stadium upgrades.
Glasco said he was told Canady's agent was initially seeking $400,000, which he thought was low for her to leave Stanford, where she was already a budding legend.
"My message was: We're talking about Bo Jackson. We're talking about Herschel Walker," Glasco told the Sellers. "We're talking about a once-in-a-generation player that's already made a name all over America. She's a folk hero in our sport and she's a sophomore."
Tracy thought it was worth making a statement at Texas Tech, a place where Sheryl Swoopes became a superstar and where the highway outside Rocky Johnson Field is named for former Red Raiders women's basketball coach Marsha Sharp. After meeting with the star pitcher, Sellers decided if anyone was worthy of such an emphatic statement about investing in women's sports, it was Canady.
"She is a wonderful human being," Sellers said. "We look at it as they deserve it just as much [as male athletes]. She worked so hard to be the No. 1 pitcher in the country. ... I left that meeting and thought, this is who I would love to put a lot of effort into because of who she is."
Canady knew the spotlight would come with the news, but she hopes it opens the door for those who follow her to reap the benefits.
"There are a lot of male athletes who get that and it's not a headline anymore," Canady said. "I hope that happens for women's sports, too. I feel like it can be a pressure if you let it be, but honestly, I think it's just a privilege. I hope someone tomorrow comes in and builds it even more."
Looking back at the Sellers' donation for the softball facilities, the same size investment in Canady had a greater transformative impact.
This year, the Red Raiders won their first Big 12 regular-season and conference titles while Canady led the nation with a 0.81 ERA. She went 26-5, racking up the second-most wins in a season in school history. She was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year. On Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET, No. 12 seed Texas Tech (45-12), hosting its first Lubbock Regional, will play Brown (33-15).
"She definitely put Texas Tech softball on the map," Tracy said.
CANADY WANTS TO make one thing clear: There's more to the story than just a giant deposit.
"I feel like people thought I heard the number and just came to Texas Tech, which wasn't the case at all," she said she considered Tech's offer for more than a month before she committed. "If I didn't feel like Coach Glasco was an amazing coach and could lead this program to be where we thought it could be, I wouldn't have come."
Glasco, 66, is a wildly successful late bloomer in the softball world who won five conference titles with six trips to the NCAA regionals in six seasons at Louisiana. He wasn't hired until Canady had already entered the portal, so he had to make up ground quickly, because he wasn't exactly in the sweepstakes in Lafayette. But he had a secret weapon: Glasco was friends with Jim Huecker, a former travel ball coach and Canady's longtime coach. And he knew what Huecker knew: Canady missed hitting as much as she loved pitching.
Canady grew up in Topeka, Kansas, as a multisport star, including playing basketball and tackle football against boys. On her girls' basketball team in high school, Canady averaged 20.6 points and 12.3 rebounds during her junior year, leading Topeka High to the Kansas 6A state finals while also being the two-time Kansas Softball Gatorade Player of the Year and leading the team to its first two state titles. She dominated in the circle, obviously, but also hit .478 with 13 homers as a junior and .530 with 42 RBIs as a senior. After hitting just 35 times in two seasons at Stanford, Canady wanted to get back to being an all-around athlete.
And Glasco, who directed record-setting offenses as an assistant at Georgia and Texas A&M, surprised Canady by making hitting a centerpiece of his presentation, which comprised a stack of handwritten stat sheets and charts.
"That's my lineup," Glasco said, holding up the same poster he used to pitch Canady. "If you look, I've got 'em all and I'm promising her how many runs I'm going to score. The coaches wanted to put it in Excel, make it nice, but I said, 'No, no, no. I want it because NiJa has to trust me. If it's in my handwriting, this is better than on a computer because it has to be personal.' I believe that was important."
On most visits, Canady spent the bulk of her time with pitching coaches. But in Lubbock, Canady was so interested that she spent more time on her visit meeting with Glasco than she did with Tara Archibald, Glasco's daughter who serves as associate head coach and pitching coach.
"I think I talked to Coach Tara maybe 20-30 minutes about pitching and then the rest of the time was just Coach Glasco talking about hitting," Canady said. "Afterward, I had to go back and talk to Coach Tara a little more just because Coach Glasco and I spent so much time just talking about hitting, going through different swings, watching videos. And that was definitely different just because other schools were obviously more focused on my pitching."
When Archibald left her head coaching job at Eastern Illinois, where she went 40-17 last season, to join her father's staff July 3, she couldn't have imagined landing Canady. But first, she had to wait on her dad, who can spin a few yarns.
Glasco coached his three daughters: Tara, Erin and the late Geri Ann, a former Gatorade National Player of the Year who died in a 2019 car accident when she was a volunteer coach for him at Louisiana.
"This is why I think I could identify with her," Glasco said. "All three of my daughters pitched and played and hit. And when you're an athlete, the one thing you don't want to be is a pitcher only. In our sport, the pitcher is so important, so we limit them. And I think that's what she felt like in her college career. ... She wants the opportunity."
Despite dealing with a soft-tissue injury in March and being limited, Canady has 81 at-bats this year, batting .309 with five doubles and eight homers. She leads the team with a .457 on-base percentage, thanks to her 13 walks and being hit by a pitch 10 times. Still, she takes violent cuts, looking to send the ball into orbit any chance she gets.
"I'm definitely trying to hit the ball out," Canady said. "And that's Coach Glasco's motto, too. He loves the long ball."
CANADY SAID THERE wasn't much culture shock going from Palo Alto to Lubbock. She is from Topeka, after all.
"Lubbock reminds me more of home," she said.
The major difference, she said, has been the atmosphere in Lubbock. Located five hours from Dallas and six from Austin, it's its own outpost in West Texas. The Red Raiders are a devoted bunch.
"I think that was the biggest shock to me, just about how much sports matter here in Texas," she said. "I remember my first football game here and just seeing how many people were here, that was definitely different."
That legendary arm has proved useful at Tech football games, where she has admitted to sneaking in tortillas and winging them down toward the field, a tradition in Lubbock.
"There's a whole science behind getting it far," she said. "You have to put a hole in the center. There's a certain way to throw it."
And it didn't hurt that another Red Raider with a legendary arm has become a big fan and made his own recruiting pitch. Canady, a huge Chiefs fan, was shocked when Mahomes interrupted his vacation in Italy to call her on her visit.
"I'm not going to say any names, but another program had a very important person call me and there was no caller ID, so I couldn't call him back or anything," Canady said. "But Patrick Mahomes, I have his number, I can reach out to him. So I think that's cool. Last July, we were eating lunch and had a beautiful view of the whole football stadium. Someone told me, just send a picture to Patrick to see if he responds. He's preparing for the season and then I think within 10 minutes he got back to me."
Canady has that kind of star power, and she'll undoubtedly draw more players who want to play alongside her next year, with more time for Glasco to work instead of the quick-assembly project he put together last season. Glasco thinks this year's Red Raiders team can take anyone to the wire because of Canady, but is confident he can contend for a national championship next year, if not this year.
"I've never coached anybody close to her," he said. "I've never coached this kind of pitcher in college. It has a huge effect. It makes up for a lot of bad coaching mistakes, I'll tell you that."
The partnership impacted all parties involved. She says it was hard to leave Stanford, her teammates and coaches behind, and yes, that Stanford degree. But Canady's dream is to coach kids and open her own facility -- or facilities -- and her family feels the money will help her get there quickly.
"She wants to teach little girls to hit," Glasco said. "She loves little kids. You can see it when she signs autographs."
And it doesn't hurt to have the Sellers in her corner.
"Why would you not want people you love to succeed? And so same with NiJa. I would go into business any day with her," Tracy said. "She's a celebrity in Lubbock, Texas. It's not just about money. I really hope that story gets out about her."