Jackson State made headlines in recent months by losing football coach Deion Sanders to Colorado. However, the Tigers have made up in part for that loss—with the help of a music icon.
Hip-hop great and entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is giving $1 million to Jackson State’s athletic department, university president Dr. Elayne Hayes-Anthony announced at a monthly meeting of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning board of trustees on June 15.
“P Diddy, as our students call him, and as we probably know him as Sean Combs, has released $1 million dollars to Jackson State for athletics,” Hayes-Anthony said. “And we are very, very pleased about that. We will be receiving $332,000 by June 23 as a first installment and we get another installment in 2024 and another in 2025.”
Combs publicly pledged to donate the money at the 2022 BET Awards, a little over five months before Sanders’s departure. Now, Combs has followed through on his promise even though Sanders has moved on to a Power 5 job.
“Before I leave, I want to donate $1 million dollars to Howard University,” Combs said. “Also, I’m going to drop another million dollars on Deion Sanders and Jackson State because we should play for us.”
Combs attended Howard, dropping out during his sophomore year but later receiving an honorary doctorate in 2014.
