Tilman Fertitta Believes In Willie Fritz As Strongly As Ever — UH’s Billionaire Backer Remains Certain Houston Football Is In Good Hands

Many sports fans tend to lose faith quicker than the most fickle serial dater. It’s part of being a fan in some ways, with every bad game looming as a grand disaster, a sense of complete doom and gloom never far away. Scroll through the University of Houston football fans’ message boards these days and you’ll certainly see this scenario, with first-year coach Willie Fritz’s name now often used in vain. UH billionaire backer Tilman Fertitta remains unbowed though, still completely convinced that Cougar football is now in the right hands and primed for future success.

“I think Willie’s going to do a great job,” Fertitta tells PaperCity. “It’s just tough your first year to play in the Big 12.

“But we need to support Willie and show up for Willie. And I think both (Fritz and new athletic director Eddie Nuñez) are going to be around the University of Houston for many years to come.”

With Fritz’s UH program set to host No. 18 Iowa State this Saturday night coming off a 34-0 shutout loss at Cincinnati, there are legitimate concerns about what the crowd size at TDECU Stadium will be. Houston comes in 1-3 and while 3-0 Iowa State is a very good team, the Cyclones are hardly a marquee sexy draw. Fertitta hopes UH fans, many who waited for decades for the Cougars to be in a Power 4 conference like the Big 12, will still show.

For Willie. For the hard-working players representing the school. For the future.

During a one-on-one conversation with PaperCity, Fertitta brings up Willie Fritz and his belief in the coach on his own. I asked a different question and after answering it, Fertitta shifted to Fritz and his strong confidence in the future.

Fertitta’s learned the value of having patience in sports rebuilds with the Rockets. His son Patrick Fertitta and Rockets general manager Rafael Stone often needed to remind him of the larger, forward-thinking plan and it was anything but easy, but Fertitta stuck with it through the losing and now the Rockets are what he considers the deepest team in the NBA, with young stars on the rise.

A complete UH football rebuild under Wille Fritz will take time too.

“I think Willie’s going to do a great job. It’s just tough your first year to play in the Big 12. But we need to support Willie and show up for Willie.” — Tilman Fertitta on UH football coach Willie Fritz

Fertitta is equally confident in how Eddie Nuñez has handled his first month on job as Houston’s athletic director, quickly working to evaluate all of UH’s 17 programs and start to determine what each one needs to be successful in the future.

“That’s why we hired him,” Fertitta says. “Eddie is a leader, He’s fought battles as an AD. And we’re excited. We think he’ll do a great job. He definitely has a plan.”

Tilman Fertitta Remains UH Driven

Even as Tilman Fertitta officially opens up the new $70 million Memorial Hermann Houston Rockets Training Center, with the Rockets’ training camp set to kick off Tuesday, this billionaire’s thoughts don’t stray far from his beloved UH. Fertitta brings up how he still vividly remembers being a third grader watching Elvin Hayes drop 39 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks on Lew Alcindor and John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty in front of more than 52,000 fans at the Astrodome as part of his introductory remarks at the grand opening of the Rockets’ brand new training center.

“Elvin Hayes went on in his rookie year — in his rookie year — and led the NBA in scoring,” Fertitta says, waving a pen for emphasis. “Led the league in scoring as a rookie.”

Hayes is in the crowd as Fertitta talks, sitting right next to Hakeem Olajuwon, Calvin Murphy and Rudy Tomjanovich in the first row. The former UH and Rockets great gets plenty of love on the day. The Dream and The Big E spend much of the afternoon talking, two of the best to ever do it in the NBA (both Olajuwon and Hayes easily made the league’s 75th anniversary team) with so much shared UH and Rockets love. Current Rockets forward Dillon Brooks makes a point to come over and pull Hayes int0 an embrace too.

Fertitta would approve. Anyone who thought Tilman might spend less time and energy on the University of Houston once he bought the Rockets has been badly mistaken. These UH bonds go deep with a former Galveston and Houston area kid. To the third grade with that Astrodome classic for Elvin Hayes — and before.

It didn’t take Eddie Nuñez a month to understand that.

“I just smile and I enjoy the ride,” Nuñez tells PaperCity of  his whirlwind first 41 days on the job. “We’ve got a lot of obstacles to tackle. But you’ve got to go in there with optimisim and you’ve got to show people how good we are and what we’re about.”

Tilman Fertitta already knows. But he’s convinced Willie Fritz and Eddie Nuñez are two guys who will spread the word on the University of Houston and its football program for years to come.

Stay tuned to PaperCity for more on the Rockets and the new next level training center.