{"id":241333,"date":"2026-04-09T02:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/241333\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T02:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:30:11","slug":"country-legend-returns-to-notable-texas-university-after-72-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/241333\/","title":{"rendered":"Country legend returns to notable Texas university after 72 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Willie Nelson & Family are headed to Baylor University \u2014 a school Nelson attended for a short time in 1954 before embarking on his legendary music career \u2014 for the first time in seven decades. On Tuesday, April 7, the world’s largest Baptist university announced that the country icon would return to campus for a concert at\u00a0Baylor Ballpark in Waco on May 14. It marks his first performance at the school since being “banned” in November 1988<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That year, the “Whiskey River” singer was invited to perform at the newly-built\u00a0Ferrell Center basketball stadium for a concert benefiting the citizens of Leroy, Texas, who lost their life savings when their local bank went bust in 1987. But it never came to be \u2014 the concert was canceled, and\u00a0then-Baylor spokesperson Eugene Baker told a reporter that Nelson had failed to be “a positive influence to many young people, as well as older people throughout America.”<\/p>\n

“Several things had come to light with regard to some of the activities that related to Mr. Nelson and his concerts, and we felt that having that type of concert on our campus did not fit into the purposes and goals of this university,” Baker said in an interview preserved by the Texas Archive of the Moving Image.<\/a><\/p>\n

In the following decades, the student body has asked for Willie and been met with Jack. A petition <\/a>to “Free Willie” was created in 2019 to welcome the singer back to campus and “celebrate Baylor University’s greatest Alum,” but it didn’t create much noise. Op-eds have also recently appeared\u00a0in the student newspaper.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

But the 38-year rift is no more. In the concert announcement<\/a>, Baylor President Linda Livingstone said, “There\u2019s long been a rumor that Willie had been \u2018banned\u2019 from campus, but we are not aware of any such ban. I look forward to welcoming Willie home to Baylor and Central Texas, along with his Family, his fellow Baylor Bears and the Waco community for a momentous concert event at Magnolia Field at Baylor Ballpark.”<\/p>\n

“Seventy-two years after Willie Nelson walked our campus as a Baylor student, I am thrilled this Texas legend\u00a0will finally take the stage at his alma mater for a once-in-a-lifetime concert event along the banks of the Brazos River,” Livingstone said.<\/p>\n

Concert-goers will rejoice\u00a0to know that dancing will be allowed (the school held its\u00a0first official dance<\/a> in 1996,\u00a0after 151 years). Additionally, beer will be available for purchase at the show, despite Baylor being an otherwise dry campus. You don’t have to be a student to attend \u2014 tickets <\/a>go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Willie Nelson & Family are headed to Baylor University \u2014 a school Nelson attended for a short time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2107,820,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-241333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-mysaentertainment","9":"tag-mysastaff","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}