Texas Business reports: WACO—The massive economic impact of Robert Griffin III's Heisman season continues in Waco. Baylor University received a major gift from Sheila and Walter Umphrey, BBA ’59, JD ’65, of Beaumont, for Baylor Stadium, the university’s new on-campus football stadium.

Texas Business reports:  IRVING—Panini America, the world's largest sports and entertainment collectibles company, reached a trading card agreement with Washington Redskins quarterback and 2011 Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III for the 2012 season. 

Texas Business reports:  SAN ANTONIO—Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. will buy, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, a 75.5% equity stake in Retama Partners  Ltd., the owner of the racing license for Retama Park Racetrack.

Texas Business reports: LEWISVILLE—Orthofix International NV reached an agreement under which Water Street Healthcare Partners, a strategic private equity firm focused on the health care industry, will acquire Orthofix's Sports Medicine Business Unit, which operates as Breg Inc. 

Texas Business reports:  Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez’s retirement ceremony prior to Monday’s Texas Rangers game with the New York Yankees was seen by a record television audience, according to Nielsen Media Research data. 

Texas Business reports:  IRVING—Panini America, the world's largest sports and entertainment collectibles company,  reached a long-term agreement with the National Football League and the NFLPA, granting the company domestic and international rights for up to 18 product releases annually. 

It all began with Ethel, a largemouth bass so famous that when she died at 19 years of age 1,500 people attended her funeral. She was named after the ornery mother-in-law of the angler who caught her in Lake Fork, Texas, and now her legacy lives on through America’s first, and most successful, bass-breeding program.

Texas Business reports: Two TCU professors have have discovered a 64,000-square-kilometer area, or roughly the size of West Virginia, in East Texas with high concentrations of toxic mercury.

Texas Business reports:  Baylor Unniversity received the largest capital gift in university history - from Elizabeth and Drayton McLane Jr. for Baylor's new on-campus football stadium alongside the Brazos River.

Texas Business reports: KATY—Two pro sports women's associations are teaming up to form a credit union with an educational wealth empowerment program for pro athletes and their families. 

Texas Business reports:  The Texas Rangers announced today that the club has signed manager Ron Washington to a two-year contract extension through the 2014 season. 

Texas Business reports:  DALLAS— Gleneagles Country Club, a member of the ClubCorp family of clubs,  opened a TaylorMade Performance Lab, one of only four locations across the country to provide golfers of all ages and abilities a state-of-the-art fitting experience that uses 3D motion capture technology, which is then analyzed by a full-time certified TaylorMade Clubfitting professional.

Texas Business reports: NORTHRIDGE, Calif.— CSC, a provider of crowd management services, won a three-year contract with The University of Texas at Arlington to provide event staffing at College Park Center, a new $78 million, 7,000-seat events venue. 

Texas Business reports:  HOUSTON—The Houston Dynamo and Sunbelt bank BBVA Compass announced they are entering into a multi-year naming rights agreement for the Major League Soccer (MLS) team's new downtown Houston stadium currently under construction.

Texas Business reports:  The Rice University Board of Trustees approved a $44.5 million proposal Thursday to build a new two-story football facility at the south end of Rice Stadium and to improve the stadium facilities and experience. The project is contingent on fundraising. 

Texas Business reports:  ARLINGTON—Bruce Greene, known as a Western artist and sculptor, has been selected by the Texas Rangers to create a statue honoring the memory of Shannon Stone.

Texas Business reports: ARLINGTON--The Texas Rangers announced this evening that the club has purchased the contracts of the following six players, adding all six to the club’s 40-man roster (in alphabetical order): RHP Jake Brigham, RHP Roman Mendez, RHP Justin Miller, LHP Martin Perez, RHP Neil Ramirez, and RHP Matt West.

Texas Business reports:  COLORADO CITY—When the Colorado High School football team plays its home games, the school's new artificial turf field benefits the area in two ways: by conserving water and generating revenue.

Texas Business reports:  Rice University unveiled a proposal for a new two-story football facility at the south end of Rice Stadium that will house training and locker rooms, a sports medicine center and the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame.

Texas Business reports:  ARLINGTON—The World Series comes to Arlington for a second consecutive year with the Texas Rangers hosting Games 3, 4, and 5 of the Fall Classic on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, October 22-24.

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—The Austin Aztex will launch a new franchise in the United Soccer Leagues beginning with the 2012 season. 

Texas Business reports:  COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M University today officially notified the Big 12 Conference that the institution will submit an application to join another athletic conference. Should this application be accepted, Texas A&M will end its membership in the Big 12 Conference effective June 30, 2012.

Texas Business reports:  The Texas Rangers announced plans for the creation of a statue that will honor Shannon Stone, the Brownwood, Texas firefighter who passed away from injuries suffered in the tragic accident on July 7 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Texas Business reports:   An Austin company is partnering with a New York runners group to provide New York City Marathon software applications.

Texas Business reports:  ARLINGTON - The University of Texas at Arlington announced that it has accepted an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference in an attempt to elevate the university’s competitive sports programs and increase its national profile.

Texas Business reports:  AUSTIN—The Texas Program in Sports and Media at The University of Texas at Austin has awarded five faculty fellowships, totaling $25,000, to College of Communication research teams investigating a range of issues related to the cultural intersection of sports and media.

Texas Business reports:  ESPN Regional Television (ERT), Inc., a subsidiary of ESPN, and Meineke Car Care Centers announce a three year title sponsorship deal of the Texas Bowl, beginning for the 2011 event.

Texas Business reports:  Penn National Gaming Inc. and Sam Houston Race Park through its parent company, announced that following approval by the Texas Racing Commission, they have closed on Penn National’s investment in the previously announced 50/50 joint venture to own and operate the Sam Houston Race Park (SHRP) in Houston, the Valley Race Park in Harlingen, and a planned racetrack in Laredo.

Texas Business reports:  Austin—The name and logo for the 24-hour University of Texas at Austin network were revealed by EPSN and UT executives.

Photo by Rachel Schultz of Reporting Texas.

Standing atop a 12-foot board while paddling along Lady Bird Lake takes a little getting used to. This is stand-up paddle boarding which, in Austin, offers a total body workout and a new way to connect with the beauty of Austin’s downtown waterfront.

Photo by Kayla Willey of Reporting Texas

Mike Babcock and the rest of the San Angelo Colts front office were sitting along the right side of Citibank Ballpark in Midland, Texas in late June taking in the Texas League All-Star game when a screaming liner came their way.

Texas Business reports:  Helotes—A Texas firm is about to offer a 1917 Lou Gehrig autograph for sale.  

Texas Business reports: The University of Texas at Austin's H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports has been selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to be an Olympic Studies Center (OSC).

Texas Business reports: Airlines are ramping up for the Super Bowl as the big game continues its economic impact on the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Texas Business reports:  Like many food chains, A Richardson firm is gearing up for its busiest day of the year, Suepr Bowl Sunday.

Texas Business reports: In anticipation of the Super Bowl, the North Central Texas Fusion Center (NCTFC) has awarded a contract to i2, the leading provider of intelligence and investigation software, to facilitate secure information sharing between the 60-plus contributing law enforcement and public safety organizations in the North Texas region, including Allen, Arlington,Dallas, Fort Worth, Frisco, McKinney and Plano, through its COPLINK software. 

Texas Business notes this story by Clarence E. Hill, Jr. of the Dallas Morning News:  When Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones hired Jason Garrett as offensive coordinator in 2007, most followers knew this day was coming.

Texas Business notes this story by David Barron of the Houston Chronicle:  The Texans proudly announced the attendance for Sunday's Houston-Jacksonville game as a robust 71,023, blithely ignoring the visual evidence that maybe 30 percent of that number declined to show up for a team of also-rans playing out the string on a disappointing season.

Texas Business reports:  The Texas Attorney General’s office has been asked whether or not the U.S. citizenship requirement to hold a racing license in Texas is constitutional.

Texas Business reports:  AppTech of The Woodlands  entered into a marketing agreement to develop a "Members Only" website and Smartphone app for a major soccer development academy located in Parana, Brazil.

Texas Business reports:  The Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) program at Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business enterd into a partnership with The Migala Report, an educational and idea-sharing online resource for sports executives pursuing revenue-generating concepts.

Texas Business reports:  SAN ANTONIO—KGS Bikes, a custom bicycle design studio in San Antonio  designs custom bicycles from $7,000-$32,000, with select components and proprietary geometry and designs.

Texas Business notes this story by Tom Benning of the Dallas Morning News:  Arlington streets, stadiums will be inundated by sports fans this weekend. 

Texas Business notes this story by Dustin Parks of the Bleacher Report:  One of the first tracks to really push for a second Sprint Cup race was Texas Motor Speedway.   

TexasBusiness.com notes: Looking as confident and sharply dressed as any power executive in the real world, Larry Scott laid out the reasons Thursday why his plan to conquer the college sports world fell short this summer. Scott says that 'Texas politics' killed his 16-team super conference plan, reports Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com. 

With 30,709 season tickets sold as of Tuesday night, that number will surpass the previous season ticket record of 30,092 that were purchased prior to the start of the 2008 season, Texas Tech officials announced.

Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan could lose the Texas Rangers for one confounding reason: They wouldn't cut off Tom Hicks soon enough. When they agreed to buy the team in January, they gave Hicks a side deal worth about $70 million for parking lots, a centerfield office building and other assets around Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Hicks has insisted that the real estate holdings are separate from the team and weren't used as collateral on his sports loans, so he planned to walk away with the money, reports Mitchell Shnurman of the Fort Worth Star -Telegram. 

  Top ranking tennis star, Andy Roddick , is bringing his game to Granite Shoals. The city of Granite Shoals, located in Burnet County, approved for the Andy Roddick Foundation to lease 13 acres of property near the intersection of Ranch Road 1431 and Phillips Ranch Road to construct the Andy Roddick International Tennis Center, reports KXAN. 

The Texas Rangers will draw a “significantly higher” opening bid at a bankruptcy auction than an existing offer for the baseball team, reports Thomas Korosec and David McLaughlin of Bloomberg Businessweek.