Melissa D

Bucs 🏴‍☠️ Bulls🤘Bolts⚡️Crusaders 💚

[Melissa D @MMD_Bulls]

Love Love Love @StevieNicks & @taylorswift13 😘

[Today in History @TodayinHistory]

Today in 1973, the greatest horse race in history was run.

Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths to become the Triple Crown winner and set a world record time that has never been beaten!

🎥: CBS Broadcast

[Melissa D @MMD_Bulls]

🐐

[America'sBestRacing @ABRLive]

First, the Kentucky Derby. Now the Belmont Stakes. Five weeks ago, @reredevaux became the first woman to win the Kentucky Derby.

Now, she, @jose93_ortiz, and Golden Tempo are @BelmontStakes winners. The reaction says it all.

[Kentucky Derby @KentuckyDerby]

Some horses are camera shy... Golden Tempo is not one of them. 😏

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

A 24-year-old Polish tennis player arrived in Paris last week ranked 114th in the world, with no sponsors, no guaranteed income, and no certainty she could even pay for her hotel room.

She had to win three qualifying matches just to enter the French Open main draw. Prize money is only paid at the end of the tournament, so a Polish sports drink brand quietly stepped in and covered her hotel bill.

Her name is Maja Chwalinska. And today, she plays in the French Open final.

Before this tournament, she had won exactly one Grand Slam main draw match in her entire career. She had battled depression so severe that in 2021 she couldn't get out of bed. She underwent knee surgery in 2022. She spent years grinding through small tournaments across Europe just to stay afloat.

Then she arrived in Paris, won three qualifiers, and kept winning. Zheng Qinwen. Elise Mertens. Maria Sakkari. Diana Shnaider. Nine straight matches. One set dropped.

She is now the first qualifier in French Open history to reach the final. The last time a qualifier reached a Grand Slam final, it was Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open. Raducanu won.

By simply making the final, Chwalinska has earned more prize money than her entire career combined. The runner-up cheque alone is $1.6 million. If she wins today, she takes home $3.25 million.
One week ago she couldn't pay for her hotel room.

[Taylor Nation @taylornation13]

Love has ways of bringing things back to life. ☁️ Taylor's original song #IKnewItIKnewYou is out now! Disney and @Pixar’s @ToyStory 5 in theaters June 19. https://t.co/yaF2Vw1NJb

[Melissa D @MMD_Bulls]

@bjornskjel @TheUSFWizard @kbuffington7 Well I am in that range so should have the option therefore my cost matters.

[Melissa D @MMD_Bulls]

@TheUSFWizard @kbuffington7 Sideline Club is $2750/$3000 per seat. Endzone Club is $2500 per seat. PLUS $1000 Capital Gift per ticket.

Sideline Club section 213 at Ray Jay was $530 per ticket including $150 towards Scholarship Fund.
So 5-6x the price at Ray Jay!!!

[Variety @Variety]

“Toy Story 5” director and screenwriter Andrew Stanton on Taylor Swift's new song "I Knew It, I Knew You":

“It’s incredible just how meaningful it’s been having Taylor write and perform this song. Her connection to Jessie and the immediate way she understood what the character was going through was undeniable. The song is so deeply connected to ‘Toy Story.’ So much so that on first listen, it instantly felt like it had always belonged there, like a long-lost family member. It was kismet.”

https://t.co/wsMvsvVsVz

[Melissa D @MMD_Bulls]

🤘🏻💚

[Rob Higgins @RHiggins_USF]

Coach Kremer is the perfect leader to build @USF_BeachVB into a perennial national contender and to lead us to championships! As a student-athlete, Jo won three national championships and was the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year. As an assistant coach, she’s helped guide Stanford and Tulane to wins in 127 of 158 matches, including three top-five finishes. 71 (!) of those 127 wins are against Top 25 ranked opponents, including 42 (!) wins against top ten teams. She’s coached 11 AVCA First Team All-Americans. Most importantly, her game plan and vision for our program and our student-athletes are second to none. A warm welcome to our new leader for USF Beach…Jo Kremer! Go Bulls!!! 🤘🏻😤📈

[Melissa D @MMD_Bulls]

Love ya @DBrooks55 repping @USFAthletics 🤘

[Suzanne Ward @smward]

Just in case you haven't seen this: https://t.co/C58cZ4MQoy

[University of South Florida @USouthFlorida]

ICYMI: On Wednesday, @USFAthletics CEO @RHiggins_USF provided an update on construction progress for our new football stadium and operations center, scheduled for completion in fall 2027.

🔗 Learn more about the project that's making noise around #USF and beyond: https://t.co/Db07I8BJAn

[Melissa D @MMD_Bulls]

👀

[Mindy McCord @CoachMcCordLAX]

Get ready. We are about to get B1G!!!

Go BULLS!!

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

It was a Monday in early August 2023. The exhausted truck drivers of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour thought they were heading to a routine production meeting before the Los Angeles shows.
They had no idea what was coming.
Scott Swift walked in. Taylor's father didn't say much—he just began handing out envelopes. When the drivers finally peeked inside, some thought the check said $1,000. Others read $10,000. The third driver stared at his and said out loud: "This has to be a joke."
It wasn't.
$100,000.
Each driver. Nearly 50 of them. The industry standard bonus from the biggest stars? $5,000 to $10,000. Taylor had given them more than ten times that.
But here's what made it matter most: these drivers weren't wealthy. They lived in truck cabs. They hadn't seen their families in 24 weeks. They were people who would never own homes—until now. Until that envelope.
That moment of shock and tears? It was just the beginning.
Across the entire Eras Tour, Taylor quietly handed out $197 million in bonuses. The dancers. The band. The riggers. The lighting and sound technicians. The caterers. Every single person who built the show—they got bonuses, handwritten notes, and wax-sealed letters. When dancers opened theirs on camera in her docuseries, they broke down crying. Some couldn't believe she was real.
"If the tour grosses more, they get more," she explained simply. These people work hard. They deserve it.
But the crew bonuses weren't the only quiet revolution happening.
Starting in March 2023, in every city where the tour touched down, a call came to local food banks. Taylor wanted to donate. No press conference. No announcement. No photo op. One donation fed 75,000 meals. Another provided hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh produce. Across the tour, the total reached millions of meals—possibly more—all delivered in silence.
She never posted about a single one.
And it wasn't new for her.
In March 2020, when the pandemic locked down the world, Taylor scrolled through social media posts from fans who were breaking. A photographer about to lose everything. A person staring down eviction. She sent direct messages with rent money—$3,000 here, $13,000 there. Some fans got enough for months of bills. She read the Washington Post. She noticed the names. She helped.
She never announced it.
Years later, in October 2025, a two-year-old named Lilah—fighting a cancer so rare that only 58 families in America had ever known it—was filmed by her mother dancing to a Taylor Swift song. Lilah called Taylor her friend. A few days later, the GoFundMe received a $100,000 donation.
The note said: "Sending the biggest hug to my friend, Lilah! Love, Taylor."
Mike Scherkenbach has worked with the wealthiest people in music. He's seen the bonuses. He's seen the behavior. He's watched billionaires guard their money jealously.
What he saw with Taylor was different.
The biggest tour in history grossed $2 billion. The artist behind it became a billionaire from her own songwriting. And then she signed her name onto hundreds of envelopes by hand and sent enough money back to the people who built her dream that they cried opening their letters.
That isn't strategy. That isn't a publicity stunt.
That's what happens when someone, somewhere along the way, remembered what matters.

[Mark Skol, Jr. @markskoljrTV]

WATCH: "We could not be more appreciative and fired up to have this home we've been waiting on for our entire lives."

@USFFootball's new on-campus stadium is about a year away from completion and CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins (@RHiggins_USF) loves the progress he is seeing.

[Rob Higgins @RHiggins_USF]

🤘🏻Regular Season Conference Title
🤘🏻Conference Tournament Title
🤘🏻44 wins incl two in the NCAA Tourney
🤘🏻NCAA Tourney & Regional Finals Appearance

A lot to be proud of & a lot to build from for @USFSoftball!

Thank you, Bulls Nation, for supporting this special team!🤘🏻😤📈