updated 3:49 p.m. ET Dec. 29, 2008

HOUSTON - Roger Clemens' name is being removed from a sports medicine institute at a Houston hospital in another apparent blow to the legacy of the major league baseball pitcher since he was linked to steroid use.

The Roger Clemens Institute for Sports Medicine at Memorial Hermann will shed Clemens' name effective Jan. 1 "to better reflect its commitment to all sports and athletes," the Houston based health system said.

"The move reflects a desire to promote the broad range of sports medicine services and programs offered by Memorial Hermann across the greater Houston area," Memorial Hermann said. "This change only affects the name of the Institute. Roger Clemens remains committed to working with us to champion youth sports and develop aspiring baseball players."

Spokeswoman Ann Brimberry said Monday the decision was made before Christmas. Memorial Hermann, the institute's parent company, includes 11 hospitals and numerous clinics and speciality centers throughout the Houston area.

She would not say the move was made specifically because of Clemens' highly publicized troubles.

"The reason for the change is in the statement," she said.

Clemens' agent, Randy Hendricks, did not immediately respond to phone and e-mail messages from The Associated Press on Monday.

When announced in 2006, the Clemens Institute in Houston's famed Texas Medical Center was touted as offering under one roof a wide range of advice and service, including sports research, education, nutrition, conditioning, biomechanics and massage, as well as surgery and sport-specific treatment for patients. It consolidated scattered Memorial Hermann sports medicine programs.

Clemens was paid an undisclosed sum for his involvement, according to his agent. At the time of the founding announcement, Clemens already had contributed $3 million toward a new pediatric wing and therapy room at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, which was not directly affiliated with the sports medicine institute.

Memorial Hermann said the institute since then has served thousands of professional, weekend and youth athletes. Among its more high-profile patients have been Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets and Kevin Everett, the Buffalo Bills football player who underwent rehabiliation and regained his ability to walk after an injury in 2007 left him temporarily paralyzed.

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In November, Clemens was asked to end his involvement with a charity golf tournament he had co-hosted for four years with a Houston sports broadcaster.

Earlier this year, a planned Clemens-themed restaurant near his Houston home was scrapped after reports from the New York Daily News he had a decade-long relationship with country singer Mindy McCready that began when she was 15. Clemens denied having an affair with a 15-year-old but didn't specifically address whether he had a romance with McCready.

Clemens repeatedly has denied using illegal performance-enhancing drugs after his name surfaced in a federal investigation of steroid use in baseball.

He has filed a defamation lawsuit against Brian McNamee, his former personal trainer, who was quoted in a report of that investigation headed by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell that Clemens used steroids and human growth hormone before players and baseball owners agreed to ban them. The report quoted McNamee saying he injected the seven-time Cy Young Award winner more than a dozen times with steroids and/or HGH in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

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