By Kyle Dennan and John Burleson
Last weekend 2,000 University of Alabama students were able watch the Tide compete in the NCAA Regional meet in Tuscaloosa free of charge thanks to the gymnastics booster club, the Medalist Club.
Athletic programs at the University rely heavily on support from athletic booster clubs. Most booster clubs, like the gymnastics Medalist Club, are run independently of the University Athletics Department.
The Medalist Club was officially organized in 1987 to support all aspects of Alabama gymnastics. There are currently more than 300 memberships with more than 700 individual members, according to the 2012 Gymnastics Media Guide.
Leesa Davis, a board member for the Medalist Club and radio broadcaster for all UA gymnastics meets on 90.7 the Capstone, said there are a number of functions that the Medalist Club fulfills outside of just attending the meets. These functions include assisting in purchasing new equipment, sponsorship of member and student bus trips to conference competitions, helping purchase tickets so students can attend meets, sponsoring banquets and receptions, supporting the radio broadcast along with WVUA, and contributing scholarship money to athletes.
“Our greatest continuing contribution is the Medalist Club Post-Graduate Scholarship Fund, which provides an opportunity to attend graduate school at the University for anyone who has made a significant contribution to the gymnastics program,” Davis said. “It is such a privilege to be a part of a winning program in both the arena and the classroom. Whether our gymnastics team wins championships or carries a 4.0 GPA, they inspire us as a club to do our best to help them achieve their goals.”
The Medalist Club is not the only one of its kind at the University, with larger sports like football also having booster club support. For football, the booster club is the Red Elephant Club, the only booster club run by the athletics department.
Tommy Ford, assistant athletics director for donor programs, said there are 10 in-state and two out-of-state clubs that make up the entire Red Elephant Club.
“The Red Elephant Club has a set of bylaws which govern the club, which were written in 2004, and have about 200 to 300 members each. It totals up to about 2,000 members in the club. Members come to campus three times a year for different events, but due to scheduling conflicts, we usually only have about 1,000 members on campus at one of the events,” Ford said.
Ford said each member has individual dues that usually range from $200-$300 a year that they pay to their club. From those dues to each club, about $100 is paid to the University and is used to create an endowment scholarship.
The thing each of the athletic booster clubs have in common, despite being run and operated in different ways, is a love for UA athletics.
Davis said the Medalist Club members come from all walks of life and age groups.
“What all of our members have in common is a love for Alabama and this gymnastics program,” Davis said. “For me personally, I love being able to be part of the broadcast team that brings live coverage to our fans. Describing Bama gymnastics winning back-to-back championships was priceless.”
