These members of the different club teams don’t typically interact outside of their respective sports, but Friday night was different.
“We’re trying to be a unified group and come together as all 23 clubs to show the University that we don’t like the changes that are happening,” Matthew Schick, president of the club rugby team, said.
Club players are uniting to protest the new legislation from UA Licensing stipulating club sports at the University can no longer display any Alabama trademark logo on their uniforms.
“On an officer level it’s a real slap in the face, because on a day-to-day basis we’re working with the University,” Schick said.
“A unanimous decision was made amongst the various club teams to take a civil, respectable approach to handling this protest,” Taylor Wood, president of the Alabama Triathletes, said.
“We’ve all been told to put a new uniform on our logo that is frankly embarrassing,” Wood said in a letter to the UA administration. “Each of our sports clubs works way too hard to not be allowed to represent our university.”
The triathlon team is among the many club teams that will have to drastically alter their uniforms if these regulations are passed. The majority of club teams have visible trademark logos already.
The sorority Zeta Tau Alpha recently hosted a philanthropy event at a Frozen Tide Hockey game. Ann Emory Harris, a freshman majoring in social work and a member of Zeta Tau Alpha, said she felt the event was like any other athletic event hosted by the University.
“I went to the hockey game and the team had the script A on their uniforms,” Harris said. “It felt like any other Alabama sporting event. They’re clearly a part of this University and shouldn’t have their right to wearing Alabama’s logo revoked.”
Members of club teams are approaching the administration from three angles: creating unified social media sites to use as an anchor for all club players, gathering and sending player statistics to the UA administration and signing a petition stating terms of agreement between the University and club teams and giving club teams the right to use trademark University of Alabama logos.
“The University is afraid they will lose control of their intellectual property rights,” said Danny Depperschmidt, secretary of the rugby team and a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. “But their decision to turn around and enforce that on sports clubs is completely arbitrary.”
The players all share one common goal: To get the new uniform regulations reversed so that they can utilize the script A along with other Alabama trademark logos on their uniforms.
“There are no other cases around the country to really support this,” Depperschmidt said.
With a history of underfunding and lack of resources, the club teams’ members at the University said they have been perpetually discouraged.
“It feels like they’re embarrassed by us,” said Amy Warner, president of the equestrian team and a senior majoring in public relations. “We just went to Delaware and Texas A&M, and they have beautiful facilities for their horses, and we have old, lame horses donated to us from other universities – that should be a red flag.”
The club teams’ presidents will meet with Steven Hood, interim vice president of student affairs to discuss the new policy changes on 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14, according to a post by the UA Club Sports Alliance on Facebook.
The meetings come after Wood said she and those in the UA Sports Alliance sent multiple emails to campus officials, including SGA President Hamilton Bloom and various media relations officials, with no responses.
The information about the meeting was passed along to Wood through Wyant Boreson, coordinator of sport clubs, and the University did not directly reach out to the group or Wood.
“We’re still excited they’re responding in any way,” Wood said.
Wood recently had a meeting with Cole Price, from the University’s Trademark Licensing Office, who told her the primary reason for the policy change is to “distinguish and honor the sports clubs.” He said concerns should be directed to Boreson and Deborah Lane, associate vice president of media relations.
