| Home | About the Club | Academic Achievement Executive Board | In Memory | Club Merchandise |
ABOUT THE CLUB
The Penn State Varsity ??S?? Club is an Alumni Interest Group (AIG) that was founded in 1996. Presently the club is made up of and run by former University Park student-athletes, team managers, cheerleaders, and mascots.
The five primary goals of the club are to enable our former student-athletes and those who have contributed to our athletic programs as managers or cheerleaders to (1) remain connected with the athletic department; (2) have annual opportunities to return to campus to reunite with former teammates, coaches, other student-athletes, and athletic department personnel; (3) maintain, strengthen and promote the traditions, ideals and spirit of Penn State athletics; (4) support our current student-athletes, coaches and teams through program sponsorship, team oriented activities and recognizing outstanding academic/athletic performance and (5) make financial contributions to the Nittany Lion Club that directly impact their former team??s budget and/or strengthen the athletic department??s general scholarship fund.
The Varsity ??S?? Club currently is organized and led by an executive board made up of volunteers from the membership. The executive board consists of a President, First Vice President, Second Vice President, Third Vice President, Past President and Secretary. In addition, the club is assigned an athletic department administrator and staff assistant to assist the executive board and other club volunteers. The club meets on campus two times annually to handle official club business and coordinate annual activities. The first meeting occurs in the fall prior to the Varsity ??S?? Day fall social (first Big Ten home football game) and the second meeting is held in the spring before the annual Blue-White football scrimmage.
During the Club??s first seven years, membership required qualified graduates to pay annual dues of $15 per year. During those years, nearly 25 percent of qualified graduates consistently elected to participate in the organization.
Since 2003, the Club has received annual funding from the athletic department and now offers free membership to all former University Park varsity athletes, team managers, cheerleaders and mascots who participated in such activities while enrolled as undergraduate students at the University Park campus and graduated from Penn State. As a result of free membership, the total number of members now exceeds 11,000.
(L-R) John Barnes, Diana Kenepp, Don Ferrell, Ellen Perry & Mark Sherburne
| Kay Kustanbauter |
In special cases, the Club gives honorary membership to individuals who do not meet normal qualification requirements but retire from the University after having made substantial contributions to the athletic department during their employment at Penn State. In September 2006, one former outstanding Penn State employee ?C Kay Kustanbauter (Athletic Development) ?C was made an honorary member of the club and joined Frank Rocco (Athletic Administration), John Coyle (NCAA Faculty Representative), Don Ferrell (Academic Support), Diana Kenepp (Academic Support), and Ellen Perry (Athletic Administration) as the only other honorary members.
The primary activities supported by the Club each year include:
- Two newsletters per year (December and June);
- Varsity ??S?? Day (fall social event);
- The Intercollegiate Athletics homecoming float for our current student-athletes, cheerleaders, and student Nittany Lion Club members;
- Special athletic team reunions;
- Various educational outreach efforts made by the Moran Academic Support Center??s CHAMPS Life Skills program;
- Student-athlete formal; and
- Two academic team grade-point average awards presented each spring at the annual Student-Athlete Advisory Board (SAAB) Academic Achievement Awards Banquet.
This past April, at the 19th annual SAAB Academic banquet, 253 Penn State student-athletes were named as Big Ten Academic All-Conference honorees for their work during the 2004-05 academic year. The women??s athletic teams had a combined GPA of 3.27 and the men??s athletics teams averaged a 2.96. The average GPA for all Penn State varsity athletic teams was an impressive 3.11. Accepting the Varsity ??S?? team GPA awards were the men??s golf and women??s swimming and diving teams. The women??s swimming and diving team also won the overall Team GPA Award with an outstanding 3.44 team grade-point average. The Varsity ??S?? Club will continue providing leadership and opportunity to former student-athletes, managers, cheerleaders, and mascots while supporting our current student-athletes, coaches and athletic teams. To find out more about the Varsity ??S?? Club, contact the club office at 814-863-0351 or email current club presidentJohn Barnes (johnbarnescpa@verizon.net).
Join "The Team Members of the Nittany Lion Club make possible grant-in-aid support for more than five hundred worthy student-athletes and provide operational support for our entire twenty-nine sport program, including fifteen men's and fourteen women's teams. We ask you to join in support of the student-athletes who are giving their all to Penn State as you did. Call us at 1-800-648-8269 or visit us on the web at: You can make a difference! |