Portland State student-athlete alumni now have a program to call their own—V-Club. V-Club is an alumni association exclusively for past student athletes, and it focuses on creating opportunities for alumni to spend time with old friends and stay connected to current Viking athletics. The program will host its first annual social this Saturday prior to the men’s basketball game.
Leaders of the program are former Viking football quarterback Tygue Howland (2010) and director of donor relations Scott Boyd.
“In terms of what makes this program unique to Portland State, this is a club exclusive to student athlete alumni,” Howland said. “We are trying to re-engage student athletes who graduated from PSU, lettered here, and we want to keep them engaged in what is currently going on in athletics.”
The first event will be held in the Morrow Team Room in the Stott Center. The V-Club will provide its members with food and drinks. Members can also pick up two complimentary women’s basketball tickets prior to the women’s 1 p.m. tipoff, and then receive two free tickets the men’s basketball game at 7 p.m. after the V-Club social.
The first event will kick-off a list of scheduled socials that the V-Club plans to host.
“We want it to be a reunion,” Boyd said. “There [are] going to be three distinctive events: one in the fall for football, one in the winter for basketball and then one spring event that will help usher those student athletes that are graduating [to come] into the club.”
Boyd said they are building this program from the ground up, and this first event will be a way to make a foundation for a long-lasting club.
“Other schools have similar programs, but they haven’t really done it here,” Boyd said. “The program is unique to PSU.”
Howland said that while now the focus is now on reconnecting former student athletes, his goal is to expand the program to include career networking opportunities and a type of mentorship program for current athletes to have with graduated Vikings.
Howland said he wants to have long-running support from past and present Viking athletics.
“I want to continue to do three hosted events in the future, but I hope to be able to grow it to where it is a consistent constituency that is coming to every football game, every basketball game,” Howland said.
Boyd added that long-term goals include making the program as self-sufficient as possible and including a board comprised of former Viking athletes that make decisions on the events that V-Club will sponsor and be involved with.
The club currently has around 75 members, but Howland said that with his new focus on mass advertising he hopes that the first event will spark alumni interest and increase membership to more than 100 in upcoming months.
While Howland is a fresh graduate of PSU, he said a variety of members make up the face of V-Club.
“It’s really all ages,” Howland said. “We have a lot of guys who have graduated in the ’60s sign up, and then we’ve had guys who have graduated in the last couple years sign up, so it’s really diverse.”
The club emphasizes its all-inclusive approach.
“It’s important for people to know that this club is for all sports, men and women,” Boyd said. “If you are a student athlete and played here, this is for you.”
Interested former student athletes can join the club by going to www.goviks.com/vclub, or they can contact Howland directly at tygue@pdx.edu.