Blog

Posted Mon, Apr 25, 2005

Yale Bowl Renovation Fund

By Timothy Tumpane

The Class of 1980 enjoys a special relationship with the Yale Bowl. In this hallowed space, our senior team became Ivy Champs in 1979. One of the true treasures in American sports, the historic Yale Bowl celebrated its 90th birthday in 2004. This magnificent facility, which opened on November 21, 1914, for the Yale-Harvard game, has been the site of 550 Bulldog football games. The World Games, international soccer contests and other special events being hosted on a regular basis make the Bowl one of the most significant venues in the East.

In spite of the Bowl’s size and offerings, it has become increasingly difficult for the aging structure to meet the many demands that Yale athletes and others are placing on the facility.

The Yale Bowl is an impressive structure that has the power to convey the best about Yale’s history of excellence in athletics. It is also a facility that must be upgraded if it is to meet the demands of current users, and future generations of Yale fans and players. Restoring the stadium will preserve what is great about the Bowl and about Yale – a sense of tradition and achievement.

THAT IS WHERE YOU COME IN!! While you are savoring all of the wonderful times from your Yale Career, Saturdays in the Bowl must surely come to mind – cheering on your soon-to-be Ivy Champions through the tough, close games of Brown, Dartmouth & Penn with the help of those wonderful Cheerleaders on the sidelines. Watching the one-of-a-kind Yale Precision Marching Band half-time antics. All wonderful memories.

The Ivy Football Champions of 1979 (class members of 1980, 1981 & 1982) are in the process of garnering funds for the naming of a Yale Bowl Entrance Portal for the Team and the classmates who supported them. YOU CAN ASSIST in this effort! Imagine walking through The Championship Team ’79 Portal with your kids and grandkids over the next 50 years and telling them stories of how you supported Yale Football all those many years ago.

This is an opportunity to support the rebuilding of the fabled Yale Bowl while at the SAME TIME contributing to the class reunion gift! When making a contribution to the class for the reunion, you are allowed to designate where that contribution will be targeted. You can designate that your contribution be in support of the Yale Bowl Renovation Fund; all donations count towards the Class’ 25th Reunion Gift. Donations of any size are welcome, but if you are able to make a more substantial contribution ($25,000 or more), you will be individually honored on a plaque, which will be placed on the Yale Bowl wall between portals 15 & 16.

Please consider the memories you treasure from Yale as we approach our 25th reunion. The Class of 1980 led the Ivy championship team in our senior year; I welcome everyone “onto the team” to help us cross the goal line once again, with gifts to create a Portal to represent the Ivy Championship Team & The Class of 1980.

Please direct any inquiries to Tim Tumpane via email Ttumpane@Kraft.com
Thanks, Tim