Author: gridiron

In an effort to be the Best Alumni Football game, we have now added a Pass, Punt, and Kick contest for every game. This is a value added event that costs the contestants nothing and provides more entertainment value for those attending.

Contestants, aged 6-15, can participate in a Pass, Punt, and Kick contest just like the NFL does. The contest is open to Boys and Girls and is Free to all paid entrants. The top contestants in the field will be sent to a playoff contest at halftime of the alumni football game.

For more rules on the Pass, Punt, and Kick contest, go to the NFL’s website, NFLPPK.com.

As a young company, I am constantly trying to keep in touch with my purpose: Make every game special.

As my wife and I were eating dinner last night, we got into a conversation about helmets and jerseys in alumni football games. We currently have 215 helmets right now. They are about 50% black and 50% white. I have been kicking around the idea of reducing down the number of black helmets and white helmets and adding some different colored helmets.

For example, one of my first games of the Fall Season will be Galt vs. Amador. Since Galt is the home team, I have considered getting red helmets and red jerseys. I can’t do this for every game we play because the color combinations are endless. However, based on our upcoming games, I feel that I could really get some good use out of red helmets and red jerseys. Trinity High, Galt High, and Lodi High all wear red jerseys.

The question my wife asked me was this. “Did wearing the right color helmet and the right color jersey make your alumni game any more/less special?” I instantly said no. In fact, the first game we played in, we had our jerseys made and the company that provided our gear gave us white helmets when we always wear purple helmets. So, I’m trying to figure out if I really want to spend the extra money and get them done or not.

What say you?

Recently watching a little Letterman and decided to do a little top 10 list of my own.

So, here are the Top 10 reasons to play Alumni Football:

Wearing helmets can be a great way to hide your bald spot.
You’re still alive, so act like it for Pete’s sake.
Finally an actual reason to go to the gym.
See old friends.
Play football with a brother, father, or an old coach.
Show your wife you still got it.
Show your kids you still got it.
How else can you burn 2000 calories in 3 hours?
The Anger Management Seminar was $100.

….and the #1 Reason to participate in Alumni Football…..

Hello? It’s Football!!!

It’s starting to get hot in the South, so we’re moving up North before we melt. We’ve got big plans in the Midwest! We’re trying to line up games in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Colorado. Teams are already forming in Sioux Falls, SD.

We have a first during the summer. We’re going to try and put on the first ever (for us, anyway) alumni college game. In Sioux Falls, SD, the boys at Augustana “Augie” College have always had a strong dislike for the boys down the road at the University of Sioux Falls. Neither team has played against each other, but they have always wanted to. We heard that they have even at times gotten into off-campus fist fights. That’s a pretty big rivalry for teams that don’t play each other.

Enter Gridiron Alumni.  We are taking players sign ups for both schools, but University of Sioux Falls is out to an astounding lead with 20 players already signed up.  Come on Augie!  Let’s get on the stick!  And no fighting!  Just suit up and let the pads do the talking!

As we loaded up the truck this morning, we want to say THANK YOU to all the wonderful people of Louisiana who helped make our event their one of the best every. The truck rolled out this morning and we headed over to start developing the area of Georgia. After talking to a few of the locals, everyone told us that we have to do an event in Titletown: Valdosta, GA.

We are planning on an alumni game between Valdosta High and Lowndes High in Valdosta, GA for early June. If you or someone you know would want to play, make sure they go to our “Find a Game” page and sign up. June will be here before you know it and we want both sides to get plenty of practice! See you soon Valdosta, GA. We’re on our way!

We want your alumni football experience to be all that it can be from beginning to end. That is why, after 4 months of using EventBrite, we’ve moved to our own registration system. This system is so much simpler than the EventBrite system. Not that EventBrite is a bad system, but we felt it’s important in this day and age that one less person have access to your contact information (See SPAM).

Our system is easier to navigate. When you click on Find A Game, there is a simple layout of all 50 states. Click your state, find your city, and you are presented with a list of schools in the city. Click on your school and you’re there! Considering there are over 14,000 schools in America that play football, 3 clicks is pretty good, don’t you think? When you get to your school, you will see a very simple form. We’re not the DMV. We just need your name, email, and your cell phone. Click on the two disclaimers and you’re finished with registration. Did I mention that we are now the only ones who have your phone number and email?

We have been grinding away on this for weeks, building up the infrastructure and putting in all of the schools. We rolled the system out last week and it’s working great. Just one more reason to choose Gridiron Alumni for your alumni football games. We care about your personal information as if it was ours.

We love putting these games on. We love how it rekindles old friendships, let’s dads and sons play together for the first time. Brothers, cousins, and best friends get to take the field together and make it happen. The electricity of a Friday or Saturday night under the lights with screaming fans is too much to explain. You have to see it. I woke up this morning and was looking at our Facebook event page for the games this weekend in Louisiana. Look at these posts.

These are just two posts out of hundreds. Every day, there are 3 or 4 more just like this on this one event page. People are so excited to see their friends and family play football one more time. It’s posts like this that let me know that we are doing is God’s work. Can football make that big of a difference? It can! It changes lives. It’s changed mine. I am so thankful for the game and the people who surround it. Take a look at some more posts:

One post is a support post from a soldier. We wish he could be there too! Below that, you can see that one of the teams was so excited to play again that they actually paid to get their own jerseys. We provide jerseys and everything else you need to play the game, but some teams do elect to get their own personalized jerseys, and that’s GREAT! Make sure to save those jerseys because we’ll be back next year!

We love putting on alumni football games. Not only is it a great job, but it’s very fulfilling. I can’t tell you how many emails I get every week from people thanking us for doing this. We want to move all over the United States to put these games on. If you’ve stumbled upon our site, then find your school and sign up. We’ll help you spread the word.

If you are or know a sports writer for the local paper, they are a key ingredient to a successful event. We work hand in hand with many sports writers to announce the event and then give it the coverage that it deserves. If you want Gridiron Alumni to come to your town, then make sure to contact us. We can’t be everywhere, but we’ll sure try. This spring and early summer, we are planning on staying here in the beautiful south. We have games lining up all over Georgia and we’ve started making contacts in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

If you don’t see your state on our list, it doesn’t mean we’re not coming to your area. If you get your alumni team and the rival going with 40+ players, we’ll find a date to put you on the schedule. Of course, we’re probably not going to Alaska any time soon, but we could be enticed to go to Hawaii.

Make sure to follow our blog as we always announce where we’re planning on going next. It’s really easy. Just click on the RSS button at the top of this article. Thanks for all of your support. It means a lot to us.