The Value Of Alumni Programs, And Institutional Knowledge, Is More Important Than Ever…

It sounds silly or self-evident but the value in connecting past to future fandom lies in those who have worn the uniform, or walked the sidelines, even for a few moments. Regardless of the score, or the record with few exceptions either on the pro or college side, the value of connecting to alumni as a tool for storytelling remains invaluable.  While it seems simple, it is not, and precious few teams, colleges, organizations do it really well.

On the professional side, it usually starts at the top, with an ownership group willing to look past things said in the heat of battle, or negotiations, to fully understand the value those names and faces bring to fans of any age. Those alumni are the aspirational aspect of fandom that sometimes gets lost in the mix. If they can tell one story, they can tell a thousand, and the stories get repeated, the images get shared, the noise gets louder.  It’s not always the biggest names who resonate either. (Mike McCarthy in Front Office Sports has a nice piece on the Knicks and Celebrity which also touches on the alumni value.)

Case in point, I ventured back to Madison Square Garden this past week for the Knicks-Pacers playoff game with my son Andrew, who hadn’t been back for 18 years, since I left the Knicks. While there was a huge gathering of Knicks alumni (great read here about Stephon Marbury’s return and what it meant to him, which triggered this post by the way), who was the guy that the person sitting next to me saw in the hallway and identified with the most? Not Allan Houston or Larry Johnson, it was Gerald Wilkins. Wilkins, who played on some of the least successful Knicks teams, resonated with him because it was a time and place in his life when he developed his fandom. That was just as important as seeing a championship moment to him, and many feel the same way. It’s why you see such random jerseys in the stands at games…people identify with different people different ways, and all of that benefits the organization, or the school, by crafting the widest and most inclusive alumni program as possible. That takes time, attention to detail, and some dollars (although it can be sponsored for sure.)

There are many organizations and schools who pay close attention to programs, ones that go way beyond the field and include coaches and others who resonate with fans. The Dodgers, the Red Sox, the Capitals, the Suns, the Warriors, the Jets and the Cubs do a great job building alumni programs. The Mets, under Steve Cohen, recently re-energized their alumni program to great fanfare. As the Knicks go, the current program I am proud to say really got going during our run there, when the team on the court was not doing well, but two key members of the organization, the late Cal Ramsey and Dennis D’Agostino, got the OK to work with community relations to welcome back and rebuild fences with everyone from Bernard King to Sweetwater Clifton to Ozzie Schechtman. It went over really well, and programs mushroomed from there.  

Now there are always bumps in the road. People sometimes don’t want to be involved or want to abuse privileges for personal gain. Sometimes disputes that become public cause rifts that neither side wants to repair. Sometimes people don’t even remember what the bad blood was about, and they choose to stay away. In Philadelphia for example, Andrew Toney, a Sixers championship legend, refused to return for many years. It took a lot of handholding, small notes, gifting, and quiet conversations by those he trusted to finally bring him back, with an amazing response the smoothed over all those wounds of the past.   Everybody wins and egos get checked at the door. It’s not perfect, but then again what in our business is.

So why don’t these programs exist everywhere in the best possible way? Other than the issues mentioned above, it takes institutional knowledge to make them run well. The Mets program is curated by their longtime historian Jay Horwitz who knows everyone in the organization. However today many organizations…teams, leagues, schools, companies…have lopped off that connection with the past, and with it goes the relationships and the intangible value taught to us by history. We wrote about that loss of institutional value here. For the ones that get it, and the ones who have someone at the table keeping the records and understanding the history as it goes, the payoff can be tremendous. Sometimes intangible, but usually worthwhile.

Sports is about the now, but it is also about the past, those memories that are impossible to replace. They come from heroes big and small, large shining lights but also the personal footnotes we have, and they all tie to a name, a face, a moment that is very personal. Those ties are why alumni programs, as difficult as they can be to support and stay constant, are valuable and should be courted and expanded. The payoff never stops.