The Alabama State University Office of Alumni Affairs held its annual Turkey Day Classic Alumni Brunch on Wednesday, Nov. 22, at 10:30 a.m. in the John Garrick Hardy Center Ballroom, for a donation of $50 per person.
This year’s brunch honored the classes of the 3s, the 8s and the Silver Class of 1998. The Alumni Brunch provides an opportunity to renew ties with classmates and friends, while enjoying a great meal. The university’s foundation donated $54,412.18 to senior debt at the university, while the class of 1973 came together and donated $265,000 to scholarships.
This event has been a highlight for years, drawing hundreds of alumni to celebrate the university’s growth and progression. Registered guests will have the opportunity to enjoy a nice brunch while reconnecting with friends and fellow alumni.
The main speaker of the event was the university president, Quinton T. Ross Jr., Ed.D., who is an alumni of the university himself.
“I want all of the alumni to be excited about being home for the Turkey Day Classic,” Ross said. “For us to be able to play Tuskegee University in an almost 100- year tradition, we just happened to have them back on our schedule, is great for both historic institutions. We have a longstanding history not only of competition but of camaraderie and working together. We’re just happy and thankful this Thanksgiving holiday for everyone to be able to come together for this festive occasion.”
The Mighty Marching Hornets performed at the event while the university’s cheerleaders danced vibrantly, shaking their pom poms along with guests who were given black and gold spirit shakers. Chicken and waffles were the main course being served to alumni who attended.
Aundrya Montgomery is one of the most recent graduates, having parted from the university in 2016. While attending the university, Montgomery’s major was biological sciences.
“In that time I did research,” Montgomery said. “I was heavily involved with the W.E.B. Du Bois Scholars Program, which I successfully completed.”
Montgomery was informed of the luncheon due to her work with the Alabama Army National Guard.
“As a part of the organization, I am a recruiter,” Montgomery said. “Being a recruiter, you get assigned different schools. The illustrious Alabama State is actually one of the universities that was assigned to me, so making the connections at the alumni house, I was able to hear about this event, and I’m glad that I did, and I’m glad to be in attendance today.”
While attending the university, Bobby J. Pierson was voted the most valuable player at the 1979 Magic City Classic.
“I love Alabama State and I do all I can to support her,” Pierson said. “I tell people all the time, me being a poor boy growing up in Elmore County, Wetumpka, if it hadn’t been for the Great Lord, my mother, my father, and my family, there would be no me. Alabama State University made it possible for the truck I drive, the house I live in, and all that good stuff. Even though my wife didn’t attend Alabama State, Alabama State allowed me the opportunity to start working in Conecuh County, where I met her.”
Marcedia Bolden is the current treasurer of the National Alumni Association (NAA). Due to her duties with the NAA, Bolden comes to the university every month. While attending as a student from 1991-1996, Bolden was president of the National Black Accounting Association for two years, and her major was accounting.
“It’s great to be honored,” Bolden said. “Just to see the youth here today continuing our legacy here at Alabama State University and graduating and moving on to higher levels.”
Eric Wright graduated in 1980 and is the past president of the Alabama State NAA. While attending the university, Wright was a Mighty Marching Hornet.
“As the past president of the National Alumni Association, this is an annual event come Turkey Day Classic,” Wright said. “Then it’s also a time in which the alumni get together in what we call the mini conference. In the middle of the calendar year, the alumni come together, we meet on what’s going on the first six months of the year, and that’s always held during the Turkey Day Classic.”
Wright understands the importance in honoring alumni and events that created the university in the first place.
“Well, when you think about the past, it takes us all back down to 1867 in Marion, Alabama with the Marion Nine, where those nine slaves put together $500 in which they thought it was very important at that time to raise those funds to educate students in that impoverished black community in Marion. So this is in tribute to them, the Marion Nine, because it’s up to us, our current alumni and students, and those students to come in the future to keep that memory and honor the Marion Nine to keep Alabama State University open.”
