Aggie auction helps raise money for scholarships
Trips, memorabilia, Aggie game tickets and a corvette ride with Utah State University President Kermit L. Hall.
Those were among the hundreds of items featured at the Utah State University Athletic department’s annual Aggie Auction Saturday in the in the Taggart Student Center ballroom.
The evening began with a silent auction with items ranging from art to furniture to electronics.
Aggie coaches donated season passes to volleyball and gymnastics while the Athletic department donated trips to road football games. There was even a chance for an Aggie fan to join football Head Coach Mick Dennehy as “Fantasy Head Coach for a Day” at a game next year.
The silent auction was followed by dinner and short speeches by Athletics director Rance Pugmire and President Hall.
Pugmire said the auction was the biggest single fund raiser of the entire year and gave credit to the volunteers who worked since October to make the event happen.
Following Pugmire, President Hall loosened up the crowd by telling a few jokes and listing accomplishments of USU Athletics.
Members of the women’s volleyball team volunteered as auction runners and radio announcer Al Lewis introduced items.
“We got some of the student athletes to help us and that was a nice touch we added a couple of years ago,” Pugmire said. “It gives the people attending an up close chance to meet them and see them without a uniform on and have a chance to interact with them.”
Among the more unique auction items were a pool party with coach Dennehy and basketball coach Stew Morrill, a ride with President Hall in his convertible and a group lecture with President Hall.
The private pool party generated back-and-forth bidding, going for $4,000.
“The pool party is always popular,” Pugmire said.
The corvette ride with President Hall went for $600.
“I thought it would go for maybe $100,” President Hall said.
President Hall also donated a group lecture on the John F. Kennedy assassination that sold for $3,700.
He said he donated items he thought would be of interest and also would enable him to make more contact with Aggie supporters.
“I’m really delighted it went for $3,700,” President Hall said.
Pugmire said nearly all of the items featured in the auction were donated.
The preliminary estimate for the evening was a $100,796 gross. The money will be put toward student-athlete scholarships.
Pugmire said two years ago the auction grossed more than $135,000 dollars but he was unsure about how well it would do this year.
“This year I was a little nervous with the economy and there have been three auctions in Logan this month and a lot of these people have been to all three of them. I was a little nervous but we did well,” he said.
Roughly 450 people attended the event, Pugmire said.
“There may be some people here that aren’t necessarily sports fans, but they like to come because we try to put on a very fun, classy event,” he said. “We’ll see new faces and hopefully make sports fans out of them.”