THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 31, 1995 TAG: 9501310399
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
Garland Payne loves to remember the time the Great One, Jackie Gleason, took the stage at a Norfolk Sports Club meeting in downtown Norfolk.
Gleason's yacht was docked near the old Monticello Hotel on City Hall Ave., sometime in the late '60s. A club member bumped into Gleason in the lobby and pursuaded him to honor the meeting with his presence for an impromptu 10- or 15-minute talk.
Payne chuckles at that memory. The laughter subsides, though, at the mention of Buddy Ryan. The bombastic football coach was the Sports Club's keynote speaker, and a dismal one at that, for its annual Jamboree in 1992.
Ryan rose, mumbled for a few minutes, took a couple questions and sat down.
Hey, over a half-century, any batch is going to include a few duds. But the Norfolk Sports Club, which will hold its 50th annual Jamboree on Thursday at the Waterside Marriott, has had precious few lowlights as it has forged a lasting place on South Hampton Roads' sports landscape.
Meeting almost weekly each year since 1944, and holding Jamborees since 1945, the Sports Club was and is the foremost outlet for local sports aficionados to schmooze with area, state and national sports figures.
However, chatting up celebrities is just part of what the club, with a membership of just under 500, concerns itself with these days.
As it prepares for its next 50 years, some changes could be in store. But the club plans no move from its base - the Monday meetings and its scholarship fund, which this year will award 24 South Hampton Roads' student-athletes $2,000 grants to attend a Virginia college or university.
``We've been amazingly consistent,'' says president Garland Payne, 56, an insurance salesman and club member since 1961. ``I've always been one to get involved, and for me it's always been more of a community service organization.''
Service and camaraderie were the ideas, said Portsmouth sports legend Ace Parker, in 1944 when he and a handful of others formed the club, based on the New York Football Writers luncheons.
Parker was in the Navy and stationed in Norfolk at the time. He left the area soon after and did not return until 1967. He found the club going strong. And though its membership has grayed considerably - a point of concern among its leadership - Parker thinks it still hasn't lost a step.
``There's been some real instrumental people connected to it,'' Parker said. ``Everything about it has been good. It's a first-class club. It'll stay right here.''
Ways to ensure the club a vital, relevant future have been on Payne's mind over the year of his presidency. He will hand over his office and many of the same worries to Alan Stein, 57, a retired businessman, Feb. 6.
The common theme is broadening the club's membership base and identity by getting more involved in charitable causes and high school athletic events.
The club helps sponsor a wrestling tournament at Lake Taylor High School and a basketball tournament at Booker T. Washington. It has helped put on a coaches-athletes seminar and might sponsor a basketball team in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament.
``We want to become more visible in the community,'' Payne said. ``By doing that, we think we can attract a base of new members.''
Luring younger members is the priority, Payne and Stein said. About 25 percent of the membership - annual dues are $100 - is active, Payne said, and that portion includes few members who fit the profile of the up-and-coming businessperson the club is seeking.
Ensconced comfortably at Met Park for years, the club has met at the Holiday Inn Executive Center in Virginia Beach since Met Park closed two years ago. In an attempt to return to its roots, the club has unsuccessfully tried to find a new meeting place in downtown Norfolk.
Finding the right mix of luncheon price and suitable parking has been difficult, but the club will continue to search.
Stein is positive that better proximity to the office buildings would boost membership. In lieu of that, attractive speakers will have to be the bait.
``You have to make a person want to leave their place of business and go out to a meeting,'' said Stein, a member for eight years. ``We've increased our speakers' budget this year to address that situation.''
That budget is about $50,000, not including the Jamboree, which usually pays keynote speakers around the $6,000 or $7,000 range. But lining up luncheon speakers is harder and more costly than ever, Stein said.
Before television oversaturated the market with sports celebrities, appearances at sports clubs could help them as much as the clubs. Now, Stein said, not only do most sports figures not need the clubs for publicity, many have priced themselves out of reach.
Used to be, Stein said, you could pay a quality guest car expenses, give them a lunch and a couple hundred dollars. Now, Stein said, ``they want $1,000 and air fare.''
The club will persevere, though. One of Stein's goals is to drum up enough corporate and other financial support to start a sports-oriented version of The Norfolk Forum. A lecture program, Stein said, that could draw ``the absolute tops in the sports industry'' to Norfolk, at $20,000 or more a pop.
Big plans. But in the glow of the 50th Jamboree, what better time for the Sports Club to plot an even greater future? by CNB