Penn Booster Club
The Penn Booster Club has been in existence for 48 years, and is dedicated to helping meet the growing needs of Penn's growing athletic programs.
History of the Penn Booster Club
In 1958 Earl Craven was hired as football coach and athletic director. William Penn athletics had been in a major slump for 20 years, and Craven knew he needed help establishing winning programs.
On arrival in Oskaloosa, Craven pulled local businessmen together and created the Penn Booster Club. To the credit of the people of Oskaloosa, the membership skyrocketed. So did attendance at games. Likewise so did interest in the school and its athletes. It helped, of course, that Craven’s first football team went 7-2, breaking the school record for wins in a season. Included in those seven wins was the first win over Central in 20 years.
Some activities the Booster Club sponsored were welcome back dinners at the start of the school year, an All-Sports Banquet that honored athletes, and community support with signs and banners that announced, “Penn plays tonight”.
The Booster Club remained a major force in aiding Penn sports through the 1960s and 1970s, but membership and interest waned as the school’s athletics suffered through another rough stretch in football and basketball in the mid-1980s and 1990s.
Growth in Membership
In the late 1990s the Penn Alumni Association elected to work with the Booster Club. Membership had fallen to the teens, but the first year the Alumni Association worked with the Boosters membership jumped to 64. The following year it exceeded 100 members and has remained above 100 members annually.
Since involvement with the Alumni Association, the Booster Club has moved the annual All-Sports Banquet off campus and split the banquet into four events. The split was required because of the growing number of athletes on each team and the growing number of teams. In 1958 the school fielded football, basketball, baseball, track, cross county and golf teams. Currently the school has football, basketball, wrestling, golf, soccer, cross country, baseball and track for men, plus volleyball, soccer, cross country, basketball, softball, and track for women.
The Booster Club now holds a football banquet plus a banquet for cross country, soccer, volleyball, and golf in the fall; a banquet for men’s basketball, women’s basketball and wrestling in March; and a banquet for baseball, softball and track in the spring. Each of these banquets exceeds 100 attendees.
Awards
In the mid-1960s the Booster Club initiated an award for Dana Atkins, the Dean of Men and a popular Biology professor, who died suddenly. The award was presented to the senior athlete with the highest grade point average. Although the award was presented in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, it was merged into a program that presented awards to numerous students for various achievements.
The Dana Atkins Award is now and has been for several years, presented at the spring sports banquet. A trophy is awarded and the athlete's name is inscribed on a new plaque that is housed in a trophy case at the Dana Atkins Memorial Student Union along with a portrait of Atkins.
Special Projects
The goal of the Booster Club is to aid all William Penn athletes. In recent years the Boosters have helped carpet the varsity locker room in the gym, purchased weight room equipment, built press box and concession stand facilities, and purchased a 32 passenger bus and a 15 passenger van.
Join us!
The Booster Club needs your help. All funds received in Booster Club memberships goes directly toward assisting William Penn athletes. We need to exceed 100 members. A membership of 200 would help our efforts keep up with the needs of programs that continue to grow.
If you decide to aid in the promotion of William Penn athletics by joining the Booster Club, your name will be printed in every game program, press guide and all materials related to the Booster Club. Also, to show our appreciation we will send to business or family members ($100) your choice of a sweatshirt, ball cap, t-shirt or shoe bag. To single booster members ($65) you receive the same written recognition on programs, press guides and Booster Club materials and your choice of a t-shirt, cap or shoe bag.
Our newest Booster Club level is the Super Booster ($250), and if you reach that level you will receive one or all of the above premiums.
We hope you will assist the Booster Club and William Penn athletics by becoming a member. You will receive the gratitude of hundreds of young athletes as they take the field to represent William Penn.
For more information, email John Eberline, Director of Alumni Relations at eberlinee@wmpenn.edu.
