Detroit resident Derek Brunson, right, talks with MSU alumnus Tom Drongowski while grilling at a tailgate put on by Spartantailgate.com. During the tailgate, a mobile unit for Spartan Sagas came to film alumni as they told their stories. The footage will be put online as part of a new university marketing campaign.
The rain Saturday afternoon couldn’t dampen the spirits of thousands of alumni and fans who gathered on campus to cheer on the Spartans or the opportunity to share their stories with the world.
A new campaign, called “Spartans Will,” aims to provide the nearly 500,000 alumni worldwide with an online forum to tell their success stories, called Spartan Sagas, to other alumni, current students and prospective students, according to a university statement.
As simultaneous tailgates took place across campus and the country to celebrate the kickoff of the new campaign, MSU University Relations sent a mobile unit around to the various tailgates to document and record alumni telling their stories.
The videos then will be uploaded to spartansagas.msu.edu for others to view, said Melissa Barnes, MSU alumna and co-creator of spartantailgate.com, who partnered with MSU to promote the campaign.
Barnes and her husband, Trevor, co-created spartantailgate.com, and saw the new “Spartans Will” campaign as something fun and innovative for alumni to take part in.
Alumna Jennifer Sobolewski, who graduated in 2000, traveled from Toledo to take part in the tailgating festivities and to share her Spartan Saga with the world.
Sobolewski, a journalism graduate, said it was an easy decision for her to come to MSU, and she always knew she wanted to attend since she was in high school.
“I think it’s a fabulous opportunity for the alumni and current students to learn about the fact that there are so many people that have left this university and have gone on to great things,” Sobolewski said.
“I try to come back for at least one or two football games every year — you know this university is big in numbers but small in feeling.”
Lansing resident and 2006 MSU alumnus Dave Mulder said he liked the idea of being able to build up a network to connect alumni all over the world with the Spartan Sagas website. The campaign is about networking, community and culture and being able to bring all three of those together, he said.
“I really like the focus that the university has taken in terms of Spartan Sagas — making it look at everyone as a part of the Michigan State community and culture and then broadcasting that to the world,” Mulder said.
Although any and all alumni are welcomed and encouraged to share their Spartan Sagas, the university personally chose alumni to feature on the site as well.
MSUOgden, who started a nonprofit organization called Team Circle of Friends four years ago to benefit a friend with multiple sclerosis, said he thought the campaign was brilliant because it found a way to make everyone’s story personal, he said.
“Everyone knows the highlight alums,” Ogden said. “But when you start bringing in all these tiny stories and you start to make it personal to a perspective of students who could turn into the next Dan Gilbert or Julian Petersen, that’s when it starts to take hold.”
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