Local Quarterback Club returns with a different name and location
Dr. Karl Stegall and several local dignitaries have brought back the Quarterback Club, which will meet at Huntingdon College this fall. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
It’s been three years since the Montgomery Quarterback Club held a meeting, another Covid casualty that struggled with participation numbers from its membership and its guests.
Central Alabama Sports Commission president Karl Stegall was approached about the possibility of bringing back the quarterback club.
“I told them that if I did it, it would be a very simple, down home quarterback club where it would be very inexpensive,” Stegall said, lowering the cost for members to $100 annually and for their guests to just $10 per meeting. “I started calling around (for a meeting place) to see if we had the possibility of doing it and out of the blue I bumped into (Huntingdon College president) Anthony Leigh and he said to come over there and they’d make it work. They have tried to accommodate us in every possible way. I cannot say enough nice things about them. Everything we’ve asked them to do, they’ve done.”
The group, now rebranded as the River Region Quarterback Club, will meet every other Tuesday for 16 weeks this fall in the Huntingdon College Cafeteria at 8 a.m. for breakfast.
“I think people are excited,” Stegall said. “It’s just people spreading the word, but it’s picking up pretty well.”
The agenda for this season includes former Auburn All-American center Ben Tamburello on Sept. 3; former Alabama All-American tackle Wesley Britt on Sept. 17; NIL attorney Larry Morris on Oct. 1; Andy Burcham, the voice of the Auburn Tigers, on Oct. 15; Huntingdon College coach Mike Turk on Oct. 29; former North Alabama coach Bobby Wallace on Nov. 12; former Alabama coach Mike DuBose on Nov. 26; and Camellia Bowl executive director Johnny Williams on Dec. 10.
“Everybody that is coming is within 100 miles,” Stegall said. “We’ve just been selecting down-to-earth people and staying away from (speakers) that are expensive.”
The Montgomery Quarterback Club handed out weekly awards to high school athletes as well. This first year, the new organization plans to just honor coaches and players at the end of the season.
“We’re going to do what they do in Birmingham,” Stegall said. “They do a coach of the year and a player of the year, maybe an offensive and defensive player of the year.”
Stegall hopes that the lower costs of membership and guests will encourage people that weren’t part of the original quarterback club to join.
“We’re going to learn a lot,” he said, “but if we can get it resurrected, we can do a lot better job next year. Right now, we’re just trying to get it off the ground.”
For more information, call Stegall at (334) 233-5655.