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alumni
The years 1984 to 1992 have often been dubbed the “glory
days” for Bluefield College athletics. During that era, the men’s
basketball team averaged 24 wins per season and earned three
national runner-up distinctions. The baseball team averaged
23 wins a season and claimed the first ever Tennessee-Virginia
Athletic Conference championship. In addition, the men’s golf
team won a national championship.
These teams and other BC squads accomplished their success
despite fewer scholarship dollars than their competitors, limited
travel and recruiting funds, and other budgetary limitations.
“When you look at what these athletic programs accomplished,
it truly is amazing,” said former BC alumni director Mark Hipes.
“We didn’t have a lot of resources back then, and athletic
scholarships were small and numbered. What our program didn’t
have in resources it made up for in grit, heart and determination.
These athletes sacrificed a lot to represent Bluefield College.”
Then how fitting it is that Bluefield College, through the
encouragement of alumni and friends, establish the Glory Days
Scholarship as a tribute to the heroics of the athletes from 1984
to 1992 and as a means to provide vital financial aid to future BC
student-athletes hoping to achieve the same greatness of those
from the “glory days.”
Spearheaded by Coach Mark Blevins, who led the men’s
basketball and baseball teams from 1984 to 1992 and who
envisioned and made the seed gift, the Glory Days Scholarship
will not only preserve the heroics of the “glory days” athletes, but
also provide additional funds to support current and future Rams.
As part of the overall BC Fund for Scholarships, the Glory Days
Scholarship will help underwrite the cost of athletic scholarships
at Bluefield College.
“I hope this scholarship fund grows for the ‘glory days’ era,” said
Coach Blevins, now retired after eight years with BC and another 22
years at Bearden High School in Knoxville, Tennessee. “Hopefully
donations will build into a substantial foundation for the college.”
In fact, additional gifts are encouraged to endow the Glory
Days Scholarship so that it remains as a tribute and a source
of financial aid in perpetuity. Scholarship funds at Bluefield
College that reach a seed amount of $10,000 in gifts are deemed
endowed and destined to last forever. To give to the Glory Days
Scholarship, visit
bluefield.edu/givingor call 276-326-4211.
Preserving the Glory Days
Members of Bluefield College’s
1985 national runner-up men’s
basketball squad, one of the many
teams that made 1984 to 1992 the
“glory days” for BC athletics.
Members of BC’s 1985 men’s basketball team during a 30-year reunion
on campus in the spring of 2015.