Love local college and high school football? Here’s a group of fans who are really into the gridiron and whose club has been hosting local football coaches to talk to them about upcoming games every season since 1945: the Pasadena Quarterbacks.
The club kicks off with a luncheon featuring USC Director of Athletics Mike Bohn for their kickoff meeting of the year on Friday, Sept. 2, at the University Club of Pasadena.
Other scheduled guests include UCLA Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond and former Rose Bowl GM Darryl Dunn.
This year the club is dedicating the season to athletes’ mental health and to securing scholarships in memory of the late Randy Boal and the late Jim Bonds, both popular local football coaches who were also members of Pasadena Quarterbacks. Boal died on Dec. 27 last year. Bonds died on Oct. 28, 2020.
Current Pasadena Quarterbacks president Craig Franze said the club’s board sat down in January and decided to find other causes – besides donating to high schools and to the National Football Foundation – where their support could make an impact.
“We decided to donate to a cause this year especially because at the beginning of 2022, you saw a rise in, unfortunately, suicides at the collegiate level and even down into the high school level,” Franzen said
The club was particularly impacted when Stanford soccer player Katie Meyer took her own life in March. She was 22.
Meyer’s parents, who said they saw “no red flags” before her death, said their daughter may have been under a lot of stress, like many student athletes may be in their attempt to balance academics and the highly competitive athletics environment.
“So we felt that one of the possibilities was to support an organization that would help athletes that are not necessarily showing any outward symptoms, but are feeling the anxiety or are feeling the pressures to perform or whatever that they’re going through,” Franzen added.
As part of this year’s activities, Franzen said Pasadena Quarterbacks are in the final stages of preparing the application procedures for the Randy Boal and Jim Bonds scholarships, which will be published soon. The scholarship will be open to a graduating senior who is looking to go on and pursue football in college.
“We are going to reach out to as many of the local schools as possible through their athletic directors that we know pretty well,” he continued. “Our goal is to really be able to fund those scholarships that they’re not just a one-year-and-done type of scholarship, but we have a lasting scholarship in the names of these two gentlemen that really devoted their life to athletics and the Pasadena quarterbacks club.”
Aside from their football season meeting on Sept. 2, Pasadena Quarterbacks have already done a meet-and-greet in July, and plan to have at least three more meetings before the year ends.
The non-profit is also keen on welcoming more new members. Franzen said membership is close to 50 at this time.
Membership categories are Basic, Season Pass, Gold Club, and Platinum Club. For more information on becoming a member, visit www.pasadenaquarterbacks.org/membership.
To RSVP for the Sept. 2 season meeting, visit www.eventbrite.com/e/2022-first-meeting-usc-ad-mike-bohn-tickets-387837491377 and sign up.
