Family Tradition

They say you can’t choose your family members, but you can choose your friends.

For some Savannah Eagle alumni, chosen friends have become family.

The Savannah Eagle Club began hosting its alumni luncheons in 1995 and what began as a social meeting for local Savannah alumni has developed into a full-blown speaker series featuring coaches and administrators from Georgia Southern.

Lunch meetings are held the fourth Thursday of each month (except November and December) at Johnny Harris Restaurant’s banquet hall on Victory Drive in Savannah. The Club also hosts a large annual event each spring.

Club members are “die-hard supporters,” said Frank Hook, the University’s long-time senior director of Alumni Relations. “They love Georgia Southern academically as well as athletically. They’re a great bunch of folks you can always count on.”

The Georgia Southern Alumni Association’s Eagle Club program has clubs sprinkled across the state and into South Carolina and north Florida. Club meetings in each city bring the area’s University alumni, boosters, and friends together to strengthen athletic and academic support for the University. No dues are required to join.

The organization and coordination of all Eagle Clubs is administered through the Office of Alumni Relations, with all events being a combined effort of both Alumni Relations and the Athletic Foundation.

In Savannah, Club member Rick Bean maintains and manages contact information for Savannah-area alumni. The Office of Alumni Relations organizes the calendar of speakers for the organization’s monthly luncheons and Greater Savannah Eagle Club President Laney Claxton heads up planning for the group’s annual event each spring.

“We have met a lot of wonderful people through the Eagle Club – the first game of each season is like a family reunion,” said Claxton. Some members, like Claxton and Bean, boast second- and third-generation Eagles in the family. “We have a long family history with Georgia Southern,” said Claxton. “My mother graduated in ’54, my sisters and I are graduates, and one of my children just finished up in May.”

Bean’s son, Scott, is the current president of the Student Eagle Club and another son, Matt, graduated in May.

“Organizations like the Savannah Eagle Club help preserve our traditions and through giving back, make it better for those who come after us,” said Alex Grovenstein, assistant director of Alumni Relations.