Category Archives: From the President

USNA Class of ’85 Tailgate Update

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Email Sent 9/28/2017

Greetings ’85,

We are coming off a great win against Cincinnati last weekend and another successful ’85 tailgate. Charlie Smith and his crew had the grill fired up and the brats and Chili were served up with cold beers. We are looking ahead to the Air Force home game on October 7th. We will be in full force next weekend in Annapolis. Here is a note from Charlie regarding our plans:

Classmates, it looks like fall is finally coming to the East Coast and Navy is preparing to face Air Force on October 7th.   We had a good turnout for the Cincinnati game and expect to have an even larger turnout for the Air Force game.  The theme for this tailgater will be FRY the FALCONs but we will be cooking chicken since Falcons are hard to come by.
The grill will be hot and the beer will be cold.  If you plan to attend, please use the signup list to let us know what you plan to bring but feel free to bring something else.  The sign up list can be found at: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080a48abab28aaf49-beat
Looking ahead, we will have a fully catered tailgate for the Homecoming weekend game on October 21st against UCF and I will be looking for get an accurate head count closer to that game. We are planning an ’85 get together Friday night the 26th to celebrate our informal 32nd Class Reunion at the Chesapeake Brewing Co. owned by classmate Dave and Carolyn Marquis, stay tuned for more details and a sign up soon. As always, please see the USNA ’85 website for travel information for the 2018 season and our trips to Hawaii and to San Diego: http://1985.usnaclasses.net
Thanks in advance for your support in making the ’85 tailgaters great again.  If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact Charlie Smith at charles.m.smith@gmail.com or me at (502) 432-6185.  As always, donations are appreciated in our game day collection box that go towards covering the cost of the beer and wine and our tailgate equipment and tent.  I also appreciate all the assistance with setup and tear down. Go Navy and Beat Tulsa on the road and come into the Air Force game ready and undefeated. If anyone has extra tickets they need to sell, I have classmates who need them, so PLEASE contact me directly and I will broker a deal. Regards,  Bob Smith ’85

USNA ’85 Tailgate Sign up for Cincinnati Game

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Email sent 9/19/2017

Classmates,

I hope this email finds all of you doing well and hopefully excited about a Navy team that is 2-0 as they face the Cincinnati Bearcats this Saturday at 3:30 pm at NMCS. As we did last home game against Tulane, we are rolling out the USNA ’85 tailgate machine. For this weekend, Charlie Smith has asked me to put this out to everyone:

Navy is off to a great start this season with wins over Florida Atlantic and Tulane.  The new tent was a hit and this week we will break out the new grill.  It should be a beautiful day for football on Saturday – come out early and enjoy the day.  The theme this week is Chili & Brats.  I’ve already heard from a couple of people who want to show the Cincinnati fans what real Chili tastes like and who doesn’t like a good brat to go with their pre-game beer.  We’re going to try out an online sign up this week but feel free to bring your favorite tailgate dishes. Beverages will include beer on tap, wine, sodas and water.
Here’s the link for the tailgate signup: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080a48abab28aaf49-navy
Here’s an outline for the remainder of the tailgating season: Fried Chicken (including wings) for AF, Homecoming against UCF will be catered and BBQ/Grilled food for the SMU game.
Please help us out and go to the link Charlie has provided and sign up to bring some food to share. This gives us a head count and makes sure we have enough and variety of food. As always, we will have beer on tap from the Chesapeake Brewing Company, red and white wine that we have purchased and people have donated. We will have the class donation box out and your donations that go to cover the overall cost of our tailgate equipment, the draft beer and other supplies purchased to offer you the best tailgate experience each game. Please remember to bring your folding tailgate chairs as well. I am also adding a portable restroom that will be at all ’85 tailgates for use by our classmates and guests and add some sanity to the lack of bathrooms at NMCS parking lot. So, Go Navy and PLEASE sign up today if you are attending and can bring something on Charlie’s list. I will be back for the Air Force and Homecoming games and look forward to seeing everyone then. Thanks as always to Charlie and Kathleen for being our tailgate hosts. Please email Charlie if you can help either set up or clean up this week, any and all help is appreciated! Tailgate set up starts at 11:30 and we usually tear down about an hour after Navy Blue and Gold. charles.m.smith@gmail.com Beat the Bearcats and go to 3-0!

 

Class of ’85 Opening Tailgate/Bianchi Memorial Golf Tournament

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Email sent 9/5/2017

Class of ’85,

I am proud to announce that we are on track for a great tailgate this Saturday for the game against Tulane. The game kickoff is at 3:30 pm and the tailgate kicks off at 11:30 am. We are expecting at least a 100 people this Saturday and I have ordered catering from Bo Brooks for that many. We will have Beat Army Lager from the Chesapeake Brewing Co. on tap, wine and non-alcoholic beverages available. This will be the debut of our new Class of ’85 tent that many of you helped to fund. We will also unveil our new Class of ’85 tailgate trailer along with live TV at the tailgate for the first time.

I want to thank Frank Proctor, Marty Medve and several other classmates who are putting on a Memorial Golf Tournament in honor of fallen Classmate Kevin Bianchi this Friday. This is a charity event raising money for the Bianchi Family and for other military families who have lost a spouse/parent. Many of our 40 plus classmates participating in the golf tournament will be attending the tailgate this weekend and I ask you to thank them for all they have done in putting on this event. I have attached a flyer for this event for you to see what they have done and perhaps support this event. We stand by all our fallen classmates like Kevin and his family and always will; something ’85 takes pride and honor in doing.

Looking ahead, I have asked Dave and Carolyn Marquis to open up their Brewpub, The Chesapeake Brewing Company in Annapolis, the evening of October 20th from 6:00-9:00 pm so we can have an official Class of ’85 32nd Reunion party on Homecoming weekend. I will soon post a link for registering for this event on the class website and we will use that to get a count of those attending both the Friday night event and Saturday tailgate. I hope for a good turnout for this Friday evening event as well as for our catered tailgate the next day at the UCF game. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more details as we get closer to that event. For now, come and join us this Saturday, please be generous in helping me support class tailgating by donating to the Class of ’85 tailgate fund donation box. Come ready to see Navy kick some Green Wave butt this weekend and Go Navy!!  Regards,  Bob Smith ’85

Kickoff the Season with ’85

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Sent 8/30/2017

Classmates,

Navy Football kicks off the season with the first game against FAU this Saturday at 8:00 EST on ESPNU. We will kick off the tailgate season in Annapolis on Saturday September 9th against Tulane at 11:30 am at NMCS in our usual Tailgate spot. This is a catered tailgate and I have asked for those attending to please email or text me with RSVP. If you have not, please do so which allows me to order the correct amount of food for those attending. As always, I will ask all of you attending to drop around $25 in the donation box to cover food, beer and wine which we are providing (That is a cheap afternoon to say the least!). We will be introducing our updated tailgate experience with the new Class of ’85 tent, trailer and TV system. Beer on tap will be Beat Army Lager provided by classmate Dave Marquis. If you are in town that weekend, please stop by and say hi to Dave and Carolyn at the Chesapeake Brewing Company located at 114 West Street Annapolis. Good food and brews on tap….the Class of ’85 Bar!

I want to once again thank and congratulate the Class of ’85 Officers:

We will be working hard to keep the GREAT Class of ’85 tops across the board. Angela has updated our class website, so please favorite our site: http://1985.usnaclasses.net. I will continue to use this site as a tool to keep all of you informed on all things ’85. This includes information about tailgates and class gatherings. For example, we have the registration link for the Class of ’85 weekend in San Diego in 2018 for the Notre Dame game. I will use our class site for registrations for tailgates to help us get accurate head counts.  Please take a minute to visit our site and update yourself on class happenings. Going forward, I will use less emails and more communication on Facebook and via the class website (hint!). For the Tulane game, still contact me. But going forward we will have sign up information for our home tailgates on the class site. Looking ahead, we will do a “Bring your favorite Fried Bird” (and sides) for the Air Force game on October 7 when we roast the Falcons; and the Homecoming game will be fully catered on October 21st. We have purchased a grill and will debut that at the Cincinnati game on Sept. 23rd. That will be a “Bring your own meat” tailgate. We are rolling out updates to how we tailgate, so more info will be put out as we get more content online.
For now, let me know if you are coming to the Tulane game: robertsmith5@att.net or 502-432-6185. Go Navy and Beat FAU. See you all soon.
Regards,  Bob Smith ’85

NOTE:  Pages for the various registrations should be up by 9/4/17.  I will be posting a note regarding those as well as soliciting pictures, information for a class business directory, and any other suggestions you may have.  Please feel free to email me directly angela.orlando@1985.usna.com !  Thanks all – Angela

Class of 1985 Class Elections

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Sent 8/22/2017

 

Classmates,

I am proud to announce we have an official slate of officers for our Class of 1985 Election. Classmate Tom Plofchan has confirmed our list of nominees to all offices and they are as follows:

  • President: Robert Smith
  • Vice President: Steven Pimpo
  • Treasurer: William Ridings
  • Corresponding Secretary: Victor Otero
  • IT Secretary: Angela Orlando

In consult with Tom and the USNA Alumni Association, since every officer was nominated and seconded by another classmate and all offices are unopposed, we will declare that each of these nominees has been elected to the office for which they were nominated. I appreciate your confidence in these nominees, and now officers, and I appreciate your confidence in me as well. We will continue to work as a team to provide the GREAT Class of ’85 with best of tailgating, travel, fundraising in support of USNA and Class projects, and our Class support of the USNA Mission. I will ask my new treasurer to put out of a Class financial statement in short order so that you can see our current finances and we will put forward some of our goals moving ahead. For me, that is taking the Class tailgating experience to a new level of excellence this season and building upon that each game and each season, successful planning and execution of the Hawaii and Notre Dame away games next season and putting together another great reunion in 2020 for our 35th Class Reunion. What do we need from you?  Continued support on the attendance side of things as well as financial support both for the Class and for our support of the USNA Mission. I know you will step up as you always do and once again thank you for taking part in this process and making these nominees official in their positions. If you have questions about Class business, feel free to contact me: 502-432-6185 or Robertsmith5@att.net. If you have questions about the election process, please email Tom Plofchan at: tplofchan@aol.com.  Go Navy, Beat Tulane and Beat Army!!  Bob Smith ’85