Full-contact fundraising

The sound of cracking pads will echo through Lee-Scott’s football stadium today.

And it won’t be the Warriors running through spring drills.

Instead, it will be a pair of Auburn University fraternities hitting the gridiron for a charity game to raise money for the Sydney Gran Foundation.

The Auburn chapter of Phi Gamma Delta is hosting the event, which will kickoff today at 2 p.m. at Lee-Scott. The FIJIs, as Phi Gamma Delta is known, will take on the Auburn chapter of Alpha Tau Omega in the full-pad, full-contact football game.

Admission is $10 at the gate and concessions will be available.

“It’s been a lot of hard work to get everyone on board,” said FIJI brother Ethan Knight, who was given the task of organizing the event. “All the brothers involved are really excited to get the pads on and re-live some of their high school football days.”

According to Knight, his fraternity started planning for the event nearly two months ago, and hoped to be able to hold the game on Auburn’s campus.

“We originally had the idea for a full-contact contest in Jordan-Hare Stadium,” Knight said. “We met with Dean (of students Dr. Johnny) Green and President (Jay) Gogue and they really liked the idea.

“But there just wasn’t enough time to get it all worked out for us to do it in Jordan-Hare.”

Another part of the planning for the game was deciding on a charity.

But the FIJIs didn’t have to go far to find one.

“We knew we wanted to do a philanthropy for a quality charity and one that provides great benefits to people in need,” Knight said. “Seeing as we were doing a football game, we figured, what better charity than the Sydney Gran Foundation since it was started by (Auburn assistant) Coach (Eddie) Gran.”

The Foundation was founded by Auburn’s running backs/special teams coach and his wife, Rosemary, in April 2005 in honor of their daughter, Sydney.

Sydney was born with a rare disease known as Holoprosencephaly (HPE). Defying the odds, Sydney lived six years before passing away on May 31, 2005.

The FIJIs were assisted greatly in their efforts to organize the game by alumni brother Drake Nunn.

Nunn, who works for Children’s Hospital in Birmingham where Sydney was a patient, heads up public relations for the Sydney Gran Foundation and helps organize the annual Sydney Gran Foundation Gala.

Organizing such a complex event hasn’t come without its pitfalls for Knight and the FIJIs.

Along with trying to find a site to play, the fraternity had trouble finding enough pads to outfit all the players. They eventually got strong support from Auburn High, Huntsville High, Priceville High and LaGrange High (Ga.)

Then came the biggest stumbling block — one which nearly ended any chance of holding the game.

On Tuesday, Alpha Tau Omega’s national office expressed concerns with the event and, it seemed, would not allow its chapter to participate.

But Knight and other organizers spent much of Wednesday speaking with ATO’s national office, and eventually got the approval.

“They had some legitimate concerns about someone getting hurt and possibly suing the fraternity,” Knight said. “But we explained there was a waver each player had to sign, and have their parents sign.

“We showed that this was not just some thrown-together, rag-tag football game. But that it was a well-thought-out and well-planned event.”

Several other national fraternities have found success in charity football games.

The Kappa Sigma chapter at Mississippi State holds an annual game called the “Charity Classic.”

But the most well-known game of its kind is organized by the Sigma Nu chapter at Ole Miss.

The Sigma Nu chapter at Ole Miss started the Charity Bowl in 1989 after the spinal-cord injury to Ole Miss football player Chucky Mullins.

Since then, the event has helped form the College Charity Bowl Foundation and has raised in excess of $850,000 dollars to assist spinal cord injury victims.

Knight said he hopes his fraternity’s event this year will lead to bigger games in the future.

“We definitely want this to become an annual thing,” Knight said. “We’re expecting great things for this one and we hope it will continue to grow.”

tpeavy@oanow.com | 737-2568