Blue Tiger Athletics Club Retires $250k loan

The Blue Tiger Athletics Club made its final payment Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021 on a $250,000 loan from Central Bank. The funds were used to buy weight-room equipment.Top, left to right: Keena Lynch, LU assistant athletic director; Kevin Wilson, LU vice president of Advancement, Athletics, and Campus Recruitment; Central Bank’s Terry Higgins; John Mosely, LU interim president. Bottom, left to right: Central Bank’s Leslie Tanner; Freddi Sokoloff, Blue Tiger Athletics Club (BTAC); John Schulte, past president of BTAC; Jervey Brown, BTAC board member and past president; Stan Horn, current BTAC president; and Victor Pasley, LU Board of Curators. Sept. 29, 2021. (Clarion News photo)

By Elise Eaker/Jefferson City News Tribune

JEFFERSON CITY – The Lincoln University Blue Tiger Athletics Club has paid Central Bank $50,935.48 to retire a quarter million-dollar loan that helped build a new weight room for Lincoln University athletes.

The $250,000 loan was taken out in January 2012. Paying off the loan will allow more of the club’s funds to go toward scholarships.

“In recent years, we haven’t been able to put as much money toward scholarships that we might’ve wanted to,” said Keena Lynch, Lincoln assistant athletic director.

The Blue Tiger Athletics Club Casino Night, held in August, and Blue Tiger Athletics Club memberships made the lump sum payment possible. All funds paid for memberships will now go toward student-athlete scholarships.

“Right now, we have 241 members, and our goal is 500,” Lynch said. “We want to surge past that because membership is a big part of what we do.”

There are four membership tiers. The lowest membership tier costs $100 and includes a membership with access to all tailgates, football reserved seating and a guest pass for basketball tailgates. The highest membership tier costs $1,000 and includes four memberships, four all-sport passes, reserved parking and seating at football games, and five guest passes for basketball tailgates.

For more information about membership in the Blue Tiger Athletics Club, contact Lynch at 573-681-5342 or by email at lynchk@lincolnu.edu.

(This article appeared in the Oct. 6,2021 edition of the News Tribune. https://www.newstribune.com/news/local/story/2021/oct/06/blue-tiger-athletics-club-pays-off-250k-loan/891623/)