Buffalo Belles And Friends Continues To Grow, But 'Mission' Stays The Same
August 30, 2017 | General, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Every university has its athletics booster groups. Some are big, some are small; some boom during the flush times — and then fade slowly away when the road gets rough.
But at the University of Colorado, the Buffalo Belles — now officially the Buffalo Belles and Friends — are still going strong well into their fifth decade. A group that began in 1970 as a small gathering of women who wanted to show their support for the Buffs has grown steadily and continues to have a positive impact. Through good times and bad, the Belles have been staunch supporters of all things CU, and while other groups have come and gone, the Belles have never wavered.
"Phenomenal organization," said Colorado head football coach Mike MacIntyre. "I've been at a lot of universities and with different pro teams and I've never seen anything quite like the Buffalo Belles. Their pride, their passion for the program — they're an awesome part of the university and the whole athletic program."
Indeed, the Belles are a near-legendary part of CU athletics. Now a group that includes men and women (thus the "and Friends"), they meet weekly for a luncheon during the football season and are active in their support year-round. They boast a scholarship fund — the Martha Johnson Endowment Fund, named after the group's founder — that recently surpassed the $100,000 mark, and they now support every sport, every coach and every student-athlete who wears a Buffs uniform.
"The mission is still the same — it's our privilege to support these student-athletes," said 2017-18 Belles president Liz Verrill. "It started out as a football booster group, but now our emphasis is on all sports. Every one of us has a great deal of pride in watching our student-athletes succeed on and off the field."
At the weekly luncheons, the Belles welcome a coach from the department plus a couple of student athletes. While the coaches provide insight to their programs, it is the student-athletes who more often than not garner the most applause.
"One of the biggest values of the Belles is seeing the 'student' part of the student-athlete, the human part," said Belles Board member and scholarship donor Kathy Anselmo. "When the student-athletes come, it's not the guy down there in the pads and helmet, it's the student. You get to know the kids. You get to know where they are from, you learn about their families, their classes, all the things that you don't see when they're playing. They are incredibly interesting young people and you get to know them."
Verrill said it is the student-athletes' work in the classroom that is often the most impressive.
"The biggest applause comes when the student-athletes talk about the classes they're taking, when they are graduating, what their GPA is," Verrill said. "Academics, honestly, is what our members get the most excited about."
Not that the Belles don't like hearing from the coaches. Rather, the Belles have developed a well-deserved reputation over the years for asking some tough questions of the coaches when circumstances dictate.
"When you go there as a coach to speak, you'd better be on your toes because they know their football and they're not afraid to ask hard questions," MacIntyre said with a laugh. "They ask some harder questions than the media does. I'm always ready and prepared to take some bullets when I go there to speak."
Anselmo put it more succinctly:
"We want answers," she laughed. "It's like having 150 mothers."
But the Belles is no longer a women-only group. They recently began placing a larger emphasis on encouraging men to attend, and the response has been positive. Men, it seems, also want to get the "inside" story. (No small irony, considering that the Belles originally began because women weren't always welcome at booster club meetings 50 years ago.)
"My husband Tom was a little bit leery at first — but he started going last year because he loved hearing from the coaches and the athletes," Anselmo said. "Now he goes regularly because it's a good way for everyone to meet these coaches and student-athletes in a personal setting."
Another recent addition to the group has been the addition of corporate tables at the luncheons, with "Gold" and "Silver" memberships for tables of 10.
"It's been very beneficial," Verrill said. "It's generating more interest and we're attracting a wider variety of members. We're not just a women's group anymore. We're happy to welcome men and we have more and more people coming."
The Belles have also jumped into the world of social media. They have a Twitter account — @BuffaloBelles — and are also on Facebook.
"We're becoming more visible," Verrill said. "We're a serious group of supporters of CU Athletics and we're very grateful for the support we get from the athletic department and the administration. They are wonderful."
This fall, the Belles will meet each Wednesday in the Touchdown Club, located on the main floor of the Dal Ward Athletic Center. The first luncheon of the season will be Sept. 6. Luncheon program runs from noon to 1 p.m., with the doors opening at 11:15 a.m. Reservations can be made by calling 303-492-3700.
"It's another good way to get involved with CU," Anselmo said. "It broadens the horizons and it's another way to meet people who are interested in the Buffs. It's a wide range of people and you make some good friends."
For more information on the Belles, including corporate tables, go to www.cubuffs.com/BuffaloBelles.