MSU PODCAST done by Russ White interviewing Con Demos on the Tradition Continues Spartan Football Book

Fellow Spartans,

I’d like to update you on our Football book that is coming out in the fall. The book is completed and currently is being reviewed by a committee to check for accuracy of the events discussed.

We need your help to see that this gets published. To date we have collected from outside sources and a few former players $140,000.00 for its publication. In order to publish close to 10,000 copies we will need $235,000. What started off as a 100 page book has grown to a 600 page documentation of our entire football history from 1884-2008. This book has in excess of 1900 illustrations and is a fully colored coffee table picture book.

We need your support to see this project through. All contributions are considered donations to the Ralph Young Fund and is 100 % deductible. It has taken us over 3 ½ years of research and 3000 hours of work. For those who have seen the rough draft it has been called the best illustrative historical book done on our program, showing the traditions and how they have evolved. I’m appealing for your help one last time. We need to go to press to print it this summer which is only a few months out. Because of this our time is short. The advantage of printing 10,000 is that there is a significant price break in the cost per book which leaves more dollars for the football program.

Many of you donate to Ralph Young . To show you an example of how we can leverage the book let me explain the following example.  The leverage of your contribution works as follows. If you gave $10,000.00 just to the RYF you have given the University a $10,000.00 gift. But if you give the $10,000 gift towards the publishing of the book, at a retail price of $90-$95 we can generate in excess of $31,000 on the sales of those books, thus turning your $10,000 dollar investment to a $31,000 contribution to the Football program.

Your name will be displayed in the beginning of the book as a contributor and a sponsor who has made this possible. We will have a copy of the book available for your review at the MSU FPA Golf Outing. A minimum donation of $1,000 is required to have your name shown as a sponsor.

Checks should be made out to the “Ralph Young Fund” and in the memo section of the check, write in “MSU FPA Book Acc’t # AA0680”. Please mail to MSU, Duffy Daugherty Building, East Lansing, MI 48824. Att’n :  Con Demos. Please contact me at 281-731-5383 if you have any questions.

The honor roll is as follows so far:

Charlie Wedemeyer played football for some of Duffy Daugherty’s most famous teams. Little did he know back then that what he would be going through during the later years is what has truly shown us what a Spartan really is made of. This is a brief description of some of his trials and tribulations and how his positive attitude has made his life and his families more rewarding.