Men’s social club Galaxy returned to campus this semester after it was founded in 1947 and dissolved in 1997. The club was revived by their sponsors for the 75th anniversary of the club this upcoming fall.
“All of the sponsors were members as students, so we have a deep affinity for our experience from that time, so we had talked about [reviving the club] just casually over the years,” Ken Bissell, Galaxy sponsor and former president, said. “We all thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could organize a reunion for the 75th anniversary, and wouldn’t it be even better if we had the club back with active members at that time?’ So, it was a combination of our personal desire to do it and our desire to honor the former club in its 75th year by bringing it back.”
Galaxy began gaining members after the sponsors had a recruitment tent at a football game last fall. Sophomore Luke Phillis was the first person to join and started to recruit his friends, as well. From there, the club has grown and hopes to continue that growth in the fall.
“We hope to be a club that our male students will find encouraging and a brotherhood where they can connect.” Bissell said. “We want it to be a club where members are focused on their spiritual growth, their relationship with God and with each other.”
Bissell said the sponsors wanted to keep the original logo entact, as well as a piece of art that was created in Galaxy’s inaugural year.
“Beyond that, we want this to be their club,” Bissell said. “We want them to make the decisions on how to develop the club and move it forward.”
Sponsors and members alike have started dreaming about what the club will evolve into.
“It’ll be really cool seeing them establish [the club] since it hasn’t been a thing for 25 years, so just them doing whatever they want with it and not having any standards to go off of, they sort of get to do their own thing.” junior McKenna Oliver, a Galaxy queen, said.
Current members are figuring out the details of club culture and are starting to look forward to fall recruitment.
“Our big goal right now is just trying to give guys a reason to stay with it,” junior Wyatt Vanlandingham, Galaxy president, said. “Because right now, obviously, we’re small, and we haven’t been able to do a whole lot, so we’re just trying to get guys to stay on board until the fall when we can get more guys in.”
Vanlandingham said most of Galaxy’s recruitment will be by word of mouth.
“We’re hoping to get some other guys to jump clubs to join,” Vanlandingham said. “But we really have no idea what’s going to happen this fall.”
