The NCAA News - News & Features

GTE becomes NCAA's newest corporate partner

Under the new agreement, which was announced October 3, GTE will serve as the official telecommunications consultant to the NCAA.

"This new affiliation with the NCAA fits perfectly into GTE's marketing and corporate-sponsorship objectives," said Lew Wilks, president-business markets for GTE Telephone Operations. "Support of education has been the keystone of GTE's community programs for many years."

He noted that the GTE Foundation annually contributes $12 million to education, with about one-fourth of that in the form of grants matching contributions that GTE employees make to individual schools and universities. In addition, the GTE Academic All-America program, now in its 12th year, recognizes athletes who have distinguished themselves in the classroom as well as on the playing field.

"Our organization is delighted to welcome GTE as its newest corporate partner," said NCAA Executive Director Cedric W. Dempsey. "We selected GTE because of the company's interest in supporting intercollegiate athletics at all levels.

"The extent of GTE's service area (which spans from the East Coast to Hawaii) means that we have many opportunities to build relationships and obtain telecommunications support at the local level through each season, as well as for national-championships events."

Wilks said the marketing potential of the new arrangement is "enormous."

"The ability to tap into the excitement and outstanding fan loyalty for collegiate sports presents a powerful platform from which GTE can launch marketing campaigns at both the national and regional level. The broad range of NCAA activities throughout the year in both men's and women's athletics offers unique promotional flexibility.

"And many of GTE's markets are in locations where devotion to college athletics programs is particularly intense."

In addition to its relationship with the NCAA, GTE also plans to form alliances with selected conferences in football.