Spyre Sports Announces Group Licensing Deal With Multiple Tennessee Athletics Teams

Spyre Sports Group in partnership with Knoxville based Bacon & Co. announced today a NIL opportunity for current and former Tennessee student athletes. Fans

Spyre Sports Group in partnership with Knoxville based Bacon & Co. announced today a NIL opportunity for current and former Tennessee student athletes. Fans will be able to purchase exclusively licensed jerseys and other merchandise and apparel with the name and numbers of their favorite players. Current Vols Hendon Hooker, Cedric Tillman, Evan Russell, Drew Gilbert and Brandon Huntley Hatfield are just a few athletes who will have exclusive merchandise released soon. A Heritage Collection has been created so fans can purchase jerseys and other items of their favorite former Vols. 

Thank you #VolNation for your incredible support as we launched the 1951 Club! 🍊👏  We would be happy to answer any questions you all may have regarding this! Drop them below and we will reply 👇

— Spyre Sports Group (@spyresports) January 11, 2022

More details will be announced soon on how to purchase items. Below is an early look at what the merchandise will look like. 

Spyre is the leading NIL group for Tennessee Athletics, and they continue to work tirelessly on this front. In a recent interview with Sports's Illustrated's Volunteer Country, Spyre's co-founder Hunter Baddour, discussed the group's goals for Tennessee 

"We want Tennessee to be the premier NIL destination in the country," Baddour said. "I understand if that sounds like coach speak, but if we are not shooting to be number one, then what are we doing? We would like Tennessee to be year-after-year in the top three in recruiting in football. Why the top three? Because depending on what website or ranking service you use, nobody is ever number one in all three. So if you are in the top three, I think it is fair to say you are a consensus number one. We also want to take care of all sports at Tennessee, and that includes Women's sports. There is definitely an opportunity for everybody to get in on and experience NIL in a positive way."

Spyre also recently unveiled the 1951 Club which will allow fans and others to make an impact on the NIL front. Baddour discussed this as well. 

"We had a lot of people, through social media, in particular, engaging us about how they could get involved, whether it be a donation to the NIL war chest or provide in-kind opportunities," he said. "A car dealership getting involved is a great example or restaurants wanting to provide a free place where student-athletes can eat for free. There was so much interest in being involved from the fan standpoint, we thought we needed to create some membership society, and we chose the 1951 Club to let fans be a part of this movement and pay homage to the past. Arguably the greatest football season in the history of Tennessee, right up there with 1938 and 1998, the 1951 Club is essentially a donor tier system named after famous Tennessee coaches, in the past, Majors, Pat Summit, General Neyland, for example. Depending on the donation, there are things that members will get, whether it's newsletters, signed memorabilia, access to information before it goes public, or access to meet and engage with current student-athletes in multiple sports. It just depends on the commitment level and involvement."

Spyre has continued to facilitate deals for Tennessee athletes, including recently announcing their "Event Series", which will span across the state and feature multiple Tennessee student-athletes. 

You can follow Spyre on Instagram and Twitter by clinking the respective links to track all of their NIL movement.