Hometown pride and Model T Fords were on display at a record-breaking alumni event last week that drew nearly 800 Bulls from around Western New York to the Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum in downtown Buffalo.

The gathering, part alumni party and part pep rally, was planned to build excitement for the coming season of academics, sports, and arts and entertainment at UB. It was the largest local alumni event in recent memory and the second event hosted in Buffalo by the UB Alumni Association.

Last years event was part of President Satish K. Tripathis UB 2020 alumni tour to 20 cities in 20 months. Held in Buffalos Hotel Lafayette, it had 600 attendees and was so successful the association decided to throw a local party again this year.

There is no official UB alumni chapter for Western New York, although officials said that might change. Our university has been experiencing an incredible number of successes over the past year or sowith no end in sightand we want to share the excitement with our alumni and thank them for believing in their alma mater, said Jay Friedman, EdM 00 & BA 86, associate vice president for alumni relations.

The sun was setting on a gorgeous September day as crowds entered the museums cavernous atrium entrance. The atrium protects the newly completed Frank Lloyd Wright Filling Station, based on Wrights 1927 gas station design that was earmarked for a nearby spot on Michigan Street but never built.

Alumni mingled with classmates and UB faculty, staff and students, snacked on hors doeuvres and ogled the museums vintage sedans and the filling stations gleaming copper roof.

Special guests included Tripathi; Alumni Association President Carol Gloff, BS 75; Athletics Director Danny White; head football coach Jeff Quinn; baseball coach Ron Torgalski and womens basketball coach Felisha Legette-Jack.

Jim Sandoro Jr., BS 71, alumnus and founder of the Pierce-Arrow Museum, welcomed UB to his playground.

Sandoro said the museum represents his legacy and is a manifestation of his lifelong passion for cool cars. Starting with an old Model T Ford, which took him 10 years to restore, he painstakingly built his automobile collection over 40 years with his wife, Mary Ann. Since they dont have children, they plan to donate the facility to the city.

This museum is a Buffalo thing, Sandoro said, adding that the event was the largest weve ever had here, and that UB alumni were the first group to see the completed filling station. Imagine that drawing sitting in a drawer somewhere its the first Frank Lloyd Wright building that doesnt leak, he joked.

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UB celebrates progress at historic WNY alumni event