An amazing group of about 18 riders from the US Naval Academy Class of 1975 completed a 1200 mile charity bike ride at age 72. Dubbed Gulf-to-Goat, the grueling bike ride which started in Apalichicola, Florida and finished at the Bill the Goat sculpture at the gate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, took 22 days to complete. The riders raised funds to support their preferred charities including the Emily Whitehead Foundation and the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation, raising in excess of $160,000. The men arrived in time to celebrate their 50th USNA 1975 class reunion and will remain in town for a few days for celebrations and various activities.
The idea to mark the 50th anniversary of their USNA 1975 class reunion with a charity bike ride from the Florida Gulf to the Goat sculpture was the brainchild of lifelong friends Dan Murphy, a Trustee and Past Grand Knight of Knights of Columbus Council 8157 in Duncanville, Texas, and Mike Meier. The two friends along with a few other classmates spend their summers in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where several of them have homes by a river and spend their summers fishing, sailing and playing around with their families in and around Lake Michigan.
We congratulate these men on a spectacular achievement. We are all proud of them.