Keep on Truckin’

UCF alumni donate (literal) tons to UCF Football

Giving | Mike Maudlin, ’03, and Darren Cunningham, ’95, Maudlin International Trucks

By Jason Cannon

Alumni support their schools in many different ways, but showing up on game day and making an occasional donation wasn’t good enough for Mike Maudlin, ’03, and Darren Cunningham, ’95, two UCF grads who pegged their football fandom at a 10 out of 10.

Maudlin, a business major, and Cunningham, an accounting major, wanted to be sure their football team was able to travel to away games in style by providing the team use of a brand new truck and trailer.

“We want to support them,” says Maudlin, vice president and general manager of Maudlin International Trucks. “They had a great season last year.”

This season, the Knights have already hauled their equipment from Orlando to Missouri, Houston and Connecticut on Maudlin’s truck and trailer, with [final] stops in South Florida and East Carolina before the season ends Dec. 4, capping an 8,500-mile journey.

The truck is an 2015 International LoneStar, fully customized and upgraded, sparing no expense to get the Knights on the road.

“We wanted to go to the top of the top for the tractor set up,” Maudlin says.

“For us, we wanted to offer to our alma mater something that would suit them the best in terms of being able haul its football equipment and to showcase the program,” Cunningham adds.

The truck and trailer (a 43-footer they bought specifically for the school) are owned by Maudlin International, which also provided the driver.

“We paid for the wrap — For everything,” Cunningham says. “The only thing they stroke us a check for is the gas. The insurance and everything falls on us.”

The trailer will remain with the school for storage after the season, but the truck will come back to Maudlin and go into the company’s rental fleet.

As a token of appreciation, UCF provided the dealership with a handful of tickets, which the company uses to invite customers to tailgates and build networking opportunities, and also helps Maudlin International establish a business relationship with the school and other program supporters.

“It helps us showcase just how good our product is and how we can back it up,” Maudlin says.

This article originally appeared in an Oct. 15, 2014, news story on successfuldealer.com.